@W012
The reason payments apply automatically but credits don't is because you aren't reclassifying anything when you receive a payment. Remember, you're creating a credit memo for the parent FIRST and THEN applying it to jobs which requires a reclassification of A/R. If you received payment to the parent FIRST and THEN wanted to apply it to jobs, you'd have to do the same. In your case, you're selecting what invoices to apply the $20K payment to, so it's an easy debit entry to the deposit account and a A/R credit to the job's invoice you select with the checkmark. However, when you create a credit memo under the parent, QB needs to reclassify the A/R credit from the parent to the job, which is why there are journal entries (JEs) for each credit. QBE won't allow two A/R lines on the same JE so it makes one JE to move the credit from the parent to a temporary Credit Transfer account and a second JE to move it from the Credit Transfer account to the job .
Also, there's no need to open each invoice to apply the credits. When you want to apply the credits across multiple invoices, go to Customers > Receive payments > select the parent > select an invoice you want to apply part of the credit to > click "Apply Credits" > select the available credit (QB will automatically apply the full invoice in the "AMT. TO USE" column) > Done. Repeat for each subsequent invoice. Not sure that saves a ton of time but it's easier than opening each invoice I think. AFAIK, there's nothing different you can do when creating the credit memo under the parent but wanting to apply it to jobs.
