Quickbooks is automatically applying a credit to an unpaid invoice.

Hello,

If you don't want this to happen, you can turn this off. (picture below)

Gear Icon/Account and Settings/Advanced/Automation

I turned Account and Settings\Advanced\Automation\Automatically apply credits to "Off".  Good old QB still applied my client's overpayment to an outstanding invoice instead of showing it as a credit.

Hey there, RDRD.

Thanks for letting me know about the trouble you ran into when trying to disable the automatic credits. I want to make sure this doesn't happen again.

To make sure the setting applies, I recommend clearing the browser cache. If the cache becomes too full of older data, it can potentially cause viewing and performance errors in QuickBooks Online. Clearing it will force the system to refresh and get everything back to running smoothly. For example, here's how you'd get this done in Chrome:

1. Click the three vertical dots in the top right corner.

2. Select More Tools, then Clear Browsing Data.

3. Change the time range to All Time.

4. Only check Cached images and files.

5. Click Clear data.

This article provides similar steps for different browsers: Clear my browser cache and temporary Internet files.

Feel free to reach back out if you have any other questions or concerns.

Hello,

Even though you turned off that feature, QBO "might" still be placing a check mark in the credit in the RECEIVE PAYMENTS screen.  The credit should be visible under the invoices that are open and you just want to make sure if it is there, and you don't want to apply it, take the check mark OUT of the box.  That way it will just sit there in your customers account until you decide to use it on an invoice. (Or cash it in for a refund back to the customer)

After turning off automatically apply credit in Account Settings, how do I find where the problem lies.

What is the source of this credit?

Hi, @OIAI.

You can use a credit memo as payment for another transaction, you can check your invoices and compare them to the payments for you to trace credits.

You can refer to this article to know how to enter and apply a credit memo in QuickBooks Online. Enter and apply credit memos and delayed credits in QuickBooks Online.

I’ll be glad if you can tell me more about what happened before you turned off the auto-apply credit for me to give you additional information. Have a nice day!

Hello Pabz,

Thank you for responding to my question.

What was happening before I turned off Automatically Credit in Account Settings was:

For one particular customer, every time I opened up an outstanding invoice for that customer because I wanted to indicate a newly received payment made that day, the invoice would already be marked "Received payment" usually in the full $ amount and with a supposed date of receipt for which I know there were no checks actually received on that supposed date.

So, as I said, I undeceive the erroneous payment, which clears invoice back to outstanding, and then the outstanding invoice I "receive" the actual payment .      

However, this cycle repeats itself when I open another outstanding invoice for the same customer.   An invoice I know is clearly still outstanding yet mysteriously has been "received payment".

Appreciate your enlightening me as to what is going on.  

Thanks,

OlAl

Thank you for the detailed information, @OlAl.

Usually, invoices won't automatically be paid or applied for the existing credits when the Automatically apply credits feature was turned off from the Account and Settings. 

In your case, you can try using a private window to replicate the process. Sometimes the regular browser tends to hold into information and over time can cause problems while working with QuickBooks. To save you time, use either of these keyboard shortcuts:

• Mozilla Firefox: press Ctrl + Shift + P
• Internet Explorer: press Ctrl + Shift + P
• Safari: press Command + Shift +N

If that works fine using a private browser, go back to your original browser and clear its cache to start fresh as suggested by MorganB above. Also, using other supported browsers can help us narrow the cause of this behavior.

If the problem continues, let's try deleting and recreating the transactions after turning off the automation of applying credits to invoices. This helps us narrow down the cause of this unexpected behavior.

Update me with the result by adding a comment below. I'm always here to help however I can. Have a good day!

Thank you for that very explicit explanation with images.  Really helped understand.  (I am a visual learner!)

I do understand what you are saying about how to apply or not apply a credit.  But what I am questioning is how do I find out WHY I have a credit for a particular customer.  I don't know where to look for that.   I believe I have correctly identified all bank deposits for that customer and properly received payment for each invoice.  But obviously something is wrong because it keeps offering a credit for that customer.

