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How to edit a partially paid invoice
How to edit a partially paid invoice

Edit a partially paid invoice which may be connected to Xero or QuickBooks

Yuan Wang avatar
Written by Yuan Wang
Updated over a week ago

You have an invoice in Studio Ninja that has a payment schedule. The first payment (i.e. deposit) was paid but for one reason or another,

  • the remaining payment(s) cannot be paid

  • the remaining payment(s) no longer has a due date

  • the remaining payment(s) has a due date in the new financial year, and you are submitting your tax returns for the financial year that has just completed.

If the remaining payment cannot be paid, you can:

  • write off the payment (if you are NOT connected to QuickBooks)

  • edit the invoice and change the pricing of your packages and products so that the total amount matches the paid amount

"Write off" is not possible if you are connected to QuickBooks. This is because QuickBooks has a different method of writing off bad debts, which is not in sync with Studio Ninja.

If you are connected to QuickBooks, you must remove the payment in the accounting system first, before you can edit the invoice in Studio Ninja.

Steps are:

  1. Remove the payment from QuickBooks

  2. Remove the payment from Studio Ninja (if payments are not synced)

  3. Edit the invoice in Studio Ninja

  4. Record the payment again in Studio Ninja as well as in QuickBooks

Note that if you have "Sync payments" turned on, recording the payment in Studio Ninja will also sync with QuickBooks.

If the remaining payment no longer has a due date, you can:

  • make a best guess of what the new due date might be

  • manually split the invoice into two separate invoices. Edit the original invoice so that the total amount matches the paid amount, and then set yourself a workflow task into the future that would remind you to create a new invoice totalling the unpaid amount when the time comes.

If the remaining payment has a due date in the new financial year, and you are submitting your tax returns for the financial year that has just completed, and you are connected to Xero or QuickBooks, you can:

  • manually split the invoice into two separate invoices. Edit the original invoice so that the total amount matches the paid amount, and then create a new invoice totalling the unpaid amount which has a due date in the new financial year. Please do so before you submit your tax returns.

  • add a credit note in Xero (or bad debt in QuickBooks) for the unpaid amount. In the new financial year, create a new invoice for the unpaid amount and add a reference to the original invoice.

What happens if you cannot remove a payment from Xero or QuickBooks because it has been locked?

If a credit note was previously applied, and the period is locked, this means the tax returns for that period has been finalised and submitted, and we would want to avoid going back and making any changes.

If you are expecting payment in the current financial year for the original invoice (from the previous financial year and that is now locked), follow these steps:

  • Create a new invoice in Studio Ninja, with a new Invoice ID, matching the unpaid amount (remaining unpaid balance of the original invoice).

  • Reference the original Invoice ID in the invoice's description.

  • Once the new invoice has been copied to Xero and QuickBooks, you can also add an additional Reference Number in the accounting system, corresponding to the original Invoice ID.

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