Partial payments on credit cards

A credit card payment is just a check transferring to the CC account. It can be for any amount less than, the same as, or more than the CC statement. The amount doesn't matter at all as far as how or if the payment will appear in the reconciliation feature.

Is it possible that the partial payment doesn't use the CC account, while other payments you've made do?  I suspect that's the case.

Big Red Consulting-Thank you for the response, however I believe I wasn't quite clear on my original question.  We reconcile our CC just like our checking account and then create a bill for payment at a later date.  If we want to make a partial payment you do in the "Pay bills" screen.  That partial payment does NOT show up when we reconcile our CC the following month.  With the partial payment not showing up our reconciliation is off.  I'm wondering why these partial payments do not show up in our reconciliation screen to then balance.  I've read so many threads on how to fix this but none have worked.  I've gone into the chart of accounts and entered a journal entry for these "partial payments" but now they show up as a bill to be paid when they've already been paid and cleared by our bank.  I need help understanding and fixing this problem.  thank you

I appreciate the additional and complete details you've provided above, @dairy1. That'll help me in guiding you through the steps to make sure your partial payment shows while reconciling your credit card account in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

Based on your description, you're already on the right track in recording the partial payment. You'll only have to make sure the date and account you used when recording the said transaction are correct. This way, you're able to show the partial payment when you reconcile. To do this, here's how:

1. Open the partial payment.
2. Double-check the Bank Account and Date fields. Make sure they're correct.
3. Click Save.

Once you're done, go ahead and start your reconciliation again. I'd recommend focusing on one section at a time to find all the transactions you need. For the step-by-step guide, please refer to this article: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Desktop.

Also, to further guide you in doing and fixing a reconciliation in QBDT, I would encourage you to check out this article: Learn the reconcile workflow in QuickBooks.

Please keep me posted in the comments if you have other reconciliation concerns and questions about managing expense transactions in QBDT. I'll gladly help. Take care always, @dairy1. 

@dairy1 

OK, I see. What you're doing conflates two different options in a way that doesn't work, as you've found out!

RE: We reconcile our CC just like our checking account and then create a bill for payment at a later date.

When you create that bill, the bill hits the CC account and pays off the credit card by the amount you enter on the bill. The default bill amount is the statement balance. The accounting assumption made when using this option is that you will pay the amount of the bill in full at some point before your next statement period closes. Which is a big assumption. You've now added something to the account that might not happen.

RE: That partial payment does NOT show up when we reconcile our CC the following month. With the partial payment not showing up our reconciliation is off. I'm wondering why these partial payments do not show up in our reconciliation screen to then balance.

Actually, no payments you make against that bill will show up when you reconcile because the payments don't use the CC account. A bill payment check (no matter what it is for) impacts only your AP account and your Bank account.

Recommendations:

1) Don't use the option to create a bill to pay later. This just adds indirection for no really good reason. It doesn't make your accounting better. The only way it might help is that it creates something for the A/P clerk to do, assuming he only pays bills that show up to pay and does nothing else. But it's much cleaner if you use the other option to create a post-dated check directly in your checking account that pays the CC.  An added benefit of doing it this way is that when/if you change the amount to pay on the check, this immediately changes in the CC account and it will appear when reconciling as you expect it to.

OR

2) Do what you're doing except that when you decide to pay less than the statement balance - the initial bill amount - then edit the bill and change its amount to be the amount you're going to pay, which will also change the amount that appears in the CC register. Then pay updated bill amount in total with a bill payment check. You still won't see the actual check you wrote when reconciling the CC account, but the bill you see will then match the actual payment amount.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for the updated information.  Apparently using the "Reconciliation" option for CC is not an easy fix as I was hoping for.  It doesn't make since that I some bills I can pay portions of that bill and then be able to see what is left to pay on my next A/P run, but when doing it for a CC it doesn't.  I'm not sure which option to use as you have suggested.  Thank you for your assistance.