Need to clear out balance, send to bad debt and clear A/R.

Hi Suzette.Horner,

I hate recording bad debts, but this is what happens when customers can’t pay anymore.

Thanks for taking the time to search for it in the Community. The steps you’ve tried were correct. That should clear the Accounts Receivable.

We have an official article for recording Bad Debts in QuickBooks Desktop. You may want to check it out.

Please get back to me if you have other questions.

"I went to receive payments and put in 256.07 as a credit/discount and used the account bad debt. Is that all I need to do?"

I have an attached image that shows you why this is Not a good method to use. You just created Out of Balance reporting.

You create an Other Charge Type item linked to the account you want to track the Write Off against. The Tax forms call this "Returns/Allowances" and it is in the Income part of the tax form. This is called Contra-Accounting.

Hi,

I recorded a bad debt by making a bad debt expense account and also made it in the item list. Then, I created a credit memo for the customer for that amount. The line item, bad debt expense, showed up on my P&L, but it did not deduct it from the bottom line profit--why is that?

Hi jkvz,

Instead of creating a credit memo, you can pay the invoice and set a discount posted to your bad dept account. You can check out the article for recording bad dept and follow the second set of steps.

Please get back to us if you have other questions.

@JessT

Please Learn from the input here.

The suggestion to use the Discount function on the Receive Payment screen is an error. It bypasses sales and sales taxes and creates Out Of Balance Reporting.

Yes, you control the date and the data flow by using Credit Memo.

No, never use the discount function in the Receive Payment screen. The only time I would ever recommend a client use that is for a few pennies, at most, such as, a customer wrote the wrong amount by just a few pennies.

Please see my attached image showing what the Discount function does to the customer center and the reporting, and makes it not match.

If I void the credit memo I created and use a discount to zero the bad debt, then will this deduct the amount from my bottom line on the P&L? The bad debt is a substantial amount, $20,000, so I wanted to make sure I did it correctly. 

Is bad debt supposed to lower the amount of a profit?

Thank you,

Julie

Good day, Julie.

When you use the discount to offset the bad debt, it will deduct from the Profit and Loss report.

Bad debt is a loss that a business incurs when a customer is not willing to pay. This will lower the profit/income.

If you have other questions, you can always leave a comment. 

This is the Worst solution: "If I void the credit memo I created"

The Credit Memo has an Item listed on it; this is Controlling your data flow. You linked it to an Expense account or an Income account. The reason to link it to an Income account is because your tax form has that same provision:

Income

Returns/Allowance <== Your Write off account

Your QB file should have the same concept. Use One Income account only for running negative, the same as you need to report for taxes.

Do Not use the discount Function; I showed how it bypasses much of the reporting.

"and use a discount to zero the bad debt, then will this deduct the amount from my bottom line on the P&L?"

Here's where you are confused: You see the Income from the "paid invoice" that got the Credit Memo applied, and you see the Write Off. The Net = 0.

There is no Further deduction.

"The bad debt is a substantial amount, $20,000, so I wanted to make sure I did it correctly. 

Is bad debt supposed to lower the amount of a profit?"

Let's review Cash and Accrual Basis:

If this is an invoice from Dec, and you are an Accrual Basis entity, you reported $20,000 income, even though it was not yet paid. If you Credit memo dated in Jan, you see the negative $20,000.

If this is a Cash Basis entity, the Income never even shows until the invoice is Paid. So, it doesn't matter how old or the date on the invoice. the Credit Memo becomes the "paid in lieu of funds" activity and the CM date, in the reporting, will then reveal the Invoice and the Credit memo and they wash away to 0. You don't see More write off. You only see the Wash Away.

Please see my attachment from QB Desktop.

Hi , I did what you recommended, but how do I run the report to see all " Bad Debt " write off accounts? 

Hi , I did what you said and it did help, but how do i run the report for what i wrote off?

Hello there, AsapDrains27. 

You can pull up its register if you used an expense account to write off a bad debt. Let me show you how: 

1. From the the Accountant menu select Chart of Accounts. 
2. Type in the search field and select the bad debt account. 
3. Click the drop-down arrow beside Reports. 
4. Select QuickReport. 

If you used a credit memo, you can run the Transaction List by Date. Here's how: 

1. Go to the Reports menu. 
2. Select Accountant & Taxes. 
3. Click Transaction List by Date. 
4. Select the Customize Report button. 
5. If you've entered a memo in the transaction, type and select Memo in the Columns section. 
6. Click the Filters tab and enter Transaction Type. 
7. Select Credit Memo from the list. 
8. Click OK.

You can check out the customize reports article which helps you remove and add filters you need. 

If you have further questions, you can always post them here.