You don't have to create a journal entry, test32.

Please make sure to select a liability account as your income account when creating a deposit item. Once done recording it, you can apply it to an the invoice when the job has been done. That means, you can create multiple invoices and apply a portion of the prepayment/deposit when it's due. We just need to make sure to select the correct dates when recording them.

Everytime you apply it to an invoice, it'll deduct on the deposit until the total deposit will be consumed. Please check this guide about managing upfront deposits or retainers. You can follow the steps in the Apply upfront deposits or retainers to invoices section. After this process, the funds from your liability account, where you recorded the deposit, will be moved to your income account.

You can run a quickreport of the liability you used to check the balance. From Lists menu, select Chart of Accounts. Locate and right-click on the said account, and select QuickReport.

Comment again if you need more help with this. I'll be happy to serve you again.