What is the different use of "Customer Invoices" and "Accounts Receivable"?

2happybirds

I am new to Home and Business but have used Quicken alone since 1999! (Yes, I'm that old, lol) Since I have now found out there is no way to delete an invoice I created in my learning, I don't want to add a bunch of "trials and errors" that I cannot get rid of later!

When I create an invoice, first thing it asks is Choose an Invoice Account. Seems if I link this choice to just Accounts Receivable Account, the transactions won't show up on the individual Customer?? Am I wrong? My question is, why wouldn't the invoice be linked to the CUSTOMER and show in any reports run on them for open invoices? But I DO want to track my total A/R for outstanding invoices and the like.

I have tried to find a specific tutorial regarding choices in entering an invoice without any luck. Please give me some advise!

UKR

Have you reviewed the Help texts in https://help.quicken.com/display/WIN/Business ?

2happybirds

When I used the Help from my QUICKEN it did not give me any good, defined help like this link!! It was very scattered in its results for "invoicing". Lots of discussions on problems people are having....

Finally I did find this bit of explanation, but now it just creates a few more questions.. What would a "Business Tag" be used for?? Is that perhaps for defining types of businesses your customers are in? Or is it for a more sophisticated use?

And there is no help or guidance for deciding what Account to tie the Invoicing to.... I now see that the customer list is just an address book as such. So, unless I list each customer as an account, I won't be able to see what their running open balance is?

UKR

You must have been searching the Community or the Quicken.com Support site instead of the Help site. In Quicken for Windows you can get to the Help site by pressing the "F1" key or clicking Help in the Menu Bar, then Quicken Help. Quite a number of Quicken views and popups have a blue question mark icon which when clicked directs you to a Help page specific to the view or menu.

A Business Tag describes your small business, e.g., "Joe's Lawn Service", "Allie's Alterations". The Business Tag is used when creating new invoices and other business transactions. It associates the business that each transaction belongs to. When it's time to file your Schedule C forms, each defined business tag creates its own copy of Schedule C. When you look at reports and views, you can see how each business is doing (or you can see all combined).

Customers are just like Payees in your checkbook: Address Book Entries. But there are plenty of views and reports which tell you about your customers and how much they have paid so far. If necessary, you can even create Customer Statements for those customers who might need a reminder about how much they owe.

If you aren't doing so already, read thru the Help link I gave you, to get more information on getting started and the business - specific Quicken accounts you need to use.