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kevin179
March 19, 2023
Question

Is there a way to get late fees to post to the date they accrue rather than original invoice date?

  • March 19, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 0 views
I started charging late fees in 2022 on invoices from 2021.  The charge are posting back to the original invoice date and not the date of the fee.  Can this be changed?

2 replies

M
MirriamM
March 19, 2023

Thanks for posting in the Community, @kevin179.

 

Once the late fee feature is on, QuickBooks calculate the late fees and automatically applies them to overdue invoices as a line item. That's why the charge posts back to the original invoice. 

 

If you'd want to apply the charges to a specific date, you can manually delete the line item for late fees. Then, create an invoice for it and add the late fees.

 

To delete the late fee from the original invoice, here's how:

 

  1. In the left menu, click Sales.
  2. Select the Invoices tab.
  3. Locate and open the invoices with late fees.
  4. Click the trash can icon In the Late fee line item.
  5. Select Save and close.

 

Once done, you can now create an invoice for the late fees.

 

  1. In the left menu, click the + New button.
  2. Select Invoice.
  3. Select the customer from the drop-down.
  4. In the Product/Service column, select Late fee.
  5. Enter the amount and necessary information, then click Save and close or Save and send.

 

To learn more about late fees, visit this article: Apply late fees to overdue invoices automatically in QuickBooks Online.

 

In case you need to send statements to your customers with the late fees and other paid balances, here's an article to help you with the steps: Create and send customer statements in QuickBooks Online. 

 

Don’t hesitate to leave a comment below if you have other QuickBooks concerns or questions about handling late fees. I’ll get back to lend a helping hand.

K
kevin179Author
March 19, 2023

I understand what you're explaining but it isn't very practical.

 

To give an example I have one customer with 8 invoices with 2-10 finance charges (85 total).  These are all from a customer that is dealing with USAA home insurance and battling for over a year on getting storm/water damage repairs paid for.  After more than a year of waiting on invoices we mutually agreed to financing rather than home owner refinancing to make up insurance shortfall. 

 

In the state of Washington we're supposed to report finance charges and income that is considered "Financing fees, penalties and interest"

Charges for interest, late payments or penalties are subject to the B&O tax under the service and other activities classification.

References: WAC 458-20-109, WAC 458-20-211

 

The B&O tax is supposed to be filed monthly from "income" from the previous month. 

 

Looking at similar posts I see this type of conflict with Invoice Date and Service Date isn't uncommon... 

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/reports-and-accounting/invoice-date-service-date/00/194146/message-id/3052

 

Trying to figure out how to fix this without having to add complexity to customers who have chosen financing options but I can't retro actively recognize interest income.    Since I started the offer of financing in June of 2022 I need to figure this out for before filing federal taxes too.

 

A
AileneA
March 19, 2023

Hello, kevin179.

 

We were unable to retro the previous date. QuickBooks accrue when the original invoice date moving forward.  

 

I understand how the workflow you're looking for will benefit your company. We can submit a request for this feature through our Feedback board. These requests and suggestions are forwarded to the Product Development Team. I want to assure you that your input is valued and that each update our developer team creates is designed to benefit our customers' businesses. 

 

Here's how: 

 

  1. Access your QuickBooks Online company.
  2. In the upper-right corner, click the Gear icon.
  3. Under the Profile column, select Feedback.
  4. Enter a brief description of your product suggestion, and then click Next.
  5. Type your email address.
  6. Once done, click Send Message.  

 

Additionally, I recommend the following resource which contains information related to invoices:

 

 

Let me know if there's anything else you need to know about changing the date on the invoice. Have a great day!

E
Epollreisz
December 27, 2024
This post has been deleted.

Isn't this bad accounting to modify an invoice that is already sent to the client? Closing each month is good practice, but doing that eliminates the ability to run Late Fees through QBO - which I think proves my point. Sure you can do quarterly review, but then your financials are not accurate except at quarters making it difficult to provide the most current information.


Is Intuit working on a professional solution?

Z
zz45
January 25, 2025

The way Quickbooks Desktop worked the finance charges was good.  Can't you just make the Quickbooks Online do it the same way?  The way it is set up now in the online version, the balance forward for current month does not match the ending balance of the previous month.  I have over 300 statements to send, so there are lots of questions from customers, so much that we turned off automatic finance fees and now I enter the 30 or so late fees that I have each month.  By the time I figure the actual fee and enter an invoice for each customer, it is a time-burner.  Please find a solution.  Just use whatever way the old Desktop used - it worked great. 

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