Handle a customer credit or overpayment in QuickBooks Online

Learn what to do in QuickBooks Online when a customer overpays you.

Customers can pay you too much for several reasons. When this happens, you can use the credit toward an invoice, refund the customer, or enter the overpayment as a tip in QuickBooks.

Create a customer credit

If a customer pays you and you don't have any outstanding invoices, you can save the payment as a credit for later.

1. Go to Sales and select Customers. 
2. Select the customer you want to assign the credit to. 
3. From the New transaction ▼ dropdown menu, select Payment. 
4. Fill out all required information.
5. Select Save and Close. 
6. A warning message will appear: "You didn’t select any invoices”. Then select Save as a credit.
7. Go to Transactions and select Bank transactions.
8. Match the payment with the credit created previously.

Option 1: Apply the credit to an invoice

Apply the credit to an invoice you already created

1. Select + New.
2. Select Receive payment.
3. Select the Customer, then the credit and the invoice.
4. Select another pending invoice and enter the overpayment amount in the Amount received.
5. Select Save and new or Save and close.

Apply the credit to a new invoice

1. Select + New.
2. Select Invoice.
3. Create the invoice.
4. Select + New. Then select Receive payment.
5. Select the credit and then Save and new or Save and close.

Tip: Set up customer credits to apply to future payments by default.

1. Go to Settings , then select Account and settings.
2. Select Advanced.
3. In the Automation section, select Edit, and select Automatically apply credits.

Option 2: Refund the customer for the overpayment

If your customer overpaid you on accident, you can give them a refund.