Bad debt write off is promting me to enter payment method when attempting to save completion of "Discount and credit" procedure. What should I do?

Hello there, swaneybob.

I'm here to ensure you can record a bad debt write off in your QuickBooks account. This way, you'll be able to manage your Accounts Receivable balances and keep your account updated.

When you write off a bad debt, the system will no longer ask you to enter a payment method when saving it from the Discounts and Credit window. You can correct this using the Verify and Rebuild tools. They identify the most commonly known data issues within a company file, then fix it.

Before we start, please close all opened windows in QuickBooks. Go to the Window menu, then select Close All.

Once done, you're now ready to perform the verify and rebuild process. Here's how:

1. Go to the File menu.
2. Select Utilities, then choose Verify Data.
3. Once it says "Your data has lost integrity", it means there is data damage in the file.
4. Continue by Selecting the File menu again.
5. Select Utilities, then choose Rebuild Data.
6. Press OK to backup your company file.
7. The Rebuild Data utility will start as soon as the backup is finished.
8. Click OK when you get the message "Rebuild has completed".

After the process, you can now write off your customer's unpaid invoice. Then, pull up a Profit and Loss report to find out how your company is doing financially. Just go to the Reports menu, then select Company & Financial. From there, choose the one you want to generate such as Profit & Loss Standard and the Profit & Loss Detail to name a few.

Please let me know if you have other concerns. I'm just around to help.

Thanks for the help. Still not working. Could I work-around with a general journal entry?

Thanks for the help. Still not working. Could I do a work-around with a journal entry?

I appreciate the troubleshooting steps you've tried, swaneybob.

When writing off bad debt, we'll need to add an expense account first to track the bad debt and use the account to close the customer's unpaid invoice(s). 

To create an expense account:

1. From the Lists menu, select Chart of Accounts.
2. In the Account drop-down menu, select New.
3. Choose the Expense radio button and click Continue.
4. Enter the Account Name as "Bad Debt".
5. Click Save and Close.

Next, we can close the unpaid invoice by following these steps:

1. From the Customers menu, select Receive Payment.
2. In the Received from field, select the name of the customer.
3. Enter $0 for the Payment Amount.
4. Select Discounts and Credits.
5. In the Amount of Discount field, enter the amount you'd like to write off.
6. Select the Expense Account "Bad Debt" and click Done.
7. Select Save and Close.

This will zero out the Customer Balance. 

I'd appreciate it if you can give me an update with the results. I want to make sure everything is taken care of.

I figured it out. "Payment method must be set to cash."