I did learn from your explanation, tho, that a could use a credit memo in the situations where a customer gives a deposit toward future services.   Is that correct.   That credit will be there for their account and will show up when I do their invoice?

Thanks so much for your help.   I'm trying to learn the ins and outs of QBO.

Thank you!  Will do

You're always welcome and thank you for getting back to us here on the Community page, @OlAl.

Allow me to share additional insights about customer credits in QuickBooks Online.

There may be credit memos recorded for that specific customer reason why they show up when recording invoice payments. If you wish to, you can visit the Audit Log to check for those transactions.

Here's how:

1. Select Audit Log from the Gear icon.
2. On the Audit Log window, click on the drop-down arrow beside Filter.
3. Filter the users and the period of transactions you want to see.
4. Click on Apply.
5. Once completed, scroll-up/down the page to review the credit memo/s added, and who recorded to QuickBooks. If you wish to have a detailed view of the transaction/s, click on the View link under History.

Also, you can check for the customer's unapplied credit memos by following these steps:

1. Go to the Sales menu at the left pane, then select Customers.
2. Click on the customer's name you want to open.
3. Go to the Transaction List column, then filter the transactions to Credit memos.
4. Tap Apply.
5. You can open each transaction, and if you think they shouldn't be recorded, you can click on the Delete button from More.

As always, click the Reply button if you have any other questions. I'm happy to help. Wishing you continued success!

Thanks, again, Angelyn,

I will try your suggestion of the Audit Log to see if I can discover the continuous credit problem.  

I have a question re: turning off Automatic Credit in Account Settings.   If I have created a Credit Memo for a customer (say for an advanced payment) will having turned off Automatic Credit affect the credit due that  customer from appearing on an invoice I later create?    Let me know if I haven't explained that correctly.

Thanks again.  Your explanations help a lot.  And I love that you do it with images!

Rosemarie 

Thank you for getting back to us here in the Community, OlAl.

Turning off the automatic credits function helps apply credits to specific invoices in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

If you'll want to turn it off, it won't affect the credit in your future invoices.

For future reference, you can check out this article to learn how to manage overpayment: Customer credit or overpayment in QuickBooks Online

Stay in touch if you have any other questions aside from this. Have a great day!

This doesn't work.

Does your team know this is an issue?

Thank you for joining this thread, @jeffmjack.

First off, changing the Automatically apply credits feature in QuickBooks Online (QBO) will not affect transactions that have already been applied. When you create a new Credit memo, this will not apply to any open invoices.

If the Automatically apply credits feature still affects your newly created credit memo, I recommend to perform some basic browser troubleshooting steps. This will help to refresh the background processes of your browser. 

Please follow the steps below:

1. Open your QBO account in a private browser. Then create a credit memo. 
2. If you no longer experience the same thing, go back to your regular browser and clear the cache. 
3. If you still encounter the same problem after using a private browser, you can use other supported browser.

However, if the issue persists after doing the troubleshooting. I suggest reaching out to our QBO Care team. They have specific tools to do a remote session and will verify what causes the issue and fix it for you.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Help menu.
2. Click Contact Us.
3. From the What can we help you with? field, enter Quickbooks is automatically applying a credit to an unpaid invoice.
4. Hit Let's talk. 
5. Choose either Start messaging or Get a call. 

If in case you notice that these payments are creating an overpayment, I'd attached this article which contains detailed steps for what you need to do: Apply A Credit From An Overpayment.

Should you need additional assistance, please let me know. Take care always.

I'm having a lot of trouble with this. I turned the autoapply off weeks ago, I keep clearing my cache, and it just won't stop autoapplying credits. And when I uncheck them, it removes the check boxes and sometimes still applies the credit so I have to close all of quickbooks, and do it again until it works. There has to be a glitch somewhere. This is not normal program behavior. 

Good day, JacqiRose.

I'm here to share additional details about applying a credit to an invoice.

QuickBooks Online won't automatically apply the available credits if the automation is turned off. It's best to reach out to our Customer Support Team since you already uncheck the option and cleared the cache already. That way, they can further investigate and fix it as soon as possible.

