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Create recurring invoices and other transactions in QuickBooks Online

by Intuit•776• Updated 2 days ago

Create templates for recurring invoices, estimates, and expenses to automate your bookkeeping tasks. Setting up these templates allows you to schedule automatic credit card or ACH payments through Merchant Services, ensuring you get paid on time automatically.

Note: Automate credit card payments with a recurring sales receipt, schedule recurring payments to automatically charge your clients, or help your clients set up autopay for recurring invoices.

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Schedule invoices ahead of time and manage all your payments in one place with QuickBooks Payments.

What you’ll need

An active QuickBooks Online subscription.
Access to the new QuickBooks Online experience.
QuickBooks Payments (Merchant Services) if you want to automate online customer payments.

Create a new recurring transaction from scratch

You can create templates for a variety of repeat transactions to save time and reduce errors.

Go to All apps , then Accounting, then Recurring transactions (Take me there).
Select New.
Select the type of transaction you want to create and select OK.
Enter a Template name.
Select a Type: Scheduled, Reminder, or Unscheduled.
1. Scheduled transactions other than invoices can be sent automatically without any changes. Examples include rent payments, loan payments, and depreciation.
2. Reminders are created at regular times, but you need to edit and send them yourself. An example is a utility bill that changes each month.
3. Unscheduled transactions need to be created and sent each time. Use this to copy a transaction when needed on a case-by-case basis.
For Scheduled and Reminder templates, set the Interval to decide how often the transaction repeats.
Choose whether to include unbilled charges, automatically send emails, or mark the transaction to print later.
If you use Merchant Services for scheduled or reminder transactions, find the Online Payment section to choose how customers can pay you online.
Fill out the transaction details and select Save template.

Note: We save each recurring transaction invoice as a draft. You need to review and finalize them yourself.

Use an unscheduled recurring transaction

Create unscheduled transactions when you need them.

Go to All apps , then Accounting, then Recurring transactions (Take me there).
For the template you want to use, in the Action column select Use.
Fill out the rest of the transaction normally.

Copy ‌an existing recurring transaction

You can duplicate an existing template to quickly create a new one with the same settings.

Go to All apps , then Accounting, then Recurring transactions (Take me there).
Find the template in the list.
In the Action column, select the Edit ▼ dropdown and then select Duplicate.
All settings will be copied except for the title, which you must update for the new template.

Make an existing transaction recur

Most active transactions can be changed to a recurring template while you’re editing them.

To make an invoice recur, select Manage ⚙, then select Scheduling. Turn on Make invoice recurring and fill out the details, then select Save template.
To make a receipt, bank deposit, credit memo, or credit statement recur, select Make recurring.

Note: You can’t turn an existing estimate into a recurring estimate. Create a new recurring estimate from scratch, as described above.

Results

Once saved, your recurring templates will appear in your list of Recurring transactions. Depending on the type selected, QuickBooks will either record the transaction automatically, provide a reminder to send it, or keep it ready for you to use manually.

Next steps

Review your recurring transaction templates regularly to ensure payment methods, prices, and intervals remain accurate for your customers and vendors.