Invoice Template Supposed to include Balance Forward but DOESN’T (QBO)

Hello there, @cpPOA. I appreciate you for getting back to our Community forum. Let me route you to the right support you need. 

I understand your sentiments and how this challenge affects the operation of your business with QuickBooks. Let's verify that the account summary was properly configured. If it is and the issue continues to persist, the best option for you is to contact our Live Support Team. They have the tools to initiate a screen-sharing session, investigate your account further, and may create a case if necessary. 

To contact support:

1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online account
2. Select the Help (?) icon at the top right.
3. Enter your concern, then click Let's talk.
4. Choose Contact Us to connect with a live support agent.
5. Select Start a chat with a support expert or Get a callback from the next available expert.

QuickBooks Online also helps you to make invoices that are pleasant and professional by customizing and adding specific information. You may learn more about this process by reading the article: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online.

Don't hesitate to reach out to us again if you need further assistance with your invoices in QuickBooks Online. We're available 24/7. Wishing you all the best!

I’ve reached out to Support today as the issue still persists.

I've spent hours on the chat to support only to find they have removed this functionality - it would be nice if large changes like this are communicated to customers in advance.

Like you we use balance forward to highlight to customers any over due amounts...

we can all agree customers rarely read all the information sent to them and this now just adds additional pain to invoicing and getting paid!

Welcome to the Community! I understand the importance of including the balance in your invoices. No worries. I'm here to share a way to send your customer's balance in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

You can use the statement function of the program as a workaround. Follow the steps below to create one.

1. Go to Sales, then choose Customers.
2. Navigate to the customer you want to send their balance.
3. Under the ACTION column, click the dropdown arrow.
4. Select Create statement.
5. In the Statement Type dropdown, choose Balance Forward.
6. Fill in the necessary details.
7. Click Save and send.

Since they removed the functionality, I highly recommend sending direct feedback to our product engineer to add this feature to the program. They handle requests and analyze them for future updates.

To send your request:

1. Go to the Gear icon.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
4. Tap Next to submit.

Additionally, you can check this article on managing the payments you receive from your customers: Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online.

We're always here to help you if you have other concerns with the program. Take care!

I've been testing a new invoice format.  I cannot get the Balance Forward info to appear consistently.  My tests have all been on the same test invoice.  About a month ago, the Balance Forward appeared.  A few days ago I couldn't get the Balance Forward to appear.  Yesterday, it appeared on my test invoice.  Great!  Today, it no longer appears.  

  I can't figure out what is impacting this inconsistency.

Hey there, @RickH2. 

Thanks for chiming in on this thread! 

Since this occurs on and off in your QuickBooks Online account, I recommend contacting our Customer Support Team for further assistance. They'll be able to go through your account with you and see why this is happening. Here's how: 

1. Go to the Help? icon. 
2. Tap the Contact Us button. 
3. Enter your question and press Let's talk. 
4. Scroll down and choose to Get a callback. 

Please keep us updated on how the call goes. We're always here to lend a helping hand. Have a great day! 

I've also been seeing inconsistent results with the "Account Summary" section (includes balance forward, other credits/payments, other invoices, new charges, and total amount due figures) appearing on generated invoices. It's just as RickH2 said - Sometimes the account summary section is there and other times it's not. It's especially confusing because the template editor web interface clearly shows the mock account summary section both in the Design and Content tabs and if I generate a "Preview PDF" it too has the mock account summary section. But when I print or send an actual invoice, there are times when the PDF has no such section. Another wrinkle with this is that when the account summary section goes missing, the payment request email only asks for the latest invoice amount, not the entire open balance on the account! So again, as OP mentioned, customers have no current indication that they owe anything other than the latest invoiced amount.

I appreciate you sharing your experience and observations with the Account Summary section, cbr20.

I understand how important it is for customers to see their full outstanding balance, as it's a critical feature for preventing underpayments.

In this case, I'd suggest reaching out to our live support teams. One of our support agents will take a closer look at this to determine why the Account summary section is not appearing on some invoices.

Here's how to reach out to them:

1. Click the Help menu in the upper-right-hand corner of QBO.
2. Proceed to the Assistant tab.
3. Type in "contact support" in the chat box and press Enter.
4. Select Contact a human, then click Live Chat or Call me back.
5. Type in a short description of your concern and click Continue.
6. Choose between Callback or Chat.

Please know that you can always reach out to us anytime you need help.

jenop2, I will be contacting support, but given this thread started back in April 2023, I would hope that the underlying issue had been resolved on the QBO back end, and that there was some vigilance by QBO test/QA against future updates, such that the problem would no longer manifest for anyone else. That said, in the meantime, I am providing additional findings from my brief testing.

In my limited test scenarios thus far, partly in search of a quick workaround, I have found that the Account Summary only generates, and the payment request amount only cumulatively increases with each new invoice, if a customer account balance was initially set via the opening balance feature (amount and date fields) in the customer edit tool, resulting in an automated opening balance invoice. If this condition is met, the Account Summary then will only appear on the next (second) invoice and subsequent invoices that are created against the customer account. This is of course problematic for multiple reasons:

1. This doesn’t help with existing customers nor new ones that didn’t start with an opening balance and later might have a balance forward. The opening balance tool is only available (not grayed out) when there are no invoices or bills on the account. Also, you cannot enter a zero or negative amount for an amount in the opening balance tool, although it allows you to and doesn’t error. A zero will cause it to simply do nothing. A negative will generate a credit memo.

2. Even for “new” customers that do have some existing balance to enter as an opening balance, the QBO online help specifically states:
“Learn how to enter a prior balance for a customer that owes you money or a vendor you need to pay. – When you're adding a new customer or vendor with an open balance, leave the opening balance field blank. Instead, add your customer's unpaid invoices or your vendor's unpaid bills to QuickBooks. That way, it's clear what your customers are paying for and what you're paying your vendors for.”
So even in this focused use scenario, it’s not the recommended tool and avoiding it would cause the Account Summary section to not generate. Of course, if I use the tool I can go back to edit the autogenerated Opening Balance invoice to add any appropriate details. So the help guidance seems a bit misguided. While of course one would want as complete as possible invoice records, an opening balance tool/entry point is common and necessary for obvious reasons.

3. It shouldn’t matter if there is a zero balance forward or not! If the Account Summary is enabled in the template it should generate on the invoice.

Hopefully this information on the failure scenario I am seeing is useful to someone else in the forum. It’s a shame that Inuit staff do not take more initiative based on forum posts.