#AMA: Ask Our QuickBooks Experts About Invoices

if someone pays a retainer (its own invoice) how do I apply that to another invoice that I want to keep track of until the retainer amount is gone.

I was hoping to post questions about invoices here.  Will there be someone to answer?

1. How do I add the customer phone # so it prints on the invoices?  

2. How do I delete a payment for an invoice if it was entered incorrectly?  I can see my only option was to change the payment to $0 but it won't let me delete payments.  (I was  able to in QB Desktop)

Welcome to the Community, Ericap19.

If you're using QuickBooks Desktop, you can manage upfront deposits and retainers by setting up a liability account for them.

Here's how:

1. In your top menu bar, go to Lists, then Chart of Accounts.
2. On the Chart of Accounts screen, right-click and choose New.
3. Pick Other Current Liability as your account Type.
4. Enter a name for the account in its Name field.
5. It's recommended to set up your account with a zero opening balance, unless you're tracking existing upfront deposits or retainers.
6. Select Ok.

Next, you'll need to create an item to use when recording the transactions. Afterwards, you can record retainers you receive, create their associated invoices, and apply the retainers to invoices.

I'll be here to help if there's any questions. Have a wonderful day!

I'm using QuickBooks Online does that work the same way

When entering customer payments in QB Desktop Accountant 2019, I see a very long list of old unpaid invoices. Is there a way to change the date range of invoices that appears in the customer payments screen, so I don't have to scroll through 9 years of unpaid invoices to get to the one I want? Screenshot attached. Thank you for your help!

Hi there, @BridgetOBrian.

Thanks for swinging by our Drop-in. I hope you're enjoying the day so far. 

With QuickBooks Online, you can add your customer's phone number to the invoice with just a few simple clicks. I've included the steps to add phone numbers below. 

To do this, you'll need to create a field solely for the phone number and include it on your invoice screen. Here's how: 

1.  Go to the Plus (+) icon and select Invoice.

2.  Select your customer.

3.  Click the small Gear icon on the upper right corner of the screen.

4. Under Fields, click the + Add another field link.

5. Enter Phone Number on the box.

You can also add the phone number in the billing address section of the invoice. To see additional details about that process, check out  Add a customer's phone number in the sales transaction. 

The option to delete an invoice is included at the bottom of the invoice screen under the More menu. Let's walk through the steps to delete invoices.

1. Find and open the invoice you want to delete.
2. In the Invoice window, click More at the bottom.
3. Choose either Delete or Void, then tap Yes to confirm.

You can see more information about deleting invoices in Void or delete transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I'll be here every step of the way. Take care! 

Thanks for getting back with the Community, Ericap19.

The process is very similar in QuickBooks Online. Initially, you'll need to create a liability account.

Here's how:

1. Use your Gear (⚙️) icon.
2. Go to Chart of accounts.
3. Click New.
4. Choose Other Current Liabilities from the Account Type ▼ drop-down list.
5. Pick Trust Accounts - Liabilities for its Detail Type ▼.
6. Enter a Name for your account or accept the suggested title.
7. Specify an option using your When do you want to start tracking your finances from the is account in QuickBooks? drop-down.
8. Select Save and close.
   
   

Next, you'll need to create a retainer item and proceed with the rest of the steps.

If there's any additional questions, I'm just a post away. Have a lovely day!

Thanks for asking @LK31.

While there isn’t a way to select a date range, what you can do is flip the dates so that the newest dates are at the top to the list.

If you click on the top of the date column, the dates will switch to descending order.

You can customize a report  to show open invoices for customers as well. From the report you could select the invoice to receive the payment.

Feel free to let me know if you have any additional questions. I’m here to help any time!

This reply went under my question not the OP, so they might not be notified.

Hi- Thanks for the idea, but within the Customer Receive Payments window, clicking on the date column to reorder is not an option. The oldest show by default and the date column is not clickable.  

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the #AMA today! We hope you all got the help you needed with your invoices. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to post your question here in the QuickBooks Community. We're online 24/7 to help!