Ready to make payments a breeze? Let's answer those common questions and turn payment challenges into smooth sailing! Discover the top 5 answers you need for happier cash flow and happier clients.  Dive in and get paid with confidence!

1. Is it possible in the new Paypal Connector app to treat a payment received from a client as a Dep...

Yes, it is possible to treat payments received from clients via PayPal as deposits and apply them to existing QuickBooks Online invoices using the PayPal Connector app. This is how you achieve this.

To accurately record a payment received via the PayPal connector app, we first need to create an invoice and then match the transactions in the app's transaction section.

Here's how to create an Invoice:

1. Log into QuickBooks Online account.
2. In the Upper right corner, Click + New.
3. Select Invoice under the Customers column.
4. Fill up all the accurate details, including the amount and customer information.
   
   

Once the Invoice is created, we can now Match Transactions in QuickBooks Online. Here's how:

1. Mark the payment as received and ensure the payment method is correctly noted (e.g., PayPal).
2. Look for payment in For Review in the App Transactions tab.
3. Match the payment transaction with the invoice transactions you recorded earlier.

By following these steps, you can ensure that payments received through PayPal are properly recorded and matched to invoices in QuickBooks Online, maintaining accurate financial records.

Additionally, I'll be sharing two valuable articles to help you record transactions using PayPal in QBO. These articles will guide you in personalizing and categorizing PayPal transactions just like other bank transactions.

• Use the PayPal Connector by QuickBooks app.
• Categorize Transactions from payment apps in QuickBooks Online.

2. How can I apply for an early payment discount?

Great question!

Keeping track of your real-life sales transactions is crucial for monitoring your revenue. I'm here to assist you in making sure your early payment discounts and credit memos are applied properly, ensuring your financial data remains accurate.

Let's start with how to apply for an early payment discount. You have the flexibility to choose whether you want to implement it to the entire transaction or just a specific item. This can be done on your invoice, estimate, or sales receipt.

Start by enabling the Discount option in your account settings. Follow these steps to complete the process:

1. Go to the Gear icon at the upper-right corner of your QuickBooks dashboard and select Account and settings.
2. Pick the Sales tab.
3. In the Sales form content section, click the Edit (Pencil) icon.
4. Turn on Discount.
5. Hit Save and then Done.

Right after, create a sales transaction to apply an early payment discount. If you want to add it as a percentage of your subtotal, perform these steps:

1. Choose the + New button.
2. Select Invoice, Estimate, or Sales receipt.
3. Fill out your invoice, estimate, or sales receipt.
4. Optional: To apply a discount before sales tax is calculated, select the double arrow icon next to the discount field. This switches the order of the tax and discount fields.
5. For the discount, hit $ for a flat discount or % for a percentage discount.
6. Enter the percentage or amount you want to discount in the discount field.
7. Hit Save or Save and close.
    

    

   

If you want to enter a discount as a specific item, you'll first need to set up a service item and then incorporate it with a negative rate and a description. For more details about this and the procedure above, please see this article: Add a discount to an invoice, estimate or sales receipt in QuickBooks Online.

On the other hand, you can apply a credit memo when recording a payment for a customer's invoice or if they want to immediately reduce their current open balance. You can set this up automatically or do it manually with the Automatically Apply Credits option. Here's how to enable or disable the said feature:

1. On your dashboard, go to the Gear icon and select Account and settings.
2. Pick the Advanced tab.
3. Click Edit in the Automation section.
4. Turn on Automatically apply credits if you want to automatically apply credits to customer balances or open invoices. Turn it off if you want to decide which open invoices you want to apply credit memos to.
5. Hit Save, then Done.

Go over this article for helpful information on giving credit memos to customers: Create and apply credit memos or delayed credits in QuickBooks Online.

Additionally, would you like to see your best-selling products, get insight on the things you buy and sell, and your cost of goods? Get all this information by generating sales reports in QBO. 

3. Can I subtract a fee from a payment to reflect the actual payment minus the fee?

Yes!  I can help you accurately record a payment with a fee deducted from it, in QuickBooks Online.

Let's begin by putting the invoice payments you want to subtract a fee into the Undeposited Funds account before you record a deposit. Next, combine transactions with a bank deposit.

Here's how:

1. Go to + New.
2. Select Bank Deposit.
3. From the Account dropdown, choose the account you want to put the money into.
4. Select the checkbox for each transaction you want to combine.
5. Make sure the total of the selected transactions matches your deposit slip. Use your deposit slip as a reference.
6. Click Save and close.

Then,  add the fee while you're on the bank deposit window:

1. Scroll to the Add funds to this deposit section.
2. Enter the fee as a line item.
3. Select who the fee was from (for example, the bank charging you).
4. Select Bank Charges from the Account dropdown.
5. Enter the amount fee as a negative number. (Example: If the fee was US $.50, enter –50)
6. Review the deposit total with the bank fee.
7. Select Save and close or Save and new.

Moreover, you can navigate to the Include bank or processing fees section of this article to learn more about this process: Record and make bank deposits in QBO.

You can also add service fees related to the product or service to your invoices before sending them out. You can do this to new and existing invoices to charge your customers accordingly.

Keeping track of the full amount and the actual amount you received after fees ensures your accounting records accurately reflect the transaction.

4. Payment setup required to release funds. What should I do?

I’m glad you asked. I can explain what it means when a payment is in review status and provide steps to help fix the issue with your email not receiving notifications.

Payments are reviewed periodically to ensure transaction security. This status can occur for various reasons, such as an issue with the customer's direct deposit information or an incorrect bank account number.

You should receive an email from Intuit with specific steps on how to resolve it. Since you didn't receive one, please do the following:

1. Review your Spam or Junk folder
2. Add QuickBooks Payments email addresses to your contacts.
3. Reach out to your IT or domain provider to get help. This could include temporarily disabling Sender ID filtering.

To view the following emails and the list of allowed SPF server hostnames and IP addresses to give your IT contact, check out this article: Can't receive email from QuickBooks Payments.

If you still can't locate the email and the payments didn't receive the deposit after five (5) business days, I suggest reaching out to our Merchant Services Support Team. They have the tools to check your account internally and review the transaction status of your payment.

Additionally, you can check out these articles for more details about managing QuickBooks payments:

• Find out when QuickBooks Payments deposits customer payments
• Learn about funds on hold in QuickBooks Payments
   

Furthermore, you can visit this helpful resource about categorizing your bank transactions in QuickBooks Online: Categorize online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

5. Where does the 3% charge to the customer go for a credit card payment & why am I getting charged ...

Let’s tackle this together.

The reason you're getting charged rather than receiving the 3% fee from the customer lies in how credit card processing works.  Let me clarify this for you.
 

When your customer pays via credit card, the invoice reflects the full amount charged to them, including the 3% processing fee. However, this amount is not fully transferred to you. Instead, QuickBooks Payments deducts the 3% fee directly from the payment before depositing the remaining funds into your account. This fee covers the cost of securely processing the transaction. You can also check the screenshot below for details.

If you'd like to explore lowering your processing fees, I recommend reviewing this article: Request A Rate Review of QuickBooks Payments Discount Fees.

Additionally, for guidance on handling disputes or chargebacks, you can check out:  Handle Chargebacks and Retrieval Requests for QuickBooks Payments.

That’s all we have for you today! Understanding payment intricacies, from deposits and discounts to fees and fund release, is crucial. We hope these top five questions provide clarity, helping you optimize workflows, manage finances, and build stronger client relationships. See you next time!