How do I mark an old invoice (that has been paid) Paid without changing bank balance? For QB online 2020

Thank you for your expertise and help.  The solution worked perfectly.  Excellent precise instructions. 

I had this same issue and tried doing what you suggested, which does exactly what you say it will but when you create the credit memo it decreases revenue. So while i have the invoice showed as paid now my income in now understated.  Any suggestions?

Thanks for posting here, @ruckus,

If the method shared by my colleague doesn't work in your case, I have another method you can try.

You can record the payment as a journal entry then link it to the invoice as payment. For this, you will need to create a clearing account (Cash on Hand) to hold funds so it doesn't affect your bank balance. See this:

Then you can receive the journal entry as payment towards the invoice. Choose the same bank as the holding account on the journal entry in the Deposit to field. Here's how you do it:

Once done, you can create a reversal entry to offset the balance on the holding account. That way, there is no longer an A/R balance and your bank balance isn't affected by the transaction.

Before doing any of these steps, you seek for an accountant's approval and guidance. This method may affect your financials and past reconciliations, so it needs professional point of view.

I'll share this related article to you which has the overview of resolving customer balances and how to fix them: Resolve A/R or A/P balances on a cash basis Balance Sheet

If you have anymore concerns, please let me know in the comment below. I'll be right here if you need further assistance with recording the payment. Have a nice day!

I hate to be dumb but wont the reversing entry undo what you just showed me to do 

Hi there, ruckus. 

Thanks for posting, don't worry there's no dumb questions here! While I understand the confusion, I'm happy to help. The steps provided above by my colleague are an alternative the the first steps provided earlier in the thread, what I would recommend is to reach out to our support team if you're having trouble with your income being understated as they can dive into your specific account with you in a private 1-on-1 setting to determine exactly what's going on. To reach them, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online company.
2. Select Help (?) at the top right.
3. Enter your concern, then select Let's talk.
4. Select Contact Us to connect with a live support agent.
5. Choose a way to connect with us:
   • Start a chat with a support expert.
   • Get a callback from the next available expert.

Thank you for your time and I hope you have a lovely day. 

Ryan_M, 
You are amazing, don't you ever change!

I have been searching for a month how to do this myself and this worked flawlessly! 

Thanks for coming back, acustomz.

It's great to know the solution provided by my colleague works on our end. Just in case you'll need to run reports in QucikBooks Online (QBO), just check out the Run reports in QuickBooks Online article. Also, I'm adding this great resource that provides detailed information on how to generate reports that shows the data you need: Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

Feel free to visit our Sales and customers page for more insight about managing your company's income and customers.

You can always visit the Community if you need a hand with running your business in QuickBooks. I'll be here to ensure your success. You have a good one. 

I just followed these directions as I have invoices from last year that were paid but never marked off. After I created the credit memo I was unable to do the second part of the instructions for receiving payment bc as soon as I created the credit memo the invoice was no longer considered overdue it automatically found that invoice and connected to credit memo? Does this seem right? I feel like I messed something up. 

Hey MegWalker!

You didn't mess anything up. However, with QuickBooks Online, you do not have to manually do it each time. We have an "Automatically apply credits" feature. If you haven't already, you can tell QuickBooks to automatically apply credit memos to customers' balances or open invoices. Here's how:

1. Go to Setting and click Account and settings.
2. Choose the Advanced tab.
3. In the Automation section, click Edit ✎.
4. Hit Automatically apply credits and select Save.
5. Select Done.

You can refer to this article for more information about credit memos. Please let me know if you were able to turn on this feature. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

Does this process work the same way with QB 2021 Desktop version?  Thanks!  

Thank you for reaching out to Community, dsheese. 

I'm here to lend a hand on how you can mark an invoice as paid without affecting your bank balance. 

You'll need first to create a credit memo to link this transaction to your invoice. 

Here's how: 

1. Click the Customers menu. 

2. Choose to Create a Credit Memo. 

3. Select the name of the Customer: Job.

4. Enter the credit memo details.

5. Click Save and Close.

Once done, we need to link this to the invoice: 

1. When you create the credit memo, make sure you select Customer: Job. This will open the Apply Credit to Invoice window.
2. Select the credit you want to apply automatically and select Done.

You can check out this article for more details: Give your customer a credit or refund in QuickBooks Desktop. 

Just in case you wanted to bill your customer on a monthly basis, you can refer to this article: Create Statement Charges.

Reach out to me if you need further assistance about creating a memo in QuickBooks Desktop. I'm always here to help. 

hello

I switched from Self Employed to Online Simple Start and now an unpaid invoice created in SE shows up as unpaid and soon overdue, but the invoice does not show up in the pull down in Receive Payment (even if searched).

How do I prevent the invoice from being overdue and mark it as paid?

thanks

It's great to see you in the Community, @collpaz. 

Let's isolate this concern by deleting and recreating the invoice. This way, you can pay those invoices and they will be marked as paid.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Sales menu.
2. Choose the Invoices tab.
3. Select the invoice that you want to delete.
4. Under the Action column, click the drop-down arrow and select Delete.
5. Click Yes.

Once completed, you can now recreate the invoice.  

Also, I would suggest contacting our Customer Support Team if you need further assistance recreating those transactions. They also have tools that can check your account securely and help you in case you encounter any errors.

Since you already have a new subscription, I’m adding resources to help perform any tasks in QuickBooks smoothly.

• Get started
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On the other hand, I've added these articles to help you resolve unexpected behaviors while using QuickBooks:

• Clear cache and cookies to fix issues when using QuickBooks Online
• Use the Browser Health Checkup Tool

Feel free to leave your comments below if you have any other QuickBooks concerns. The Community and I are always here to assist you.