How To Create and Send QuickBooks Online Sales Receipts
Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and CPA with 25 years of experience. He brings his expertise to Fit Small Business’s accounting content.
Mark has researched and reviewed accounting software at Fit Small Business since 2019 and has developed an extensive knowledge of accounting software features and how unique business needs determine the best accounting software.
This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to generate a QuickBooks Online sales receipt while recording a customer payment. We’ll also teach you how to email the receipt to your customer within the platform.
Tip: QuickBooks sales receipts should only be used when receiving a payment for which an invoice hasn’t been issued. The previous tutorial, How to Receive Payments in QuickBooks Online, discussed accepting payments for outstanding invoices.
This free tutorial, one in our series of Free QuickBooks Tutorials, aims to help you get the most out of QuickBooks Online, which we ranked as the best overall small business accounting software. To achieve the best result from our guide, we recommend that you follow along in your own QuickBooks account. If you don’t have one, you can choose from a 30-day free trial or 50% off for three months.
Step 1: Navigate to Sales Receipt
Click +New at the top of the left menu bar and then select Sales receipt in the first column under Customers, as shown below.
Navigate to Sales receipt in QuickBooks Online
Step 2: Create the Sales Receipt
QuickBooks Online will then display the sales receipt screen. The fields that appear on the screen will depend upon the settings you specified in our tutorials on How To Set Up Sales Form Content in QuickBooks Online and How To Set Up Advanced Settings in QuickBooks Online. The animated GIF below shows the sales receipt form used for creating a sample receipt for our fictitious company, Paul’s Plumbing.
Create sales receipt form in QuickBooks Online
Below is a list of some of the fields you need to complete when creating a sales receipt in QuickBooks Online.
- Customer: Select the customer’s name from the drop-down list or select Add New to create a new customer. Once you select a customer, the email and address fields should populate automatically, provided the customer information is complete.
- Sales receipt date: Typically, QuickBooks will default to the current date, but you can change this date if the sale is on a different date.
- Payment method: Select either check, cash, or credit card for the payment method. If the payment is by credit card, you may need to skip ahead to how to manage credit card sales.
- Reference no.: If the customer paid by check, enter the check number in this field.
- Deposit to: Select Undeposited Funds from the drop-down box. This will place the check or cash in the Undeposited Funds account until the next bank deposit is recorded. In newer QuickBooks Online accounts, the undeposited funds account is named “Payments to Deposit” by default.
Note:
The Undeposited Funds account allows multiple checks to be grouped into a single deposit that will appear in the check register as a single amount. This amount can be traced easily to the bank statement at month-end when the bank statement is reconciled. Without Undeposited Funds, each check will appear as a separate deposit, making it difficult to trace the combined deposit amounts shown on the bank statement.
- Service date: The service date will default to the sales receipt date, but it can be adjusted if you provided the service or product on an earlier date.
- Product/Service: Select each Product/Service from the drop-down list or add a new product/service by selecting Add New. Once a Product/Service is selected, the Description and Rates fields should be populated automatically, but you can adjust them if needed.
- Qty: Enter the quantity for each product or service provided. Once you enter the quantity, the Amount column should populate automatically.
There are additional fields to complete based on the prior options you have assigned. For instance, if you selected to track information by class and location in the advanced options, then you should complete the Class field for each Product/Service and the Location field for each receipt.
Step 3: Click Save or Save and Send
Before you save your sales receipt, you can see what it looks like when emailed or printed by clicking on the Print or Preview button at the bottom of the screen and then selecting the Print or Preview drop-down. If needed, you can print or download the invoice after previewing. If you need to make changes, close the preview to return to the previous screen.
Click on Print or Preview to see what the receipt looks like when emailed or printed
If you want to record the receipt without emailing it to your customer, click the Save button on the lower right side of the screen. If you want to send the receipt to your customer, click Save and Send.
Save sales receipt and send it via email in QuickBooks Online
When you click Save and Send, QuickBooks will provide a preview of the text that will appear in the body of the email. All of the information will populate automatically based on the information you provided in How To Set Up Sales Form Content in QuickBooks Online. You can make changes, but they won’t be reflected in future sales receipt emails. When you’re satisfied with your email, click the green Send and close button.
Email message for sales receipt in QuickBooks Online
Below is a preview of a sample sales receipt we created in this tutorial.
Preview of a sample sales receipt in QuickBooks Online
What a QuickBooks Sales Receipt Is
Similar to an invoice, a sales receipt provides customers with a detailed description of the products or services that they have purchased. Invoices are issued to request payment from the customer. In contrast, sales receipts are used when the customer pays for services or products without being issued an invoice. QuickBooks sales receipts record both the revenue from the sale and the cash received.
Difference between a QuickBooks sales receipt and invoice:
Customers should never receive both an invoice and sales receipt for the same sale. If they need to be sent a bill before paying, then issue them an invoice. After they pay, you can provide them with an invoice marked “paid.” If they pay without being sent a bill, then issue them a sales receipt at the time of payment.
Importance of Creating a QuickBooks Online Sales Receipt
Creating a QuickBooks Online sales receipt serves several purposes. It provides your customer with the details of exactly what they purchased along with proof of payment. Creating the sales receipt also records the revenue for your income statement. Finally, the sales receipt records the customer payment and places it in undeposited funds until the next bank deposit is made.
Wrap Up
Congratulations on completing our tutorial on how to create and send a sales receipt in QuickBooks Online. The next tutorial in our QuickBooks Online Training Course is How to Write & Print Checks in QuickBooks Online.
