I created an invoice manually then the customer sent payment to my bank account which is linked in QuickBooks - does the customer get an email automatically showing paid?

In QuickBooks Online, whether your customer receives an email notification when an invoice is marked as paid depends on your account settings and actions you take. Here’s how it typically works:

1. Email Notifications for Invoice Payments:
• By default, QuickBooks Online sends an email notification to your customer when you mark an invoice as paid through the system. The email will confirm the payment and provide details about the transaction.
2. Email Content:
• The email content is automatically generated by QuickBooks Online and typically includes:
• Confirmation that the invoice has been paid.
• Payment date.
• Payment amount.
• Transaction reference or receipt number.
• Your business information.
3. Customizing Email Content:
• You can partially customize the email message by adding a personalized message in the “Message to customer” field when marking the invoice as paid. However, you have limited control over the email’s overall appearance and format.
4. Partial Payments:
• When a customer sends a partial payment for an invoice, QuickBooks Online typically sends an email notification confirming that part of the invoice has been paid. The email will specify the partial payment amount and date.
5. Payment Notification Settings:
• You can customize your payment notification settings within QuickBooks Online. To do this:
• Go to “Settings” (the gear icon) in the upper right.
• Select “Account and Settings.”
• Choose “Sales” on the left.
• In the “Online delivery” section, click “Customize” to set the message and email template for payment notifications.

Please note that the exact appearance and content of the email may vary slightly depending on your specific QuickBooks Online plan and settings. If you need more extensive customization of email notifications, you might consider integrating a third-party email platform or using a dedicated invoicing system to provide more flexibility in email templates and content.

Receiving an email receipt after paying an invoice is a great functionality, aaron.

Currently, QuickBooks Online doesn't automatically send an email confirmation to your customer after sending the payment. However, there is a workaround to achieve this. You can manually download the receipts and then email them to your customer. To do this, please follow the steps provided below.

1. Go to the Sales tab and then select All Sales.
2. Select Money received under the Type drop-down menu.
3. Locate the Payment transactions you want to send, then click View/Edit.
4. Click the Print menu. 
5. On the Print preview screen, click Download. 
6. Once done, email the downloaded PDF to your customer.

I can see how this functionality would be beneficial to your business. I encourage sending a feature request directly to our Product Development team. Doing so helps us improve the features of the program. I'll show you how:

1. Go to the Gear menu and then select Feedback.
2. Type in your feature request in the description box.
3. Once done, click on Next.

Additionally, I've added this article that'll help you gently remind customers about invoice due dates to ensure they pay on time: Send Reminders Automatically or Manually.

Please ping me on this thread if you need assistance tracking or managing your sales transactions. This way, I can provide accurate steps.

This is very helpful, thank you!

I've gone to the Online Delivery in Account and Settings. It's set to 'Show full details in the email'. Does that mean it will show the fields you've noted? 

• Confirmation that the invoice has been paid.
• Payment date.
• Payment amount.
• Transaction reference or receipt number.
• Your business information.

Also, there is a checkmark next to 'Credit memo, sales receipt, refund, estimate, receive payment'. What exactly does that do?

Is "Customize" only available on higher-tiered plans? 

And finally, since my bank account is automatically linked in QB and marks the status as 'Deposited', is that the same as if I manually enter a received payment? Then after will the customer still automatically send the email notification? 

Hello, @ellejay16.

We appreciate you posting here in the Community. Let me provide some insights into your concern.

In the Show full details in the email option, this will include all the fields you've noted like the payment confirmation, payment date and amount, receipt number, and the billing address.

Could you please provide a screenshot showing the checkmarks for credit memos, sales receipts, refunds, estimates, and received payments? This will help me understand which option you are referring to.

The Customize feature is available on all QuickBooks Online plans. Regarding the Deposited status, it depends on whether you put the payment in the undeposited funds. If you do, the payments will not go directly to the bank. However, if you put the received payments in the Deposited funds, they will go directly to the bank. Once you receive the payment, you can manually send the payment confirmation or receipt to your customer.

You might also want to check out this article to guide you i customizing your transactions: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online

Visit here again if you have other questions or concerns about QuickBooks. I'm always here to lend a hand.

Thank you for your assistance with this. 

Here is a link to see the screenshot showing the checkmark for credit memos, sales receipts, refunds, estimates, and received payments: https://ibb.co/1XRk3tR

Regarding the Deposited status maybe I wasn't clear enough. I've set up my Quickbooks Online with my bank account linking. Therefore QuickBooks detected that the payment had arrived under Transactions -> Bank Transactions and showed my Customer name on the record with the payment amount. Next to the payment, there is an Option 'Assign To' and then a Confirm button. Once I click the Confirm button the status changes to 'Deposited'. Is the automatic email notification sent when the status changes to 'Deposited'? Or do I need to do another operation to send the payment confirmation to my customer?

