How customer registers work

QuickBooks provides a register for each customer on your Customer:Job list. It lists all the accounts receivable(A/R) transactions related to that customer. These can include:

Customer registers DO NOT show cash sales receipts. (Because the customer pays in full, a cash sale is not an accounts receivable transaction.)

Accounts receivable

An account that QuickBooks automatically adds to your chart of accounts the first time you enter a bill. QuickBooks uses this account to track the money your business owes to others. When you enter a new bill, or pay off outstanding bills, QuickBooks records the transaction in the register for your Accounts Payable account.

Use 1: Preparing billing statements

If you use billing statements to bill your customers, enter the statement charges directly in each customer's register. The register keeps a running record of the charges and shows the customer's balance. When it's time to mail the statements, all you have to do is print them.

A customer's register also shows payments received from the customer. You cannot enter customer payments directly into the register yourself. QuickBooks enters each payment for you when you record it in the Receive Payments window.

Every transaction in a customer's register also appears in your accounts receivable register. In fact, the customer register is nothing more than a special view into your A/R register.

You can enter all your statement charges directly into your A/R register instead of the individual customer registers. If you have a few customers, or if you like to see all your statement charges listed in one place, you may prefer the A/R register. Each charge you enter in the A/R register also appears in the appropriate customer register.

Use 2: Viewing a customer's A/R

Whether or not you send billing statements to your customers, you can use a customer's register to see a list of the transactions that affect the customer's balance. If you send invoices to the customer, the invoices appear in the register. As with customer payments, you cannot enter invoices into the register yourself; QuickBooks enters each invoice for you when you record it in the Create Invoices window. The only transactions you can enter directly in a customer register are statement charges for billing statements.