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A
AlRei263
March 20, 2025
Question

Change the "paid status" of a transaction

  • March 20, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

Dear Quickbooks Community,

I'm new here and I'm just trying to find my way around Quickbooks Desktop Premier 2020.

I am currently in the process of revising the list of "open invoices". In this list, all bookings that have the paid status "unpaid" appear.
Among them are bookings that were made a long time ago in the journal and also have the status "unpaid". 
My question: how can I manually change the status of a booking to "paid" to get it out of the list?
A heartfelt thank you in advance and best regards
Albert

1 reply

R
RCV
March 20, 2025

It's great that you're getting familiar with QuickBooks Desktop Premier 2020. Let us help you with updating your list of open invoices to unpaid ones in QuickBooks, AlRei263.

 

We'll need to manage the old unpaid invoices by going to the Customers menu. Then, choose Customer Center and find the customer associated with the invoice, and review their transaction history. Once done, ensure there were no errors in earlier entries or missing payments. Then, record the payment to make the invoices as paid. Here's how:

 

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

 

We can repeat the same steps to all unpaid invoices to mark them as paid. By default, payments are deposited to an account named Undeposited Funds.

 

For the invoices that are unlikely to be paid, you may need to write them off as bad debt. This ensures your accounts receivable and net income stay up-to-date. We need to add an expense account to track the bad debt. Here's how:

 

  1. Go to the Lists menu and select Chart of Accounts.
  2. Choose the Account menu and tap New.
  3. Select Expense, then Continue.
  4. Enter an Account Name, for example, Bad Debt.
  5. Press Save and Close.

 

Once done, close out the unpaid invoices. Let me guide you on how:

 

  1. Go to the Customers menu and select Receive Payments.
  2. Enter the name of the customer in the Received from field.
  3. For Payment amount, enter $0.00.
  4. Choose Discounts and credits.
  5. In the Amount of Discount field, enter the amount you'd like to write off.
  6. For Discount Account, select the account you added in step 1, and select Done.
  7. Press Save and Close.

 

You can check out this article to resolve A/R and A/P balances on a cash basis balance sheet report in QuickBooks Desktop: Resolve accounts receivable and accounts payable balances on a cash basis balance sheet. A balance sheet report on a cash basis shouldn’t show A/R or A/P balances since these accounts track open (unpaid) invoices and unpaid bills.

 

Moreover, you can refer to these articles in managing your financial reports in QuickBooks:

 

 

If you require additional assistance with managing your invoices or any QuickBooks-related concerns, feel free to comment below or visit the Community space. We're here to provide the best guidance and support to help you find the right solution for your every concern, AlRei263.

A
AlRei263Author
March 20, 2025

Dear Team,

Thank you very much for the quick and very detailed help. I was very pleasantly surprised by the quick response.
But please allow me one more question: 
In most cases, the cleanup of the "old cases" in the "Open Invoices" list involves transactions that have already been closed. For example, invoices that are no longer recoverable have already been written off. However, the derecognition probably did not take place in the intended way, but through a posting in the journal. This obviously did not set the "paid" status and although the customer has a balance of 0.00, the original posting and the derecognition appear in the list of "open invoices".

 

So I'm looking for a way to change the attribute "unpaid" to "paid" on the original booking. How can I do this? Or is there a workaround? Otherwise, these invoices would appear "forever" in the report.


Thank you in advance and best regards, Albert

Bryan_M
Bryan_M
March 20, 2025

I'm glad to see you here again, @AlRei263. There are changes you'll need to perform to mark that certain invoice as paid. I'll gladly share this with you.

 

Clearing or posting an invoice via Journal Entry (JE) would cause an issue with the Account Receivable (AR) or Account Payable (AP) Aging Summary report since it doesn't recognize JE.

 

To easily track and mark this invoice as paid, you'll need to delete the JE and pay it the way QuickBooks designed it. 

 

Here's how to delete the JE:

 

  1. Go to the Company menu and select Make General Journal Entries.
  2. Locate and select the journal entry you need to delete:
    • In QuickBooks for Windows: Select Find and enter the Name, Date, Entry No., or Amount then select Find.
    • In QuickBooks for Mac: Find and select the journal entry you want to reverse from the list on the left side of the Make General Journal Entries window.
  3. To delete the journal entry:
    • In QuickBooks for Windows: Double-click the journal entry, then select Delete or Void, then OK.
    • In QuickBooks for Mac: From the Edit menu, select Delete General Journal.
  4. Click Save & Close.

 

Check out this article for more information: Create a journal entry in QuickBooks Desktop for Windows.

 

After that, proceed to receive invoice payments to mark it as paid. I'll also suggest finding guidance from an accountant to avoid discrepancies in your book.

 

I'll also add this article if you want to email your customers their invoice summaries, payments, credits, and balances: Create and send customer statements in QuickBooks Desktop.

 

For additional questions about managing your invoice transactions, don't hesitate to return here. We'll ensure to assist you as soon as possible. Keep safe, and have a good one.

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