Thanks again!

There are ways to send a payment confirmation to your customers in QuickBooks Online, @Aaron. I can share details about this topic.

I understand that the banking sections in QuickBooks are primarily used for recording purposes. It's important to note that when you save a transaction with the "deposited to" option, it doesn't mean that the payment is automatically sent to your customer. However, you can still generate a customer statement or download the actual paid invoices and send them to your customer via email using the "Receive Payment" feature in QuickBooks Online.

When a customer submits a payment, it is essential to document it in QuickBooks Online. This enables you to indicate that the associated invoice has been paid and furnish the customer with proof of payment.

Here's how:

1. Select + New.
2. Select Receive payment.
3. From the Customer dropdown, select the name of the customer.
4. From the Payment method dropdown.
5. From the Deposit dropdown, choose the account you put the payment into.  
6. In the Outstanding Transactions section, select the checkbox for the invoice you're recording the payment for.
7. Enter the Reference no. and Memo if needed.
8. Select Save and Send. 
9. On the Send Email screen, enter your customer's email address, then Send and Close.

Additionally, it is necessary to match the customer's invoices with the corresponding banking transaction, as the customer made the payment through your bank account. This can be done by locating the matching transactions under the Find Match section in QuickBooks Online.

Follow the steps below:

1. From the Transaction tab, click the Bank Transaction.
2. In the For Review section. Select the downloaded transaction to expand the view.
3. If the option in the Action column is Match, change the Find match.
4. Filter the transaction to invoices to let QBO show all open invoices under this section.
5. Locate the invoice. Press the Done button.

I'm also adding this page to learn more about customer statements. It will allow you to summarize your customer's invoices, payments, credits, and outstanding balances. See this guide for more information: Create and send customer statements in QuickBooks Online.

I'm including this article to help you when reconciling in QuickBooks Online: Learn the reconciliation workflow in QuickBooks. It also includes detailed steps for resolving issues during a reconciliation.

Let me know if you need guidance with your reconciling your account. We are willing to assist you 24/7 in the clock. Have a good one.

Thank you @ChristineJoieR 

So you're saying that I still need to log a received payment in this case, right?

Therefore I followed your steps but when I select Customer(3) and choose Payment Method(4) and Deposit(5) it shows "CustomerA payment doesn’t have an open invoice to go with it. " And under Outstanding Transactions, it says "There are no transactions matching the criteria." It appears it has already been documented from when I clicked the Confirm button on Bank Transactions. Similarly on "Bank Transactions" it found match with the Invoice number which is why if I go to the customer the current balance is now zero and invoice shows as "Paid". 

So back to my original question

Once I clicked "Confirm" button on Bank Transaction and matched the payment to the Invoice # and the status switched to "Deposited" or "Paid" - did my customer get the automated email notification? If not, how can I manually log the payment received as you suggested when the system no longer has a transaction available as it is already closed? 

Thanks again,

Aaron

Hello there, Aaron. I'll share some information about email notifications when receiving invoice payments.

Matching the invoice to the online payment will mark the transaction as paid. It's where you can no longer record the amount manually since the invoice was already closed.

When matching the payment to an invoice, the customer won't be able to receive an automated notification for it. I can see that you wanted to send a confirmation email to your customer. To do this, you can manually send the payment receipt to your customer.

Here's how:

1. Go to Sales, then Invoices.
2. Select the paid invoice. 
3. Under the dropdown button, choose View/Edit. 
4. Click the 1 payment made link under payment status, then the Date link. 
5. On the Receive payment form, hit Save and send. 

In addition, if you'd like to email multiple transactions, check out this article as your guide: Email or print multiple sales forms in QuickBooks Online.

On the other hand, if you want to receive payments manually with your invoice, I'll leave this article here as your guide: Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online.

Feel free to contact us if you have further questions when receiving payments with your invoices in QuickBooks Online. We are always here to help.

@KimberlyS , thank you for your help.

I understand from the second part of your message that my customers will NOT automatically get any email notification when I confirm the bank payment or manually mark the invoice as paid. 

When I follow your instructions and go to the Invoices, select the paid invoice, and click "Send" it displays a popup to send the invoice. On the right side, in the preview, it says "Your invoice is ready!" and the total invoice amount - it does not look like a receipt. (it does however allow me to modify the email body and subject text)

Hi, @Aaron. 

