Merchant fees and customer accounts

Thanks for explaining your concern in such great detail, Stace6799. I've got you covered.

When you process sales tax adjustment in QuickBooks Desktop, you move money into or out of your Sales Tax Liability account. There are several reasons the sales tax liability is adjusted, and we've listed them in our Process sales tax adjustment article.

Since you marked the merchant fees as non-taxable, having a zero balance in your customer's account is normal. Also, whatever changes you made are only applicable to the specific sales and shouldn't affect the item or customer setup.

To adjust your sales tax, I'd suggest following the steps below:

1. Go to the Vendors menu.
2. Select Sales Tax and then choose Adjust Sales Tax Due.
3. In the Sales Tax Adjustment window, enter the adjustment date, sales tax vendor, adjustment account, and other relevant information.
4. In the Adjustment section, choose if you need to increase or reduce sales tax then enter the adjustment amount.
5. Select OK.

Instead of posting the adjustment to the sales tax payable, please choose an income account if received a discount or credit, or if you're entering a negative rounding error. If you need to add penalties and fines, or if you are entering a positive rounding error, select an Expense account.

Additionally, I've included these articles that'll help learn more about managing sales tax in QuickBooks Desktop:

• Set up Sales Tax
• Collect sales Tax
• Review Sales Tax Reports
•  Resolve Common Sales Tax Issues

I'll be right here if you'll need further assistance in dealing with sales tax in QuickBooks. It's always my pleasure to help you out again.

Okay.  I understand Sales Tax Adjustments.  In the chaos of this mess we've had days where we had to estimate what the charge to the customer would be for the merchant fees.  So we have an invoice and a receipt showing the customer paid $29.51 so the customer's account is good.  However when the card was processed is was $29.48.  Do I have to show that .03 difference on the customers account?

Hi there, Stace6799.

I'm here to give details to ensure that your customer account is accurate.

Yes, it needs to reflect in your customer's account. You can process a credit memo for the 0.03 difference. I'll show you how.

1. Go to the Customer menu, then select Create Credit Memos/Refund.
2. From the Customer: Job dropdown, locate the customer.
3. Enter the items you're giving credit for and the amount.
4. Click Save & Close.
5. In the Available Credit window, choose how you want to handle the credit.
6. Once done, hit OK.

For your reference, you can review this resource: Give your customer a credit or refund in QuickBooks Desktop. This contains steps and helpful information to complete the refund process.

I've included this handy material about handling incorrect credit applied to invoices or bills: Remove or unapply a credit from an invoice or bill.

Would you like to learn more about managing your customer's account or other QuickBooks processes? Feel free to leave a comment below. I'll get back as soon as possible. Stay safe!