Managing Duplicate and Outstanding Transactions in QuickBooks

Do you frequently need to review accounts that have an obviously overstated balance? Do you have a recurring problem with duplicate invoices to your customers? Do you periodically review your Open Purchase Orders report only to discover that many of them should already have been closed? Let’s look at how to resolve these problems in QuickBooks.

Linking Transactions

QuickBooks works best when transactions are converted from one status to another, instead of entering transactions separately. This will “link” the transactions. Improperly linked transactions can result in transactions that either stay open indefinitely, or that end up being duplicated. Here are just a few potential scenarios:

• Items are marked as billable on a Bill, and then the pre-existing Sales Order is converted into an Invoice. Later, someone notices the outstanding item on the “Unbilled Costs by Job” report, and so creates a second Invoice.
• Items are marked as billable on a Bill, and then an Invoice is created from the Unbilled Costs by Job report. No one converts the pre-existing Sales Order into an Invoice, which results in it staying open indefinitely.
• Enter an Item Receipt and then later, separately, enter the Bill without using Enter Bill for Received Items. This results in overstated inventory (both quantities and costs), as well as creating an Item Receipt that stays open indefinitely.
• Enter a Bill and then use Write Checks instead of Pay Bills, which leaves the Bill open indefinitely. At some point, it’s likely that the Bill will be paid, resulting in a duplicate Check being issued.

Finding Outstanding Transactions

QuickBooks provides many great reminders along the way to help minimize these kinds of errors. We’re all familiar with pop-up warnings such as these:

However, sometimes even these reminders aren’t enough to prevent mistakes from being made. For example, perhaps your transaction volume is so high that you always have open transactions, so as a result you become immune to the warnings.

The good news is that you can take advantage of QuickBooks’ reporting capabilities to find and address these kinds of errors. Try using some of these reports as part of a monthly or quarterly process:

Inventory Transactions

• Reports / Inventory / Pending Builds: It is important to review your Pending Builds with some regularity, because errors in dates or changes made to Bills or Item Receipts can re-open previously completed builds.

Purchasing & Vendor Transactions

• Reports / Purchasing / Open Purchase Orders
• Reports / Vendors & Payables / Unpaid Bills Detail: This report name is a bit of a misnomer; it actually shows any open payables transaction, including any open Item Receipts and Credits.

Sales & Customer Transactions

• Reports / Sales / Pending Sales: Invoices marked as pending = pending sales.

• Reports / Sales / Open Sales Orders by Customer – Item: Includes Backorders.
• Reports / Customers & Receivables / Unbilled Costs by Job
• Reports / Customers & Receivables / Open Invoices: Another misnomer. This report shows all open receivables transactions, including unapplied customer Payments and Credits.

Reports / Memorized Reports / Open Estimates: If you use Estimates and would like a means to track them, start with your Open Sales Orders by Customer report. Click Modify, go to the Filters tab, and then change the “Transaction Type” to Estimate.

• Go to the Headers/Footers tab change the “Report Title” to Open Estimates by Customer.

•  Click OK to close the “Modify” window, and then click Memorize to save the new report.

You’ve Identified the Transactions– Now What?

To close/cancel open transactions

• Open the original transaction by double-clicking it from the report.
• For Sales Orders or Purchase Orders, you can mark individual lines as closed, or you can mark the entire transaction as closed using the checkboxes.

  

• For other transactions, you can either void or complete the transaction by selecting Edit / Void, or Edit / Mark as Final from the menu bar.

Occasionally, you may also need to delete individual lines or even entire transactions. These functions are also performed from the Edit menu.

• To cancel billable costs, open the original transaction and unmark the “Billable” checkbox.

To fulfill/complete any open transactions

• Open the original transaction by double-clicking it from the report.
• Next, convert it to the next status by clicking the Create button.
• To complete billable costs, using information from the Unbilled Costs by Job report, go to Customers / Create Invoices, enter the customer’s name and choose Select outstanding billable time and costs to add to this invoice.

Tags: Debugging, Inventory, Invoices, Memorized Transactions, Purchase Orders, QuickBooks

Category: QuickBooks Tips/Tricks, Working with QuickBooks