Shipping a Demo before Invoicing the Customer

Sending good vibes to you, Nathan O.

You've got me here to help share some steps in recording shipment and refund a customer via QuickBooks Desktop.

You can create an estimate or sales order for your one-month shipment, and can later be turned into an invoice after two months. You will first need to turn on this feature.

Let me show you how:

1. From the QuickBooks Edit menu, select Preferences.
2. On the left pane, choose Jobs & Estimates then go to the Company Preferences tab.
3. Select Yes to the question "Do you create estimates?"
4. Select OK.

Create an estimate:

1. From the QuickBooks Home screen or on the Customers menu, select Estimates / Create Estimates.
2. On the Customer: Job drop-down, select a customer or customer job. If the customer or job is not on the list yet, you can click Add New.
3. Fill in the relevant information at the top of the form like the Date and Estimate #.
4. In the detail area, select the item(s) you propose to do or include as a sale.
   Note: When you select or add an item, the description and amount are automatically populated based on the description and unit cost entered when the item was set up. You can delete or modify this when creating Estimates.
5. Select Save & Close.

You can get more details in these articles:

• https://quickbooks.intuit.com/community/Help-Articles/Create-an-estimate/m-p/203673.
• https://quickbooks.intuit.com/community/Help-Articles/Create-a-sales-order/m-p/203317.

Also, you can check out this recommended article on how you can refund a customer: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/community/Help-Articles/Record-a-credit-memo-or-refund-in-QuickBooks-D....

I wish you continued success with your business. Please let me know if you have any other questions about shipments and invoices in QuickBooks. Have a good one.

@RoseMarjorieA and @Rustler , thanks for the help.

We've been billing customers so far via the service item approach, but using that method is causing significant issues in reporting, since the revenue collected isn't tied to the item sold.