Rental Real Estate: Applying Security Deposit to Open Invoice
Alright, I don't know why I'm stuck on this, but I need some help.
With everything going on at the moment, we are allowing some tenants to apply part of their security deposits to their current month rent invoices. Which means we have the following:
Tenant: John Doe
Account: Security Deposit - Balance $2000.
Invoice #101: John Doe - $1000
John Doe pays (through Quickbooks payments) $500 on Invoice #101, so the invoice has a $500 remaining balance. I want to pay that balance of the invoice with $500 from the Security Deposit account. What's the best way?
Option 1: Journal entry. Debit Security Deposit $500. Credit Rental Income $500. Issue a Credit Memo to John Doe for $500. Invoice is paid, but Rental Income account incorrectly shows double rent income.
Option 2: Journal entry. Debit Security Deposit $500. Credit Rental Income $500. Update Invoice #101 with a line item for 'Rent credited from Security Deposit' of amount $-500.
Option 3: ????
I'm self-taught and clearly missing some conceptual understanding here - how do experienced people handle this sort of situation?
Many thanks!!!


