Post-dated Invoices

JasonC3 · ‎November 02, 2022

Hello everyone,

I am wondering if there is any reason I should not create post-dated invoices once a contract is signed. I have a client wanting to see a sales/receivables forecast and this seems to be the best way to do this in QuickBooks Online.

When using QuickBooks Desktop I created Sales Orders to track future sales, but am unable to do that in QuickBooks Online. Creating post-dated invoices seems like an odd but effective way of doing this. I can now create a Sales by Customer Summary report (with columns by month) in order to see a sales/income forecast.

The only potential issue I see is that invoices may never get sent unless I have a system to remind me to verify the work was complete and send them once the billing period arrives.

I know this is an outside-the-box method but can't find any good reason not to do it.

Thoughts?

Regards,

Jason

Rainflurry · ‎November 03, 2022

@JasonC3

I don't see it being an issue except that creating post-dated invoices will increase the customer's open balance. But, most importantly, they won't impact the financial statements, which is good. Just another thought - you can essentially do the same thing with estimates as opposed to invoices. You can run an 'Estimates by Customer' report (grouped by month) to get the same information. That will keep your customer's open balance accurate and the estimates can be converted to invoices as needed. Just my $.02.

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Rainflurry · ‎November 03, 2022

@JasonC3

I don't see it being an issue except that creating post-dated invoices will increase the customer's open balance. But, most importantly, they won't impact the financial statements, which is good. Just another thought - you can essentially do the same thing with estimates as opposed to invoices. You can run an 'Estimates by Customer' report (grouped by month) to get the same information. That will keep your customer's open balance accurate and the estimates can be converted to invoices as needed. Just my $.02.

JasonC3 · ‎November 03, 2022

Thank you Rainflurry!

I actually found a better workaround. I wanted to maintain the integrity of my progress invoicing based off of a single estimate. So originally I was looking for a solution besides using an estimate.

What I discovered is I can use the service date field and easily enter multiple dates for the same transaction. I was then able to create a custom report using the pivot table feature to sort by service date by month.

I am also going to use a bundle with hidden service items in my estimate to break down the different periods I want to view the income for the same service item.

Thank you for your feedback!

JasonC3 · ‎November 03, 2022

Rainflurry,

I was avoiding using estimates because I was trying to maintain the integrity of progress invoicing on my original estimate for the full contract.

I did find a solution using estimates, however. I was able to use the service item column in the estimate to split the estimated income into different months. I then used a custom report with a pivot table to view estimated income by service item, by month.

Additionally I started using bundles with hidden service items to split revenue from a single service item into several months without it affecting the customer's view of the transaction.

Thank you for your feedback!

Regards,

Jason

FritzF · ‎November 14, 2022

Hello again, Rainflurry.

I appreciate you for always sharing your knowledge about QuickBooks. This will definitely help other users as well in the future. Please keep on posting here in the Community.

Keep safe and have a great rest of the day.

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