QuickBooks 2019 Desktop - Transfer Credits Between Jobs

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General Ledger

New for 2019, QuickBooks Desktop now allows users to easily transfer credits if your customer has unused credits for one job so you can apply them to unpaid invoices for another job under the same customer. This has been a needed feature for many years and Intuit has finally given us a concise way to do this with a minimum of steps.

As a part of this new feature, customer credits displayed within transactions will reflect ‘unused credits across all jobs’ allowing you to easily recognize available credits so they can be transferred across jobs with a single click. Just remember, this feature only permits the transfer of credits between jobs for the same customer, it doesn't not provide a workflow to transfer credits between different customers.

Steps to Transfer Credits between Jobs for the Same Customer:

(1) Go to Customer Center and select the customer.

(2) Highlight the invoice where you want to apply their credits, then select Receive Payments from the Manage Transactions drop down.

(3) Select Discounts and Credits from the top menu, then select the Credits tab. You'll see all available credits for this customer.

(4) Select the credits to apply, then select Done.

(5) When the Confirm transfer window is display, select Yes to continue.

(6) Save the payment.

Be aware that the transfer of credits can't easily be reversed. If you need to modify/reverse this action, you should have your accountant verify the need for such a reversal and then insure that your books and customer account(s) remain balanced and correct.

How this feature works:

The first time you transfer credits QuickBooks will create a new ‘Other Current Assets’ clearing account called "Account for Credit Transfer" which will be used to move the credits (as shown below). Notice that this account is made inactive, it should remain inactive so that it’s only used by QuickBooks for use during the credits transfer process. The account should also maintain a ‘zero balance,’ if it appears in your balance sheet or general ledger with an amount in the balance you will need to manually reconcile the account to determine why there is a balance other than zero.

QuickBooks Desktop makes two general journal entries to transfer each credit (as shown in the illustration below). These two entries move the credit(s) from one job to the other through the clearing account. The memo for these entries denotes "Transfer of Credits for … " to help you easily identify the credit transfers for tracking and auditing purposes.

This new feature significant streamlines the workflow required to accomplish a transfer of credits between different Jobs for the same Customer. For a lot of QuickBooks users this will be a much welcomed enhancement.

Notes & Disclosures:

Graphics or other illustrations used in this article have either been prepared using a pre-release version of QuickBooks 2019 software, or were furnished and/or adapted from Intuit source content. Be aware that certain aspects of features described or illustrated herein may have changed between the pre-release software version we used and the release of QuickBooks 2019 desktop products scheduled for September 4, 2018.

This article is intended to serve as a summary of one specific QuickBooks 2019 product feature, it is not an in-depth review nor has it been written to provide instruction in the proper use of the software (or feature).

While the writer or editor may express a personal opinion within this article regarding this feature and/or the software as a whole, such personal opinion does not constitute a formal endorsement by Insightful Accountant or the publisher.