You can follow these steps in contacting them:

1. Go to Help and enter Talk to a human.
2. Type in Credits, then click Show more > No.
3. Click Talk to a human > Contact us.

Also, I've added this article if you need help on how to handle a customer credit or overpayment in QuickBooks Online.

Shoot me a reply if you need more help. Stay safe and I'm wishing you all the best!

This is helpful information. Is there anyway to stop this "feature"? I would like for QB to stop automatically selecting credit when on the Receive Payments page. One of my clients has a significant amount of credit, and I spend a ridiculous amount of time deselecting invoices every time I need to enter a payment for them. 

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@MarshallA wrote:

Hello,

 

Even though you turned off that feature, QBO "might" still be placing a check mark in the credit in the RECEIVE PAYMENTS screen.  The credit should be visible under the invoices that are open and you just want to make sure if it is there, and you don't want to apply it, take the check mark OUT of the box.  That way it will just sit there in your customers account until you decide to use it on an invoice. (Or cash it in for a refund back to the customer)

---

Good morning, @SawyerFennell. 

Thanks for chiming in on this thread about automatically applying credits. Let me share some insight into your question. 

Although, you can uncheck the auto-apply credits setting, QB will still auto-check off the credit box when you go to record a payment. 

You can send over your feedback to our Product Developers so they can consider changing this in the near future for you and others. Also, keep up with what's new in the system through our Blog site. 

I'm only a post away if you have any other concerns. Have a wonderful day! 

Thank you for your reply! I kind of figured there wasn't any way to disable that feature after my research yesterday, but I did submit feedback today per your advice. I appreciate your help!

Thanks for coming back to the Community, SawyerFennell.

I'm glad to hear that the information shared by my colleague helped you with your concern. This drives us to provide the best solution for our customers.

I want you to get the most out of QuickBooks Online (QBO). I'm including some links that will provide you with all of the information you need to manage your company's income, customers, invoices, and other sales transactions:

• Invoices and payments
• Sales and customers

Please know that you can always ask questions about QuickBooks or other product-related issues in the Community space. I'd be delighted to assist you. Have a wonderful rest of your day.

You say "Although, you can uncheck the auto-apply credits setting, QB will still auto-check off the credit box when you go to record a payment..

Q1. What is the point of this setting if it does not do anything  or work as intended?

Q2. Why do you suggest we make a feature request it it is actually a bug report?

Thanks for joining this forum, @not-intu1t. I understand the need to turn off the Auto-apply credits to disable the feature on the invoice. 

To clarify, turning off the settings for this function is applicable if you want to decide which specific open invoices you want the credits to apply. Then, you can manually apply the credit memo to an invoice. 

However, if you've already done that and the issue persists after following all the suggested basic troubleshooting steps shared in this thread, I'd recommend contacting our Customer Care team. They can take a closer look to confirm a bug or a glitch in the system and help you request to investigate whenever necessary. 

Here's how: 

1. Go to the Help (?) menu from your QuickBooks Online company. 
2. Select get Assistant to Get quick, personalized answers.
3. Enter Talk to a human.
4. Select you can still Talk to a human.
5. Select Contact Us and choose either Start a chat with a support expert or Get a callback from the next available expert.

Concerning the direction of sending feedback to our Product Developers, this isn't limited to making feature requests but is also a way of letting our developers know about ideas for changes to existing features to improve our product and services to you and other users.

Here's a link to our Feedback form. Please click it, and follow the steps below: 

1. Select the QuickBooks Feature button. 
2. Enter your suggestions in the provided space.
3. Enter your Name and Email Address in the fields, then hit Submit.

We appreciate all your input as it surely helps us to do better. Let us know if you still have questions about the Auto-apply credit feature. We're always around to listen and help in any way we can. 

As usual, this was a BS answer, clearing cookies does not fix the problem!  I have the same problem with multiple clients.  The auto post credit memo to unpaid invoices is a pain in the A$$.  I have to constantly watch what I do as well as my staff and my clients.

Please fix this issue in the programming.  Actually remove this feature all together.  Make it so the user has to apply the credit memo.

Thank you

Kevin@CPA Business Advisors