Can I send invoices for donations?

MMLA · ‎April 04, 2019

I am a newbie to QBO and only know enough about accounting to be dangerous. Please forgive my dumb questions in advance but I could use some help.

The background is I am the treasurer for a non-profit organization. We've been using QB Pro desktop for many years to manage our relatively simple finances. Our members/donors have 3 funds to choose from to send us money. There is an annual membership fee, and two voluntary donation funds that fund specific projects supported by the organization.

Historically, members would send us paper checks (or use Paypal to send $$). Included with the donation they would include a form we sent to them (snail-mail) where they could identify how their donation(s) should be split.

Once received, I would record these as a Sales Receipt. The sales receipt would have up to 3 entries; A line for the membership fee (fixed cost), and the optional, additional lines for any donations they make to the other funds. These amounts can be anything they choose, though we do suggest an amount. Each line was assigned a class so we can track receipts for each fund.

For some time, our members have been asking if we could send them an "invoice" each year to remind them to rejoin/donate. They also wanted to be able to make payments online using all the methods QBO can give us (credit cards, bank transfers, recurring, etc.)

Sounds pretty straightforward except when I try to figure out how to do it with invoices. I can best explain by example. Ideally I could generate an invoice for each potential member with the 3 line items assigned by class, and using the suggested voluntary donation amounts. For example,

Membership $50

Voluntary donation A $50

Voluntary donation B $50

So they get an itemized invoice for $150, and they can pay online as they would like to do. But assuming they respond at all (membership is also optional), they may respond by only sending the $50 for the membership fee.

I suppose I could then edit the invoice amounts to match what they sent (and delete the ones who don't join). But I'm wondering if there is a better, less-labor-intensive way to accomplish what we are trying to do.

All suggestions and advice appreciated.

Thanks!

FritzF · ‎April 04, 2019

It's nice to see you again in the Community, @MMLA.

Thanks for sharing the complete details of what you want to accomplish in QuickBooks Online (QBO). I'm here to share some insights about how to make this easier for you.

Since most of your members don't pay for all the items on the invoice you send them, you can use estimates instead. Sending an estimate is like giving them a quote, bid, or proposal for work you plan to do. Once your members respond, you can now convert the estimate to an invoice and select only the items that they want.

To create an estimate, here's how:

1. Go to the Plus icon at the top and pick Estimate under Members column.
2. Choose the member's name, then enter the necessary information.
3. Click Save and send.

To add or convert it to invoice, here's how:

1. Go to Sales menu at the left pane, then Members.
2. In the Money Bar (multiple colored bars), select Estimate, then locate estimate you've created.
3. Click Start invoice in the right side under the Action column.
4. Choose Add for all the estimates listed you want to invoice, then edit if necessary.
5. Hit Save and send/close.

This should get you pointed in the right direction. You can also check out this article for future reference: Set up and use estimates and quotes.

Please let me know how it goes or if you have any additional questions. I'll be here to answer them. Cheering you to continued success!

MMLA · ‎April 06, 2019

Fritz, thanks for the reply and your suggestion. But I don't think it is a feasible option in my situation.

I just tried using the Estimate approach. However, the email received is just a simple text message. It doesn't include buttons which would allow the member to make a payment at this step. So if I understand correctly, the estimate approach would generate an email to the member. They would then need to reply to the email with the amount they intended to pay. Then I would need to convert the estimate to an invoice and sent it back to them. Seems like this would add an additional step to the process I was already considering. I also think it would confuse many of our members, not to mention the work to reply to and track over 500 emails and replies (that is the number of potential members we have)

Again, thank you for the suggestion. It is helpful to now understand how estimates work.

MMLA · ‎April 06, 2019

On a related note, I've been testing sending invoices and have another issue. While the Invoice sent shows the line item detail of the payments, once the member clicks on "Pay Now", they are taken to the checkout page where they can enter their credit card info and the amount they will pay. But there is no comment or memo box for them to identify how their payment can be applied.

For example, if they pay $100, I won't have a way to identify which of the optional funds should receive the extra payment. Any way for customers to enter a note on the payment in this process?

Thanks

ShiellaGraceA · ‎April 07, 2019

The comment or memo box is unavailable, MMLA.

Though, they can pay the partial amount of the invoice. You'll want to note the payment manually.

We plan to bring in more features in QuickBooks Online payment. I'll be sending a product suggestion to our engineers to have this feature added in the future.

If you have other questions in mind, please don't hesitate to reach out to us anytime.

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Can I send invoices for donations?