When a customer makes a payment on his invoice, go to the Home Navigator: click on the “Receive Payments” icon, and select or type in the customer’s name. There should be a balance owed. If there is no balance, then you have not created an invoice. It is important that you only use the “Receive Payments” feature if you have created an invoice. This is because QuickBooks is decrementing the Accounts Receivable account in the background when you receive a payment on an invoice.
Rule:
“Accounts Receivable” is offset when you create an invoice for a customer and decremented when you use the “Receive Payments” feature to record a payment from the customer against the invoice. QuickBooks does this in the background. Using the “Receive Payments” feature is the only way you can successfully record a payment against an invoice in QuickBooks. Using another method will result in an overstatement of the “Accounts Receivable” account.
