Is it fine to add a negative line item to a new invoice for a previous overcharge? What are the implications of doing this vs. issuing a credit memo?

Thank you for the detailed response. This is super clear and helpful!

I will go ahead and add the negative line item to keep everything in one place and make a note in the description line.

Thank you again!

Problem, my invoice now drops below positive and becomes negative. It won't accept it. How do I get around this?

Hi anonymous26!

QuickBooks Online won't allow you to save an invoice with a negative total. I'm here to help you.

What I can suggest is to record the overcharge using a credit memo so you can keep track of it. You can use the credits as a payment to your open invoices.

Follow these steps:

1. Go to the +New button and select Credit memo.
2. Select the Customer and other details required.
3. Tap Save and close.

Then, here's how to apply it to an invoice:

1. From the +New button, select Receive payment.
2. Select the Customer. In the Outstanding Transactions section, select the open invoice you want to apply the credit memo to.
3. In the Credits section, select the credit memos you want to apply. Then, enter how much of the credit you want to apply in the Payment column. Make sure the Amount Received is $0.
4. Leave the Payment method, Reference no, and Deposit to blank.
5. Tap Save and close.

You can apply the remaining credits to future invoices. You can check the detailed steps here: Create and apply credit memos or delayed credits in QuickBooks Online.

Additionally, you can find the different ways to handle overpayments on this link: Handle a customer credit or overpayment in QuickBooks Online.

For other income and customer concerns, you'll want to visit this page: Sales and customers.

Keep on posting here if you have other questions. We'll help you!

Perhaps not the case anymore since the last update?  I can not add a negative line item on an invoice. Says " This value out of range" 

Thanks for joining in, srorke.

I haven't heard of any changes from our management team, and I can still do line items with negative amounts on my invoice. Let's take some steps to see if you’re just experiencing random browser issues.

We can start by opening QuickBooks in a private browser. This stops the browser from reusing cached data, which can be broken or misconfigured and caused the error.

• Google Chrome: Press CTRL + Shift + N.
• Safari: Press Command + Shift + N.
• Mozilla Firefox and MS Edge: Press CTRL + Shift + P.

If you can have items with negative amounts, you can go back to your regular browser and clear its cache. If not, please try a different browser to isolate the case.

Let me know if you have other questions in mind.

No, you can't enter a negative line item. Sometimes, the advice and help are really bad.

So many helpful answers go as far as to explain the absolute obvious and stop before explaining the stupid result resulting from that shallow assistance. Such as sub-customer and parent customers, and addressing the invoices to the Job Name (i.e. sub-customer?). Who the hell decided that would be a great solution? I have many jobs with One contractor, and having my invoices addressed to a job Name and not their offices is so ridiculous. Why not just have a JOB NAME data input slot? What the hell? this sucks, workarounds in QBO after this many years of development and no job name entry. F$%%&&$##@CK! Should have Job Name: Job Address: Job Contact Name: Job Contact Phone Number: etc...

And the QBO official says we have 12 custom fields, dont they know their own products, we get 3, only 3 that will print on estimates and invocies..ONLY 3 NOT 12, AND THE 3 LEAVE SPACE FOR A 4TH ONE BELOW THE 3RD ONE TOTALLY WASTED SPACE. you guys need to wise up, and look at your products. F$%%&&$##@CK! 

This no longer works.  We want to issue an invoice with a (hypothetical) charge of $100, with a credit of $5 if the bill is paid before the end of February.

I cannot enter a negative rate of -5.00 as shown in the image from 2020.  I had to enter a negative quantity -1 and a positive charge 5.00 in order to get a negative amount of -$5.00 and a total of $95.  

If I enter 5.00 and then add a negative sign in front of it, Quickbooks clears the negative sign when I tab to the next field.  If I type the negative sign first into a blank rate field, a message pops up in red saying that the value is out of range.  If I persist and enter a qty of 1 and a rate of -5.00 the amount is $0.00, not -$5.00.  I even tried using parentheses to indicate a negative rate.  Same issue.  

I appreciate you for sharing your experience, Tycha.

Upon checking, we have an ongoing investigation about being unable to enter a negative amount in invoices. Rest assured that our engineers are actively working on a fix so you can get back to business as soon as possible.

In the meantime, I recommend reaching out to our customer support team to include you in the list of affected users. Doing so allows you to receive timely email updates on the investigation's status. Here's how:

1. Go to the Help icon and choose the Search tab.
2. Select Contact Us.
3. Describe your concern and select Continue.
4. Choose between Chat with us and Have us call you.

Additionally, you can personalize your sales forms in QBO by utilizing the tools available in the program. Doing so allows you to create professional designs for your invoices and include information relevant to your business needs.

If you have other questions concerning invoices, please don't hesitate to return to the Community. We're always here to listen and address your queries. Stay safe, and have a nice day ahead.