QuickBooks 2009: The Missing Manual

Chapter 13. Managing Accounts Receivable

In between performing work, invoicing customers, and collecting payments, you have to keep track of who owes you how much (known as accounts receivable) and when the money is due. Sure, you can tack on finance charges to light a fire under your customers’ accounting departments, but finance charges are rarely enough to make up for the time and effort you spend collecting overdue payments. Far more preferable are customers who pay on time without reminders, gentle or otherwise.

On the other hand, sales receipts are the simplest and most immediate sales forms in QuickBooks. When your customers pay in full at the time of the sale—at your used music CD store, for example—you create a sales receipt so the customer has a record of the purchase and payment. At the same time, the QuickBooks sales receipt posts the money for the sale into your bank account (in QuickBooks) or the Undeposited Funds account. You can’t use sales receipts for customers who don’t pay in full, because sales receipts can’t handle previous customer payments and balances.

Because companies need money to keep things running, you’ll have to spend some time keeping track of your accounts receivable and the payments that come in. In this chapter, you’ll learn the ins and outs of tracking what customers owe, receiving payments from them, and dinging them if they don’t pay on time. You’ll also learn how to create sales receipts for one sale at a time or to summarize a day’s worth of ...