Open Item Receipts in closed periods

Hi there, akrueger

I'd like to share an idea in opening item receipts with no bills attached.

While we don't have a specific to show the details, you can use the Bill tracker to see the open items with no bills.

Here's how:

1. Go to Vendors menu at the top, then Bills Tracker.
2. Select Item Receipt in the drop-down for Type.
3. Status should be Open.

You check out this article to learn more about entering bills: Enter bills in QuickBooks Desktop.

I've also added this link for more related post and articles that will guide you in managing vendor transactions: Expenses and vendors

Let me know if you still have other concerns about item receipts. I'll keep an eye for your response. Have a nice day!

Thank you for your response but my question was how to clear open item receipts with no bills. 

Thank you for your response, however my question was "how do I clear item receipts from closed periods that will not have a bill attached."

You're just a step away from reaching your goal, akrueger. 

I have the following steps to clear your closed period item receipts in QuickBooks Desktop. 

As the Item Receipts don't have attached bills, I'd recommend manually deleting them. Since this transaction is within your closing periods, you'll have to enter the password that was created when the year was closed. You'll get a prompt that the transaction you're deleting is part of a closed period. 

To do this, heed the instructions below: 

1. Follow the 1 to 3 steps provided by Archie above.
2. Double-click the open item and click Delete. 
3. Follow the on-screen instructions. 

To properly address this situation, I'd still recommend consulting your accountant. It's about ensuring the exact process for your business and keeping your files accurate. Especially if you're dealing with old transactions, wherein the books have been closed or reconciled.

Lastly, check out these articles below on how to handle vendor transactions, inventory, and other related matters: 

• Expenses and vendors in QuickBooks
• Enter bills against inventory

Add a response below if you have follow-up questions or need extra help editing old transactions. I'm happy to assist you again. Have a nice day ahead, akrueger.

This will not resolve our problem but we will discuss with an accountant.

As a follow up, we have the problem where the items have been received in full, the bill has been entered against the receipt, but the receipt is still showing as open.  The PO has also been marked as received in full.  Can these transactions be cleared?

We have the same question -- receipt is still open, but bill has been paid and recorded without converting the receipt to a bill.  How do we clear these from prior years without affecting the balance sheet.

Thanks for joining this thread, la88.

To properly identify how you can clear item receipts without affecting your balance sheet reports, I'd recommend working with an accounting professional.

If you're in need of one, there's an awesome tool on our website called Find a ProAdvisor. All ProAdvisors listed there are QuickBooks-certified and able to provide helpful insights for driving your business's success.

Here's how it works:
 

1. Go to our Find a ProAdvisor page.
2. Use the City or ZIP search field to specify a location.
3. Select Find a ProAdvisor.
4. Browse through your results and find one that works best for the business. You can click on each ProAdvisor's profile to learn more information about them.
   

Once you've found an accountant, they can be contacted through their Send a message form:

1. Use the available text box to introduce yourself. Be sure to include details about which services you're looking for.
   
2. Enter your appropriate info in the Your name, Your email, and Your phone number (optional) fields.
   
3. Hit Send message.
   

You'll also be able to find many detailed resources about using QuickBooks in our help article archives.

Please feel welcome to send a reply if there's any additional questions. Have a lovely day!

Hi akrueger:

I have the same problem.  I don't know how to clear out an old Item Receipt. Were you able to find a solution?

Hello:

Were you able to find a solution to clearing out an old item receipt from a closed period? I have the same problem, but haven't found a solution.

Hi there, freedom1200.

Deleting an old item receipt from a closed period affects your financial report/expenses and inventory since these are posting transactions. 
 

With that said, I highly suggest reaching out to your accountant before deleting any transactions.
 

You can follow my colleague ZackE's steps on how to reach out to an accountant if you don't have one. 

In case you need tips and related articles in the future, visit our QuickBooks Community help website for reference: QBDT Self-help.  

Feel free to post here again if you have additional questions about this. I'm always around to assist you further. Have a good one.

@freedom1200 

Item receipts post to A/P and the items/expense accounts that are listed on those receipts, just like a bill.  So, if you have open item receipts, you will need to convert them to bills and then create credit memos that can be applied to those bills to offset them.  The items/expense accounts on the credit memos will need to offset the accounts that were affected when the original item receipts were never converted to bills.

I have a similar situation. I think Rainflurry is on the right track. Dealing with open item reciepts should be done as part of the month-end close process. Let us first consider how the problem occurred: If a PO was received against with item receipts, then properly converted to a bill, then the item receipts go away and all is good. If, on the other hand, the bill for the purchased items was entered separately without regard to the PO or item receipts, then they are left as orphans with no linked bill and you wind up double-counting: once through the now-orphaned item receipts, and again through the unintended duplication of manually entering a new bill not tied to the original PO (or any PO at all). This is a novice mistake and makes for more work but happens more often than I care to admit. Vendor invoices often arrive before the products nowadays because of the instant delivery of email instead of USPS, and overzealous payables clerks forget to wait for the POs to be fullfilled by the receiving clerks and enter invoices from scratch without checking the status of related PO first.

In cases such as this, if the period is still open, it is ok to just delete the open item receipts, but first check to see that those items are on the bill so you know you deleting only duplicates items. Better still would be to undo any payments to the manually duplicated bill, then delete the manually duplicated bill, then continue the correct process of converting the PO to a bill (thus the item receipts go away) and re-apply the payment as normal. Things get complicated if the vendor payment has already been cleared and the bank statements have already been reconciled for the month. Your situation will determine the easier path at this point. If the period is closed as stated in the question, Rainflurry is right and you will have an inaccurate closed period but it will be corrected in the current period- as long as the period you are referring to is in the current year. If it is a closed year, your accountant would be the best source of guidance based on whether or not he/she spotted the error and already adjusted for it at year-end.