Balance forward on an invoice in QB desktop

Thank you for reaching out to us, @Loftatsea.

I'll be glad to help you with your invoice concern.

Customizing your invoice template is the process of adding a balance forward in QuickBooks Desktop.

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Here's how:

1. Choose type of form you’d like to customize.
2. From the form, clcik the Formatting option then select Manage Templates.
3. Select a template to preview, then choose Copy to create a new template or choose OK to edit the template.
4. Use the basic customization window to:
   1. Add your logo.
   2. Change fonts and colors.
   3. Change company & transaction information.
5. Select Additional Customization to add or remove the items from the header, columns, or footer. Then select Layout Designer to move or resize items on the form.
6. Once done, click OK.
7. Choose Print Preview to see your form.
8. Click Close.
9. Select OK.

You can also check how to give your customer a credit or refund  for more information about invoices.

We're always here in the Community to help if you have other questions related to QuickBooks. Stay safe!

I still don't see how I can insert a field for previous balance

Hello there, Loftatsea.

Let me share some insights about the balance forward. 

Check information about opening balances for accounts in QuickBooks Desktop.

From there, you can see the steps for issues about it.

You can also check on how to fix beginning balance issues in QuickBooks Desktop.

You can always reach out to me if you need anything else. I'm here for you. Have a good one. 

I'm not trying to adjust an opening balance. What I want to do is have any new invoices show the previous balance owed so it reflects the total amount the customer owes. I bill once a month for all work done in that month. If a customer hasn't paid for June I want the balance owed for June to show on July's invoice.

Hi there, Loftatsea.

You can edit your invoice template and add the Customer Total Balance field. Here's how:

1. Go back to the List menu and select Templates.
2. Double-click the existing template to open it.
3. Click Additional Customization.
4. Proceed to the Footer tab and check the box for Customer Total Balance under the Print column.
5. Click OK.

Once done, the customer's total balance from all invoices will be shown right below Balance Due. Pleas take note that you can only see this information when printing the transaction and not when creating it. 

You can also check out this article for additional details and future reference: 

• Use and Customize Form Templates
• Fix Common Issues When You Use and Customize Templates

Don't hesitate to reply again or reach out to us anytime you need hep with QuickBooks. 

Is there a way to show the previous balance at the top of the amount due? This is what I am trying to create: 

Glad to see you in the Community, Loftatsea.

I'm here to provide assistance with your invoice concern. 

As of the moment, QuickBooks Desktop doesn't have the feature to show the previous balance at the top part of the invoice.

You can send feedback to our engineers to suggest this feature, send your  feedback by following these steps:

1. Click Help located at the top.
2. Choose Send Feedback Online, and click Product Suggestion.
3. Type in your feedback or feature request.
4. Click the Send Feedback button.

Here's an article for more information: Send online invoices in QuickBooks Desktop.

I'm just a comment away if you need clarifications. Have a good one!

In agreement with the OP, there should be an option in the category drop down when itemizing the invoices that autofills the previous balance, since it is in fact a line item being carried forward. This kind of feature prevents duplicate payments by confused customers who have no simple way to determine whether the previous invoice is still active and distinct from the current one.

I Agree, I created my own invoice over 13 years ago and had this same issue since the beginning.

I ended up using the "Data field for Other" blank text box and added the words "Previous Balance" in front of it.

Every single invoice I made in the past 13 years I had to manually enter $0.00 if they owed nothing, add the amount they didn't pay in the previous bills or add their credit with a negative symbol in front of it, for example $-0.67 (some customers round up their payment to the nearest dollar which drives me crazy!

Quickbooks really needs to create a "Data field for Open Balance" for us to use in the invoice templates, it's way overdue for an accounting company like this to not have that simple item to use in the invoice templates.

I have an Account Summary in the upper right side of my invoice. It has the following items:

Previous Balance (Data field for Other) Have to manually enter this on every invoice

Payments/Credits (Data field for Payments/Credits)

Current Charges (Data field for Subtotal) This field does not include the sales tax

Sales Tax (Data field for Sales Tax)

Total Amount Due (Data field for Customer Total Balance)

Then on the bottom of my invoice I have a section that can be torn off and used as a remittance slip to add with a payment and it has the following items:

Invoice Number (Data field for Invoice #)

Account Number (Data field for Account #)

Total Amount Due (Data field for Customer Total Balance)

And a few blank areas for Payment, Balance and Check Number for the customer to fill in.

This shows the total customer balance, but does not let the customer pay anything more than the amount of the current invoice.  When you try to edit the amount, it does not let you pay more that the specific invoice total.  Makes no sense!

Why don't you just create a statement for all open balances as of statement date?