thanks for your prompt reply. I'm not sure if I get the point. when I provide the service to the client, I invoice him. First, In the Product/Service field, select the services or goods you provided and enter the (100) amount, then I add a new line below, choose the retainer item I set up in the "Product and services", and then enter the -100 amount into the "amount". Now the balance below is 0, which means the client does not need to pay extra money. And my other current liability will decrease by 100? am I right?

Yes, you're absolutely right, golden2010.

Every time you create an invoice or sales receipt and add the retainer item with a negative amount, the balance of the liability account decreases. You can open it in the Chart of Accounts to see the result.

I got a sample below with a $10,000 prepayment. I deducted $1,000 on the first invoice of the customer. The remaining balance of the prepayment is now $9,000.

If there's anything that I can help you with your transactions, feel free to go back to this thread. Take care!

Mark,

How do I do the entry as you describe if we have QuickBooks Premier Edition 2018?

The article you linked is not totally correct. In step 3: This optional step (if you hold retainers in a separate bank account) suggests to open a liability bank account by selecting 'other current liabilities'. This is not correct as this is not a bank account. For the actual bank account where the retainers land, that bank account would have to be an asset (bank), otherwise, the debit and credit can't balance out (money goes into the bank account as a debit to the bank and then you credit the liability account (created in step 2) to balance the transaction.  This reflects what's really happening as well. While theoretically, on paper, you could make the debits and credits work by making a bank account a liability account and then reflecting a debit (instead of a credit) when money goes into that bank account, it's not as straight forward, plus it doesn't work with QB software. For example, in QB Online, you can't deposit money into a liability account when creating a sales receipt (like it suggests in article) because it's not an asset account. It would be great if QB could revisit the article and fix it so as to avoid future customer confusion. 

Thanks for joining the thread, @trilliumvt.

I appreciate you for letting us know about this, and I want to ensure we can help our valued customers through these helpful articles. Also, please know that we care about your voices towards our product, and for us to improve your experience using our written guidelines or articles, you can submit feedback. This way, we'll be able to rewrite and correct our materials to continue assisting those QuickBooks users in resolving their queries.

I'll be happy to input the steps below to get you going. To begin, here's how:

1. Access the article that you'd like us to revisit or edit.
2. Scroll down, and then click the No button below the Was this helpful?
3. If the article doesn't work, you can choose The instructions don't work as your reason for sending feedback.
4. You can also select Something else in the option so you can give us a detailed reason why we need to edit the guide.
5. Once done, click the Submit button.

For visual reference, see the screenshot that I've attached below: 

In addition, I've got you this article to help you manage your bank transactions inside QBO: Categorize and match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

And if you have time to spare, you can also check this page to learn more about reconciling an account: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

It's been a pleasure to have you here today, @trilliumvt. In case there's anything else that you'd like me to help you with or have any additional QuickBooks-related concerns. Feel free to leave a comment below. I'll be happy to help you out again. Take care, and have a nice day!

Thanks for joining the thread, @trilliumvt.

I appreciate you for letting us know about this, and I want to ensure we can help our valued customers through these helpful articles. Also, please know that we care about your voices towards our product, and for us to improve your experience using our written guidelines or articles, you can submit feedback. This way, we'll be able to rewrite and correct our materials to continue assisting those QuickBooks users in resolving their queries.

I'll be happy to input the steps below to get you going. To begin, here's how:

1. Access the article that you'd like us to revisit or edit.
2. Scroll down, and then click the No button below the Was this helpful?
3. If the article doesn't work, you can choose The instructions don't work as your reason for sending feedback.
4. You can also select Something else in the option so you can give us a detailed reason why we need to edit the guide.
5. Once done, click the Submit button.

For visual reference, see the screenshot that I've attached below: 

In addition, I've got you this article to help you manage your bank transactions inside QBO: Categorize and match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

And if you have time to spare, you can also check this page to learn more about reconciling an account: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

It's been a pleasure to have you here today, @trilliumvt. In case there's anything else that you'd like me to help you with or have any additional QuickBooks-related concerns. Feel free to leave a comment below. I'll be happy to help you out again. Take care, and have a nice day!

Hey Phillip i don't see the plus icon I am using Qb Online.

Thanks for joining us here in the thread, @GodzChlyd. Let me give you insights on where you can see the Plus New icon in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

QBO has many features that you may use for your business. The features will be visible when you click the Gear icon or the Plus New button. Here's a virtual reference on where to see the Plus New button in QBO:

If you still haven't been able to trace the Plus New button, I suggest performing browser troubleshooting steps to help you fix this issue. See the following keyboard shortcuts for suitable browsers to open a private window:

• Google Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + N
• Mozilla Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Safari: Command + Option + P

Check out this article for a detailed process on how to clear your cache: Clear cache and cookies to fix issues when using QuickBooks Online.

On the other hand, you may also visit this article as a guide on adding transactions to account register: Manually add transactions to account registers in QuickBooks Online.

You can reply to this thread for further questions about handling your business in QBO. I'm here to assist. Keep safe!