old available credits/payments taken with new receive payments

I can share some tips in handling that transaction, moniquevanrooyen.

By default, that credit or unapplied payment will affect your current reports, especially if your books for 2020 are already closed. To ensure that you can allocate it without affecting the numbers/dates of your trial balance, you'll want to consider changing its transaction date to 2021. Here's how:

1. Select Sales from the sidebar menu.
2. Go to the All Sales tab.
3. Locate and click the credit to open it.
4. Change the date to 2021.
5. Click Save and close, then choose Yes to confirm the changes.

Additionally, here's an article that you can read to learn how and when to give a credit note or delayed credit to your customers: Apply credit notes or delayed credits.

Do you have other questions in mind? Feel free to leave them below and I'll take care of them. Have a great rest of the day.

Thanks so much for your tips.

Yes, our books are closed for 2020. Your suggestion of changing the transaction date to 2021 for these available credits/ payments, cannot be correct, as changing the dated will also then change our reporting numbers for the period they are in.

I also had a look at the below article and this seems, if I am correct, that I will create an additional credit for the clients account, as it states this in the steps for the process. Besides creating this new additional credit the steps also specifies that once this credit is created that it can be added as a line to an invoice.

The above also doesn't seems correct, please advise if there is anything else? Or who else can assist me?

Thanks for coming back, moniquevanrooyen.

We can delete the credit memo and create a Delayed Credit transaction. When adding a delayed credit to an invoice from a prior accounting period, it will affect that period's balances. First, delete the credit memo by following the steps below: 

1. Go to the Sales tab on the left menu.
2. Click on the Customers section.
3. Scroll down and find the customer whose credit memo you'll be deleting, and click their name.
4. Find the transaction in the list below and click to open it. You can narrow the list based on date or transaction type by using the filter (funnel icon).
5. On the Credit Memo screen, tick More at the bottom and select Delete.

Second, create a delayed credit in QuickBooks Online (QBO) by following the steps below: 

1. Tick the + New Plus icon.
2. Select Delayed credit.
3. In the Customer dropdown, choose the customer's name
4. Enter the details, such as the date and the amount. You can create a custom credit service item so you can quickly add it to delayed credits as a single line item.
5. When you're done, press Save and close.

Lastly, this saves the delayed credit. You can choose to apply it the next time you invoice the customer. Here's how to apply the delayed credit to an invoice:

1. Click the + New Plus icon. 
2. Select Invoice.
3. In the Customer dropdown, choose the customer. This opens a window with all open transactions for the customer, including invoices and delayed credits. If you don't see this, select the small arrow next to the invoice balance.
4. Find the delayed credit and hit Add. This adds the credit as a line item to the invoice.
5. Fill out the rest of the invoice as needed.
6. When you're done, press Save and close or Stamp.

For more details about this one, see the Apply credit notes or delayed credits article. You can also consult your accountant on how to best handle this one in QBO. Feel free to visit our Manage Customers and Income page for more insights about managing your company's income and customer transactions. 

I'd like to know how you get on after trying the steps, as I want to ensure this is resolved for you. Just reply to this post and I'll get back to you. You have a good one. 

Hi, apologies for only coming back to you now, it has been a rough few months. After looking into your feedback, I cannot still not execute the below:

We can delete the credit memo and create a Delayed Credit transaction. When adding a delayed credit to an invoice from a prior accounting period, it will affect that period's balances. First, delete the credit memo by following the steps below: 

1. Go to the Sales tab on the left menu.
2. Click on the Customers section.
3. Scroll down and find the customer whose credit memo you'll be deleting, and click their name.
4. Find the transaction in the list below and click to open it. You can narrow the list based on date or transaction type by using the filter (funnel icon).
5. On the Credit Memo screen, tick More at the bottom and select Delete.

Before I continue, I need to ensure you understand why I am saying I cannot delete this available credit(payment) from 2020?

Thanks for the update, @moniquevanrooyen.

To further help you execute the steps provided by my colleague, RCV. Let's make sure that the available credits from 2020 were shows as a negative value on the Accounts Receivable. Here's how:

1. Go to the Accounting menu and select Chart of Accounts.
2. From there, look for the Accounts Receivable.
3. Click View register.
4. Select the Funnel icon to filter the register for the specific customer and date.
5. Then, Apply.
6. Find the credits and see if the amount is in negative form.

If it is not in a negative value, the credits from 2020 may have been entered incorrectly or it is not an open credit.

For more sources and helpful links, please see our QuickBooks Help articles site. Simply enter a keyword of your concern on the search bar and the system will show related links you can use. 

Keep me posted if you have other questions about managing your customer's credit. I'll be on the lookout for your response. Have a good one.

@DivinaMercy_N  thanks for trying to help, but this is not resolving my issue, see below detailed breakdown of my problem:

A specific client has an remaining amount on a payment on their account from 2020.
The client has taken this remaining amount payment from 2020, with a new payment they have made in 2021.
When a new payment receipt is being done to allocate the new 2021 payment, the remaining amount on the 2020 payment can then be selected with the new 2021 payment receipt.
Once we have selected the remaining amount on the 2020 payment with the new payment receipt of 2021 and we click the save and close button, the system then does not see that the remaining amount on the 2020 payment was taken with the 2021 payment receipt, it shows that the remaining amount of the 2020 payment now as it’s original payment receipt allocation from 2020.
The major problem this is causing is that the trial balance figures change of the account receivable chart of accounts from the period of the 2020.

How do we go about allocating the avaialbe credits/payment on any clients account from the past, by not letting the system process this allocation in the past months, so that it does not affect our reporting numbers?