How to apply single payment to invoices from 2 customers?

In the Receive Payments screen enter just the amount that you want applied to one of the outstanding invoices. Don't enter the total check received. Do this for both halves of the check. Put them into the Undeposited Funds account and use the Make Deposit screen to put the 2 pieces back together again.

I will do that, thanks. Seems like it would be better if QuickBooks would allow the split in the Receive Payments window.

QuickBooks will do it, if you make one of the customer names into a job of the other, than you can keep track of all the work for a particular client.

Gary

I tried both, but I didn't see the way to do either in the amount of time I was willing to devote, so I wound up changing the name on the invoice. I would say QuickBooks let me down here, at least in the ease of use dept.

Just how much time are you willing to devote? By my calculations it shoud take all of 30 seconds to accomplish the task at hand.

Well, to answer the question I think you are asking, I first tried to change the customer (in the customer detail window) to a "job of the other", didn't see any way to do that.

Then, I entered entered the payment for the two customers in the "Receive Payments" window, went to the "Make Deposits" window and didn't see how to "combine" them. Actually I tried changing the name, QuickBooks told me I couldn't do that.

Total time: more than 30 seconds, but less than 5 minutes, I guess.

Can you describe what you saw in the Make deposit's screen after you made the 2 Receive Payment entries? You should have seen all avaliable transactions in the Undeposited Funds account including your 2 entries. When you did the Receive Payments transactions, did you post them to Undeposited Funds or directly to your bank account?

I did post to undeposited funds, I did see the two entries listed in the "Make Deposits" window. I tried to change the name of the one that wasn't the name on the check. QuickBooks said I couldn't do that.

After another day of reflection, I remember asking about something similar last year in this group. (in a thread titled "Contra payments").

In that thread I was informed that QuickBooks would combine two entries with the same check number (I assume only if written by the same payer).

QuickBooks wouldn't let me change the name of the payer in "Receive Paymnents" or in "Make Deposits", I think the combining can't happen unless I find a way to make that change.

Why do you feel the need to change the name on the check?

When you first open up the Make Deposit screen you will be presented with the checks that need to be "deposited". It does not matter who they are from. Just select both parts of the check and click ok.

The next screen will show the customers in the "Received From" column (1 line per part received). The "From account" column should say "undeposited funds" followed by the check numbers and amount.

I think you were misinformed. The Make Deposits screen does require that the original deposits be from the same customer. Neither does your bank. That's the whole idea of the Make Deposit task.

Like I said before, you don't need them to be the same so why try?

Go back to the Receive Payments screen and make sure you have the 2 halfs recorded correctly. Then go to the Make Deposit screen and combine them as outlined about. Lastly, go to the bank account register to see that there is now 1 line for the total check received.

I think you and I are using the word "combine" differently. I took you to mean by "combine" to list the two entries as one on the deposit slip. It now seems you meant make one deposit that lists the one check as two separate checks with the same number on the deposit slip. Which might work (I don't know what the bank will make of that, I never tried it before), but doesn't seem right to me.

Of course, I am not an accountant.

This is another instance where I recommend to make a copy of your *.qbw, try out what Laura suggest and once you see that you get the result you are looking for, open the original *.qbw and make the entries for good.

| File > open company > highlight company > right click > Copy > | put cursor at a blank space > Paste. | You will now see a "Copy of *.qbw", being an exact current copy of your | company file. | Double click on it, to open, CHANGE THE COMPANY NAME because you may | forget that you are working with the copy (don't ask how I know). | Now you can make the test to your hearts content. | If it turns out wrong, File > close company > File > open company >

| highlight Copy of company > Delete. Then make a new copy of company and | start the test over again.

I guess we are dealing with symantics. On the QB deposit slip you will see 2 entries just like you would on a paper deposit slip handwritten at the bank. This is normal practise so QB is not doing anything unusual.

The "combine" that I am refering to is the end result in your bank register showing up as one line. Make Deposits "combines" the 2 payments into 1 entry in the bank account only. The individual entries are displayed and printed on the deposit slip which conforms to banking standards. This mimics the way you will see the bank deposit show up on your bank statement. When you have multiple checks on a single deposit slip, you don't see multiple entries on your bank statement. You see a single number that reflects the combined total of the checks received. That's what Make Deposits does for you.

As Arno suggests, make a back up file and experiment. Another idea is to pull up one of the sample files that comes with QB and experiment with that file. When you are comfortable with the results replicate them using your own company file. Who cares if you mess with a sample file. They are a great way of learning QB without the fear of damaging your own file.

So my bank will have no problem with one check divided into two lines on the deposit slip? That is good to know. Not something I can test with a backup data file, though.

Evidently in my naïveté WRT accounting practice, I expected too much of QuickBooks. In my view, dividing one check into two in my records seems like asking for trouble later when I try to understand what was done. I expected some kind of "split" which I suppose would leave a clearer (to me, at least) record in QuickBooks of what happened and why.

I could be wrong.

That's an interesting question. It may depend on the bank. You might ask them. Most of the time the deposit slips I have seen have been so illegible that I don't think they care. They will add up the individual checks and compare it against the grand total so the details are meaningless.

A simple alternative would be to create your deposit slip by hand off of the printed QB one.

Normally someone receives a check from a customer that is to be applied to a single customer. It might apply to multiple invoices or jobs. QB can handle that because that it is the expected norm. Having a customer setup as 2 customers is not the proper way of setting it up. Hence your troubles.

You might make a backup of your company or open up the sample file and experiment getting this set up with one customer with multiple jobs to see if that works better for you if you think this will happen in the future.

responding to

Toni wrote: ASSUME 2 Customers: Blocks, and Blocks D&E- actually same client

What about after the whole payment has already been entered into one customer account and needs to be split? How do I move the partial to the correct customer? I attempted to enter a journal moving it as: DR to Blocks D&E (who rec'd the pmt) for the amount to be moved and CR to A/R Customer Blocks, where the partial pmt needs to go.

Quickbooks won't allow entries to 2 AR accts in same trans?

Should I enter by posting 2 journal entries and moving the amount in question to undeposited funds for the in and out?

Thanks!!!

replying to Phil Nelson, Writing own billing System wrote: Yup, tried same thing, WHY can ONE customer NOT PAY another CUSTOMERS Invoice - FIX your OLD outdated software to work in TODAYS world

Why would a customer pay another customer's bill? Split the payment in 2.

There are Companies who have several customers for which they pay invoices. For example, headquarters paying for multiple jobs in which customer names are all different. They are all set up as different customers/jobs and then the check comes from One company that owns all the others.