Thank you for taking the time to carry out the recommended steps mentioned earlier. Let me guide you on how to send a receipt to your customer. Here's how:

1. At the left navigation panel, click Sales.
   
2. Select All sales.
   
3. Locate the invoice payment you want to send. Then, click View/Edit beside it.
   
4. Click the Save and close drop-down menu and select Save and send.
   

    

   Alternatively, you can also send the receipts to your customers automatically. I've added the steps below:

    

   1. At the left navigation panel, select Sales.
      
   2. Click Invoice.
      
   3. Select Receive payment.
      
   4. Click the Save and close drop-down menu and select Save and send.
      

       

      Once done, your customer will receive a transaction receipt. 

       

      For future reference:

       

      1. If you want to send a customers summaries of their invoices, payments, credits, and balances. Here's an article: Create and send customer statements in QuickBooks Online.
      2. When you want to make eye-catching sales forms, I'll drop an article for it: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online.

          

         Leave us a message if you need further assistance with managing your invoices. I'm always here to help. Have a good day, and stay safe!

Hi @MelroseV ,

Thank you for your response. I did follow your steps but after clicking 'Save and Send' no email was sent to my customer. We waited an hour and checked the spam/junk folders but there was no email. Can you please advise?

I'm not having any success with this and it seems like a fundamental feature to me...

Thank you,

Aaron

Good day. 

I appreciate your time following the steps my colleague has provided, and I deeply understand the importance of this functionality to you, @aaron-bg. I'm here to help you out. 

To ensure we can email receipts to your customers, we have to select the correct email address for each.

Here's how: 

1. Go to Customer & leads and select Customers. 
2. Choose the customer who didn't receive the email. 
3. Click Edit. 
4. Check the email address and make changes if necessary. 
5. Then, select Save. 

If your customer's email is correct and hasn't received the receipts, we can also check your email address in QuickBooks Online, which might be causing this issue.  

Additionally, you can read this article to learn how to save time tracking and recording your receipts: Upload your receipts to QuickBooks Online. 

If you have more questions about QuickBooks Online, please don't hesitate to leave a comment. I'll be more than happy to help you.

HI @Erika_K 

Thanks for your assistance. I edited the sample customer and retried this; for some reason, it worked this time and the payment receipt email was received! (not sure if it had something to do with the fact it was a sample customer)

If I manually record this payment, I won't be able to confirm the automatically linked bank transactions that come in on the Transactions - Bank Transactions screen and link directly to the invoice#? What happens after I mark payment manually received? Will it be known that this bank transfer corresponds to that invoice or do I need to do something extra? ie will that record disappear on the Bank Transactions screen where it is asking me to "Confirm" the entry and match it to an invoice? 

Lastly, the Payment Receipt attachment in the email only shows my company name and address in the header - is it possible for the company logo to be included?

Thank you,
Aaron

Hello, @aaron-bg.

It's great to hear that the steps provided by my colleague worked. I'm here to assist further in recording the payment and matching it to the bank transfer.

If you manually record the payment, you can match it to the bank transfer on the Bank Transactions page. You can do this by selecting Receive Payment in the +New button. You can also select an open invoice and click Receive payment.

Then, you can match the bank transaction to the payment. Here's how:

1. Go to the Bank Transactions page.
2. Locate the bank transfer transaction and select it.
3. Click Find match.
4. Tick the payment you manually recorded.
5. Select Save.

Furthermore, the company logo can be included in the Payment Receipt attachment in the email. Take note that you'll need to upload your logo on the Account and Settings page first.

Then, you'll need to edit a custom form style for your invoices. Let me guide you on how.

1. Go to Custom form styles.
2. You can create a new style or edit an existing custom form.
3. Click Make logo edits. Then, press Show logo.
4. Click Done.

Here's how to include your logo in the Payment Receipt attachment:

1. When you create an invoice, click Customize at the bottom of the screen.
2. Select the style you made or edited beforehand.
3. Fill in the necessary details for the invoice.
4. Select Save and send.

You'll see a preview of how your email will look with the logo when your customers receive it. When receiving payment and sending the receipt, you'll see that your logo is in the attachment already.

I'm leaving this article about personalizing your sales forms: Customize invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QuickBooks Online.

For future reference, here's an article about automatically categorizing bank transactions: Set up bank rules to categorize online banking transactions in QuickBooks Online.

If you need further assistance matching your transactions, just let us know. We're happy to assist you in the Community.