PROBLEM: QB records income on date of invoice, not date of payment

This is not an engineering error, it is as designed and follows GAAP for Accrual Basis accounting. In accrual, income is earned when service is provided or invoice is generated, not when or even if you are paid. An invoice dated 12/31/18 but paid 2/1/19 is last year's income plain and simple under accrual rules.

In Cash Basis accounting you are not credited with income until the day you receive payment. You probably are a Cash Basis business and need to change the reports you are viewing. Nearly every report has a toggle between accrual and cash. Pull up a report where you know invoice is last year but payment this year or different months. Toggle between views and you will see the difference.

You can also select which type you report taxes as but it won't change the default view of reports, which is accrual. Your dashboard also only reports accrual.

Underneath, inside the program, QB is accrual based accounting with the option of cash basis reporting l. It is not an error, not a glitch, and you won't get anyone to change it.

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@john-pero wrote:

You can also select which type you report taxes as but it won't change the default view of reports, which is accrual. 

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No, accrual is not the default. The default is what you selected in Settings

@Malcolm Ziman see my screenshots an d, as qbteachmt would say "learn from my input"

Cash accounting properly set and has been for 3 years but every time a report is opened it opens as Accrual. (does so in desktop also)

Unfortunately with this wonderful website I can't see the screenshots, but the fact is that the default is what you selected in Settings. Not sure which has precedence though if you are using QBOA and the setting in Toolbox>Report Tools is different

I am having the same issue, even when my report is selected as Cash Basis. I would appreciate any help or suggestions on what report would list the detail of the accounts/items paid on each invoice, listing the date as the PAID date, not the invoice date. I can 'cheat' and make the invoice date the paid date, but this will not help me when a customer makes two partial payments & would like a history of how their payments have been applied. 

Welcome to QuickBooks Community, SarahBerry.

I suggest running the Sales by Product/Detail report and customize it. This way, it will show the detail of the accounts/items paid on each invoice and the paid date associated with two partial payments. And, how their payments have been applied.

Here's how:

1. Click the Reports menu on the left panel.
2. Choose Sales by Product/Detail on the search bar.
3. Click the Customize button.
4. Go to the Filter dropdown menu. Then, choose Transaction Type, Distribution Account, Product/Services, and A/R paid.
5. From the A/R paid, choose Paid.
6. In the Transaction Type, choose Invoice and Payments.
7. From the Distribution Account, choose specific accounts.
8. Hit the Run report button. Make sure that the accounting method is set to Cash basis.
9. Choose a specific date range and click again the Run report button.

For additional information on how you can customize a report to focus on the details that you want to view, you can click this article: Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

Please refer to this article to see which reports are available for your version of QuickBooks Online: Reports included in your QuickBooks Online subscription.

You can always mention me if you need other help with reports inside QuickBooks. I'll be around for you!

Thank you. This is closer than what i have found so far, but still is not apparently what i need. 

I am using this software for property management. The 'customers' are my tenants, and the items are various rent and reserve payments due monthly. 

I am using desktop, so maybe that affects your helpful reply?

I don't have a Sales by Product/Detail. I have one by item detail, so i selected that instead. None of my filters or accounts showed a distribution account, so I don't know that i have that either. At this point i need to just get some reports so I can move forward with some year end reporting, so I am at the point where I am going to export the entire thing to excel and manually change each transaction date.

I am new at using QB, but fancied myself a fast learner. Any other suggestions are welcome in the meantime!

Thanks for adding more details about your concern, SarahBerry.

Based on the information shared, let’s run the Sales by Item Detail Report. Then, customize and export it Excel to show the detail of the account and items paid on each invoice and export.

We’ll have to manually add the paid date since the Sales by Item Detail statement will report the line items and not the entire transaction. Check out this article for more information and go directly to the How QuickBooks generates reports section to view the complete details: Understand reports.

1. Tap the Reports menu at the top to choose Sales and Sales by Item Detail.
2. Click the Dates drop-down to set the correct period.
3. Press the Customize Report button to open the Modify Report: Sales by Item Detail screen.
4. Hit the Display tab and go to the Columns section.
5. From there,  pick the following Date, Type, Name, Item, Item Description, Account, Amount, Account Type, and other line items you wish to add.
6. Navigate to the Filters tab and type Transaction Type in the search field to choose Invoice.
7. Enter Item in the field box and pick All Sales items.
8. Click OK to save the customization.
9. Next, click the Excel drop-down to choose Create New Worksheet.
10. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the transactions.

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the transactions. Let me share this article to learn more on how to tailor the data on a statement: Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

Also, this guide provides an overview of how to keep the customization set on the report: Create, access, and modify memorized reports.

Feel free to visit the Community again if you need help when working in QuickBooks. I’ll be right here to assist further. Wishing your business continued success.