Double Payments

I'm here to help you handle your duplicate payments, Maritza1.

If the payment is recorded accidentally, you'll want to void or delete it in QuickBooks. I'll guide you how.

1. Go to the Sales menu.
2. Select All Sales.
3. Locate the duplicate payment, then click to open.
4. Click More.
5. Select Delete or Void.
6. Click Yes on the prompt message.

I've also included a video tutorial about creating a refund receipt for your customers if you receive an overpayment: Refund Customers.

Additionally, to learn how to match your QuickBooks account and real-life bank statements, I suggest checking our Reconcile Workflow.

Let me know if you have any other questions about handling duplicate payments in QuickBooks. I'm always here to assist you.

Thank you for your reply however, I cannot delete or void for the reason that these payments are for 2019 and the 2019 books are closed however, when I do my bank reconciliation, I am seeing that these checks have yet to clear. And it's for about $15K...

Hello @Maritza1,

Let me help share how you can fix the posting of your customer's payments so you can proceed with your bank account reconciliation.

To start with, let's mark the said payments as Cleared directly from your bank account register. By doing so, it will remove them from the list of transactions for your new reconciliation.

Let me show you how:

1. Go to Accounting.
2. Select Chart of Accounts.
3. Find your bank account from the list of accounts.
4. Under ACTION, select View register.
5. On the list of transactions, select the payments in question.
6. Put C under the Checkmark column for the said payments.
7. Click Save.

On top of that, I'd recommend contacting your accountant for guidance with your account reconciliation and to avoid messing up your 2019 books. If you haven't yet, you can find one near you with this link: Find an accountant or bookkeeper.

Additionally, I've got you this helpful article for guidance in preparation for the 2020 tax season: QuickBooks Online Year-end Checklist.

If there's anything else that I can help you with, please let me know by leaving any comments below. I'll be here to lend a hand.

Thank you for getting back to me...

But by doing this I will have two payments posted as cleared...

Allow me to chime in and help fix the duplicate payments, Maritza1.

You can delete the duplicate payment if it isn't valid on your actual bank statement. This way, it won't keep showing up on QuickBooks. 

If it's valid, then you refund a customer for the paid invoice: Let me show you how:

1. Click + New.
2. Select Refund receipt.
3. Select the customer you want to refund from the Customer ▼ drop-down.
4. Fill out the fields using the info from the original sale.
5. Choose which payment method and account you wish to refund the customer from.
6. You can't refund an ACH payment to the customer’s bank account. You'll need to choose another refund method (cash, check, or store credit).
7. Click Save and close.
8. Then, you can send or print the refund receipt.

If you're using QuickBooks Payments, here's how to reverse or refund the payment.

For the remaining payment, you can match it with the one you've recorded in QuickBooks. Doing this will prevent the system form having duplicate payments on your register.

Upon sharing this, I suggest consulting your account since your 2019 book is already closed. They can provide specific instructions to ensure you have accurate records in QuickBooks.

Keep me posted if you need anything else with fixing the duplicate payments. I'll be around to help you.

I cannot delete the duplicate payment as for this is for 2019 and it will impact my books. 

Hello there, @Maritza1.

Let me share with you some information on how to handle the double transaction that was already reconciled in QuickBooks. 

 If you don’t want to delete the transaction, you can create a Journal Entry so the balance will not be affected. But before doing so, please reach out to your accountant so you’ll be guided with the process. 

Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you. I’ll be around to help. Wishing you continued success!  

Doing the JE is not a problem as long as my 2019 books are not impacted.  However, will I be able to tie the JE to the double payment so that it does not show up in my uncleared checks reconciliation report?

Thank you so much for this information. 

Hello, @Maritza1. 

Thanks for reaching back out to the Community. I hope your day is going well so far. I can provide you with some insight into the journal entry and reconciliation report. 

The check will still show on the uncleared checks reconciliation report due to it not being deleted. However, the journal entry will correct the balance. I do recommend consulting with your accountant on this to be sure. They'll be able to give you the best accounting advice for your business. If you have an accountant, check out this link to find one near you. 

Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. The Community is always here to have your back. I want to make sure that you're able to get back to running your business. Have a great day! 

okay thank you.  So the check will stay on my report forever as uncleared?  Any other suggestions other then deleting?  If I delete I will have to reconcile the entire year.  I did that once already and it was a headache.

I spoke with our CPA and she indicated that the JE is fine, but we just do not like to see uncleared checks on the reconciled reports. 

Can I create an invoice in 2020 and apply this payment to the invoice and then create a credit to cancel out the payment?  Will that do it?

Here's what I did:

1. Create the deposit using the duplicate payment outstanding. Notate in memo that it's a duplicate entry however you see fit and use whatever bank account you prefer it to hit (you'll want to remember which account, though). Save. This removes the payment from your deposit list.

2. Open the duplicate customer payment and select the radio button at the bottom left corner for "overpayment" and select refund the amount to the customer. Select ACH so that you can select the bank account that used in step 1. This removes the payment from your A/R reporting.

3. Reconcile that bank account using these 2 opposing entries and the 'check' you created in step 2 will clear. Hopefully, that helps. 

Here's my current problem. I deposit clients money and QB auto matches, fine and I confirm. What is happening is when I pay my clients invoices which I need to do to clear them from there account it is as though I just told QB I got the money again. I went in and deleted some duplicates not the ones that already had a C. What happened was now it shows all those invoices are still open, so now I have to go back and redo work but I have put that off because it is going to cause the same problem again. I do not know how to pay my invoices without it duplicating. Please help its a mess.

Hello, Newbie! I understand your concern about the duplicate entries in QuickBooks Online (QBO) when handling your client's invoice payments. 

To address this , we can utilize the Receive Payment feature in QBO to manually record these payments.

1.  Log in to your QuickBooks Online account.
2. Click +New button and select Receive Payment.
3. From the Customer dropdown, select the name of the customer.
4. From the Payment method dropdown, select the payment method (credit card, debit, PayPal, Venmo, or ACH bank transfer).
5. Hit Save and close.

Then, use your bank statement to identify any duplicate entries. As you identify duplicate entries in your bank statement, take note of them. In QuickBooks Online, you can exclude these duplicate. This will help maintain the accuracy of your financial records.

Feel free to reach out if you have any further inquiries or require assistance with transactions. I'm here to support you. Take good care of yourself, and stay safe!