How to quickly locate all "Unapplied" payments

RR7620 · ‎September 29, 2020

Is there a report (or filter) that will allow me to quickly identify all payments with the status of "Unapplied" at once? I'm referring to payments that have been linked to a client's account but have not yet been linked to a specific invoice. The only method I've found thus far is to manually check each and every client account with an open balance. I'm seeking a quick method to routinely confirm that we have no payments floating around which haven't been properly allocated.

MarshallA · ‎September 29, 2020

Hello,

Run a "Transaction List By Date" report

Add Column: OPEN BALANCE

Filter For: Transaction = PAYMENT

That will show all payments in the date range you set and if they have an open balance.

Anything that has an open balance means all or part of that payment is still sitting in the customers account as a credit and hasn't been applied to an invoice. Once you have this report, you can export to Excel, resort by the open balance and then delete any records that dont have an open balance. Or, you can setup a filter or sort list in excel and just tell it to not include anything with open balance is blank.

picture attached

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MarshallA · ‎September 29, 2020

Hello,

Run a "Transaction List By Date" report

Add Column: OPEN BALANCE

Filter For: Transaction = PAYMENT

That will show all payments in the date range you set and if they have an open balance.

Anything that has an open balance means all or part of that payment is still sitting in the customers account as a credit and hasn't been applied to an invoice. Once you have this report, you can export to Excel, resort by the open balance and then delete any records that dont have an open balance. Or, you can setup a filter or sort list in excel and just tell it to not include anything with open balance is blank.

picture attached

RR7620 · ‎September 29, 2020

Thank you so much for the quick and clear solution, @MarshallA !

dressick · ‎August 09, 2025

if you start with an "Open Invoices Report" and then filter it to Transaction Type: Payments, you will not see all of the zero dollar accounts.

PioneerT

This will not work if an invoice was created and the item code "unapplied payments" is used and the invoice is marked as closed since the overpayment was applied to it. No credits show up under the customer in this case.

Does QB desktop not have a report that could be run to show you all invoices that have an item code of "unapplied payment" to make clearing them when a new invoice comes in that the finds can be applied to?

PioneerT

This report does not show an "open balance" for "unapplied payment" item code invoices where the overpayment has been applied to it. On my Transaction List, this invoice shows the value in the Debit column instead of the Open Balance column.

MorganB

Thanks for joining this thread and for sharing that additional info, PioneerT.

I'm happy to share details on how to achieve the report you're looking for in QuickBooks Desktop. Here's how to generate a report for invoices with the "unapplied payment" item:

Open QuickBooks Desktop.
Navigate to Reports in the top menu bar.
Select Report Center.
Search for "Sales by Item" and click Run next to Sales by Item Detail to view your sales by product and service.

To narrow down the report further:

Click the Customize Report button.
In the Columns section, you can add or remove columns, like QTY, SKU, or Item.
You can also use the Filters tab to narrow down your report results, for example, by item category.

The following article provides additional info about customizing reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

That will do it. By following these steps you'll be able to view invoices with the "unapplied payment" item. Please feel free to reach back out if you have any other questions. I'll be here to lend a hand.

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How to quickly locate all "Unapplied" payments