Handling down payments and overpayments

If a customer sends you more money than he or she owes, there will be an amount left over at the Receive Payments window after you have applied the payment to invoices. QuickBooks keeps track of the credit amount so you can apply it the next time the customer owes you money.

To handle down payments and overpayments:

  1. Enter the payment in the Receive payments window.

    Caution: If you're recording a down payment, and you are doing more than one job for the customer, be sure to specify both the customer name and the job name in the Customer:Job field. This ensures that QuickBooks will apply the down payment to invoices for the correct job.

  2. For an overpayment, apply as much of the payment as you can to outstanding invoices.
  3. Note the leftover amount in the Unapplied Amount field.

    If the payment is a down payment and there is no invoice yet, the entire payment amount is displayed in the Unapplied Amount field. QuickBooks holds the unapplied amount with this customer's name so that when you do have an invoice for this customer, you can apply the down payment amount.

  4. (Optional) Click Print Credit Memo to give the customer a receipt for the down payment or overpayment.

    The credit memo is for your customer only. It does not become part of your financial records in QuickBooks.