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Manage outstanding balances for customers and suppliers in QuickBooks Online
by Intuit• Updated 1 month ago
Learn how to enter a prior balance for a customer that owes you money or a supplier you need to pay.
If you’re new to QuickBooks Online, you might have customers or suppliers with open balances. We’ll show you the recommended way to manage those balances as you're creating your customer and supplier profiles.
When to use opening balances
Opening balances are important when you're connecting a bank or credit card to QuickBooks Online. They help ensure that QuickBooks matches your bank records exactly, from the date you started with QuickBooks. But new customers and suppliers are different. You have the option to enter opening balances when you’re creating new customer or supplier profiles, but it’s not recommended.
How to manage customer and supplier balances
If you have customers and suppliers that have an open balance prior to the date you opened your QuickBooks Online account, it's recommended to leave the opening balance blank. Instead, add your customer's unpaid invoices or your supplier's unpaid bills to QuickBooks. This lets you add clear details about what your customers are paying for and what you're paying your suppliers for.
To get started, select whether you're adding a customer or supplier.
What if I already added an opening balance?
If you entered an opening balance instead of leaving it blank, don't worry. We'll show you how it affects your books, and what to do next.
To get started, select whether the balance was for a customer or supplier.
The method for entering outstanding balances for customers and suppliers depends on when you started using QuickBooks Online. Generally, it depends on whether they had balances before your QuickBooks Online start date, or after your start date.
Note: If you want to keep track of individual sales or bills that make up your customer and supplier opening balances, enter each unpaid invoice and unpaid bill instead of entering a total balance for each customer and supplier. |
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