Tuition and recurring payments

mandymattos77 · ‎May 29, 2022

I am a new bookkeeper for a small private school. In order for our families to see their tuition balances going down, the previous bookkeeper entered the full year's amount of tuition as an invoice at the beginning of the school year (thus creating a substantial receivable for services not yet rendered). Individual monthly payments would be applied to the original invoice. The statement would allow the families (customers) to see their balance decreasing but also provided some inaccurate information (ie exacerbated agings, and an incorrect balance due as it should the ENTIRE balance due, not just the monthly balance due.

I would like to change to a monthly billing by invoice for multiple reasons. However, I would still like to be able to provide the families that request it, with a report that shows the total amount of tuition less the payments they have made so they can see the effects of their payments. I am struggling to know the BEST way to do this. I am thinking recurring invoices OR setting up a Customer Job for each customer.
Does anyone else know how this could be done?

JamaicaA · ‎May 29, 2022

Welcome to the Community Space, @mandymattos77. Let me share some information about the progress invoicing in QuickBooks Online.

You can split an estimate into as many invoices as you need with progress invoicing. By calculating the project's percentage with the overall project price, progress billing or invoicing is computed on a to-date basis.

You’ll want to use this feature since you receive partial payments. This will also allow QuickBooks to send invoices out monthly. To do so, let’s enable the progress invoicing option from the Account and Settings page.

Here’s how:

Go to the Gear icon and select Account and Settings.
Click the Sales tab.
In the Progress Invoicing section, select the ✎ icon.
Turn on the Create multiple partial invoices from a single estimate checkbox option.
Tap Save and hit Done.

After that, you’ll need to create progress invoices from the estimate. From there, you can choose to invoice the total, a percentage, or a specific amount. However, since you want to have a monthly billing, I suggest to avoid entering the full amount. I’ll show you how:

On the left pane, select the Sales menu and then click All Sales.
Locate the estimate.
From the Actions column, select Create invoice link. You can also open the estimate and select Create invoice.
On the How much do you want to invoice? window, choose between the 3 options.
Click the Create invoice button and review the information entered in the Invoice page.
Tap Save and send or Save and close.

If you still need to send invoices over time as you work off an estimate, you can perform these steps every month. For more details about the process, see this article: Set up and send progress invoices in the QuickBooks Online

To show the payments and outstanding balance to your customers or the families, we can pull the Estimate & Progress invoicing Summary by customer report. We can then customise it for each customers to show their estimate total along with their invoices that have been billed, as well as any payment history.

On the left pane, select Reports.
Enter Estimate & Progress invoicing Summary by customer on the Search bar.
Click the Customize button. Then, go to the Filter drop-down arrow.
Checkmark the Customer box and choose the specific customer.
Hit Run report.

Please refer to this article for additional details on how to customize the report to focus on the data that you want to view: Customise reports in QuickBooks Online

Know that you're always welcome to post if you have follow-up questions about the process above or any other concerns. Wishing you and your business continued success.

imDavid · ‎April 13, 2023

In terms of your question about how to switch to a monthly billing by invoice while still providing families with a report of their total tuition balance and payments, there are a few options you could consider. Recurring invoices could be a good solution if you have a set monthly tuition amount for each family. This would allow you to automate the billing process and ensure that families are charged the correct amount each month.

If you have varying tuition amounts or other fees that need to be added to the invoices, setting up a Customer Job for each family could be a good option. This would allow you to create individual invoices for each family each month, which would accurately reflect the amount due for that month. You could also track payments made by each family and provide them with a report that shows their total tuition balance and payments.

Another option you could consider is using a subscription management software that integrates with QuickBooks, such as the one mentioned in the link you provided. This could help streamline the billing process and make it easier to track tuition balances and payments for each family.