Setting up different membership dues with different payments

I agree with @Rose-A

You want Service Items for Dues, because this is your routine activity. Other Charges are, for instance, Postage, Mileage, etc.

You also can use Customer Type. That way, you can use that in reporting, such as Sales by Item, filter on only the one Customer Type. This would let you see if you charged a Customer Type the wrong Dues item, for quality assurance and review. I also like Sales by Customer Summary, with Columns by Item Type or Item Detail = each type of Dues is now a column.

All of the Dues Items link to just the one Dues account. That keeps the P&L simple, and the Items List does the better reporting for you. Item reporting includes Quantity, for instance, when that is helpful to analyze the activities.

This looks great thank you so much! Just to clarify then, all dues routed through these item codes would affect the "membership dues" income account? And to be able to pay these dues I would just go through receive payments and the type of payment the members decide to use? Finally, since they can pay through paypal would I just add that as a payment method? Thanks for the help! 

Would it be a matter of using both? As in using the service charge to actually charge the member then attaching a customer type for reporting? 

Yes, I prefer to use both Customer Type for reporting, and the Items give you clarity for Charges (or Sales) and include Quantity.

Please see my attachment for a Customer Type reporting example.

How do I bill members for each different type of membership

They are set up with different values - now how do I bill them

Hi there, @Bsmo. 

In QuickBooks, a Bill is used for recording payables or paying expenses. While the Invoice is for recording sales transactions. 

To make sure you're able to charge each different types of members with their dues, let's use an Invoice to record their pledges. Here's how: 

1. Go to the Customers menu, then select Create Invoices.
2. From the Customer: Job drop-down, select a member or member job. 
3. Enter all necessary information at the top of the form such as the Date Invoice #, Bill to/Sold to, and Terms.
4. In the Item column, select or add an item according to its values. The description and amount are automatically populated based on the description and unit cost entered when it was set up. You can delete or modify this when creating invoices.
5. Select Save & Close.

For future reference, read through our help article: Record an invoice payment. It helps you learn how to receive and mark the invoice as paid in QuickBooks Desktop. 

You can also check out the Accounts Receivable workflows in QuickBooks Desktop. It includes steps that can help you in creating each transaction from your selected workflow.

Feel free to comment below if you have more questions. We're always here to guide. Have a great day. 

Is there a way to dues income amortization? If someone pays for one year or two years, we'd recognize the income monthly over that one or two years. Is there a way for QB to keep track of membership dues expiration?

Thanks!

I have details to share to with your question about tracking membership dues and expirations, Harold.

If the membership dues are the same amount every period, you can create a memorized transaction. You have an option to either automatically record a transaction or add it to your reminder list. Here's how:

1. Open an existing invoice that you want to memorize.
2. Click Memorize in the upper-part of the transaction.
3. Select between Add to my Reminders List (transaction will be added to the Memorized Transactions section of your reminders list) or Automate Transaction Entry (transaction will be entered when it's due).
4. Enter all other required details including how frequent it will recur.
5. Click Save and close.

You can also read more details about this feature in this article: Create, Edit, or Delete Memorized Transactions.

I have more articles to share in case you want more guidance when reviewing your income transactions:

• Customize Reports in QuickBooks Desktop 
• Understand Reports 

Please know that we're just around the corner if you have more questions for us. We're always her to help.

Thanks! I do something similar for amortizing expenses like insurance and also for depreciation expense. But, setting up a separate memorized transaction for each member seems unwieldy. Ideally, an individual dues collection would debit cash and credit prepaid member dues liability. Then, each month, there would be a debit to prepaid member dues liability and credit to dues income. The group I'm working with has options for one year dues or two year dues. The simplest thing is to just recognize the income when it is received, but it seems more accurate to amortize the dues over the one or two years. But I can't think of a way to do it without creating a memorized transaction for each and every dues payment received. 

Harold