@xhandllc  RE:

The only way to get that to happen with only two invoices is to date Invoice A in February and then run the report on an accrual basis.

The issue is that you want both:

- Invoice A to appear as income only when you do the work in Feb, but it is recorded in January and you have received money for it in January (neither accrual nor cash methods will show that).

- Invoice B to appear as fully earned in January when you did the work, but you didn't receive payment for all of it in January (only the accrual method will do that).

It seems like you want to treat the customer down payments as deposits on account until you actually do the work and you want the income to be in the month you finally do that work (technically, if you do that work). The only way to make that happen reliably is using an accrual report and where the sale for the work is recorded in the month you do that work.

If correct, if you want the down payment to be treated as a deposit, then you can record it the way Intuit recommends lawyers do, as a retainer invoice and related payment (which will create two invoices for each sale). To record such an invoice, create and use a non-taxable item that uses a liability account as the 'income' account. Then use the item on a retainer/down payment invoice, and then receive the payment against it, which will pay it off.

Then, when recording the actual sale, in addition to the other things on that sale, use that new item again but this time with a negative amount, which will reduce the invoice total by the retainer/down payment amount.