Thanks for coming back. Receiving your payments into your company file is a great way to keep your accounts up to date. I'd be happy to help you with this, CH79.

Yes, you are right. In QuickBooks Desktop, whether it's a partial payment or a complete payment both are done by Receiving payment option. If it's a partial payment you'll just need to do this twice when you receive the second part of the payment. Here's how: 

1. From the QuickBooks Home page or the Customers menu, select Receive Payment.
2. In the Received From the drop-down, select the customer's name.
3. Enter the Amount received.
4. Make sure the date is correct, then choose the Payment method.
5. Select the invoice or invoices you'd like to pay.
6. To add a discount or credit, select Discounts and Credits.
7. Select Save & Close.

If you need to email the invoice to the customer to pay the balance online, you'll need to create an invoice with the amount they need to pay. Just follow the steps and details in the Send online invoices in the QuickBooks Desktop article. Then, go to Step 3: Send an online invoice section. 

You can also create a payment item and add it to the invoice. This will act as a partial payment which reduces the amount due, and this is visible to the invoice before sending it to the customer. Let me show you how:

1. From the Lists menu, choose Item List.
2. Right-click anywhere and select New.
3. In the TYPE drop-down lists, select Payment.
4. Enter the name of the item and select a payment method.
5. Click OK.

On the other hand, the payment link needs to be sent directly to your customer for you to collect payments. See the Payment Links for QuickBooks Desktop article for more details. Feel free to visit our Sales and customers page for more insights about managing your company's income and customers.

You can always update us on the result after performing the steps as I'd like to ensure this is resolved for you. Just leave a comment below and I'll get back to you. Have a great day.