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Accounting | How To

How To Set Up Customer Statements in QuickBooks Online

Tim Yoder

REVIEWED BY: Tim Yoder

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.

 

WRITTEN BY: Mark Calatrava

Published May 10, 2022

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.

Published May 10, 2022

This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software.

Learn More With Our QuickBooks Online Course
Explore the chapters in the guide.
  1. How to Set Up QuickBooks Online
  2. Part 1: Setting Up QuickBooks
    1. How to Set Up Company Information
    2. How to Customize Invoices, Sales Receipts & Estimates
    3. How to Set Up Invoices, Sales Receipts & Estimates
    4. How to Set Up Products and Services
    5. How to Set Up Messages
    6. How to Set Up Statements
    7. How to Set Up Expenses
    8. How to Set Up Advanced Settings
  3. Part 1: Setting Up QuickBooks (Cont.)
    1. How to Import Bank Transactions
    2. How to Import Credit Card Transactions
    3. How to Set Up Multiple Users
    4. How to Set Up the Chart of Accounts
    5. How to Set Up the Products and Services List
    6. How to Set Up Customers
    7. How to Set Up Vendors
  4. Part 2: Managing Sales and Income
    1. How to Create Estimates (Quotes or Bids)
    2. How to Create and Send Invoices
    3. How to Receive Payments
    4. How to Create & Send Sales Receipts
  5. Part 3: Managing Bills and Expenses
    1. How to Write & Print Checks
    2. How to Enter Bills
    3. How to Pay Bills
  6. Part 4: Managing Banking Transactions
    1. How to Enter Banking Transactions Manually
    2. How to Manage Downloaded Banking Transactions
    3. How to Record Bank Deposits
    4. How to Transfer Funds Between Bank Accounts
    5. How to Handle Bounced Checks From Customers
    6. How to Process Bank Reconciliation
  7. Part 5: Managing Business Credit Card Transactions
    1. How to Enter Business Credit Card Transactions Manually
    2. How to Manage Downloaded Business Credit Card Transactions
    3. How to Enter a Credit Card Refund
    4. How to Reconcile Business Credit Card Accounts
  8. Part 6: Managing Credit Card Sales
    1. How to Manage Credit Card Sales With QuickBooks Payments
    2. How to Manage Credit Card Sales With a Third-party Credit Card Processor
  9. Part 7: Set Up and Manage Payroll
    1. How Set Up and Run Payroll
    2. How to Manage Payroll Tax
    3. How to Add Historical Payroll Data
    4. How to Set Up Automatic Deposits
    5. How to Print Payroll Checks
    6. How to Run Payroll Reports
    7. How to Reconcile Payroll Liabilities
  10. Part 8: Reporting in QuickBooks Online
    1. How to Run a Profit and Loss Statement
    2. How to Run a Balance Sheet Report
    3. How to Run a Statement of Cash Flows
    4. How to Run an A/R Aging Report
    5. How to Run an A/P Aging Report

Our tutorial covers how to set up a customer statement in QuickBooks Online. We’ll also show you how to customize your QuickBooks statements by adjusting the format and adding an aging table to the bottom of your statement.

This free tutorial is part of our series of Free QuickBooks Tutorials, designed to help you learn how to use QuickBooks Online, our top-recommended small business accounting software. If you don’t have your QuickBooks account yet, you have the choice of a 30-day free trial or 50% off for three months.

Visit QuickBooks Online

You can follow along on your own computer as you watch the video below or read through the step-by-step instructions that follow.

Step 1: Navigate To Customers Under Sales

From your company dashboard, click on Sales in the left menu bar, and then select Customers from the drop-down menu, as shown below.

Selecting Customers under the Sales menu.

Select Customers under the Sales menu


Step 2: Select a Customer for Who You Want to Create a Statement For

A window displaying your customer list and their invoice and payment activities appears. From here, select the recipient of your customer statement by clicking on the name. You may choose multiple customers to receive statements by clicking on the checkbox before their name.

Short viideo oh how to select a recipient of your statement/

Select a recipient of your statement


Step 3: Create the Statement

After clicking on the customer, a list of all payments and outstanding invoices appears. From here, you’ll see which invoices are overdue and when they’re due instantly. To create a statement, click on the New transaction menu on the top right of the screen, and select Statement from the drop-down list.

Selecting Statement under New transaction.

Select Statement under New transaction

Step 3.1: Choose the Customer Statement Type

From the Create statements window, choose from three different types of statements in QuickBooks Online:

  1. Balance forward: This shows 1) all invoices and payments with outstanding balances for a particular date range that you choose, and 2) the amount your customer owed prior to the date range as the balance forward at the top of the statement.
  2. Open item: This document displays all open, unpaid invoices from the last 365 days.
  3. Transaction statement: A transaction statement displays the total amounts billed and received for every transaction within the period you specify, without showing any balance forward amount and amount due.

After selecting the type of statement, fill in the statement date and specify the date range for the statements you wish to create. You may leave the statement date as-is to use the current date.

Click Apply to continue.

Short Video on how to Choose a statement type in QuickBooks Online.

Choose a statement type in QuickBooks Online

Step 3.2: Review the Recipient’s Email Address

Make sure that the email address is accurate. This will be populated based on the contact information you entered automatically, but it won’t hurt to double-check.

Reviewing the email address of your the recipient of your statement.

Review the email address of the recipient of your statement

Step 3.3: Click Save, Save and Send, or Print Preview.

After filling in all the sections, click on Save or Save and Send. If you want to see how your statement looks when printed, select Print Preview.


Step 4: Customize Your Statement

You can adjust the level of details you set in your customer statement from your company dashboard Account and settings. This can be executed in the following steps:

Step 4.1: Navigate To Sales Under Account and Settings

Click on the gear icon on the top right of your company dashboard, select Account and settings, and click on Sales.

Short video on how to Navigate to Sales under Account and Settings.

Navigate to Sales under Account and Settings

Step 4.2: Customize Your QuickBooks Statements

Scroll down to the Statements section to reveal three options available for QuickBooks statements, which allow you to adjust the level of detail provided in the document.

Options in customizing your statements.

Options to customize your statements

Tip: You don’t have to work on a single tab and go back and forth between your preview template and your Customize statement screen to track the changes you make. You may want to open a new tab by right-clicking on the Dashboard menu and selecting Open in New Tab.

A. List each transaction as a single line

If you select this option, the statement will only show a summary of the invoice, including the invoice date, number, and amount. Here’s an example of a statement from our fictitious company, Paul’s Plumbing, with a summary of the invoices.

Exampleof a QuickBooks customer statement with a single line.

QuickBooks customer statement with a single line

The colors and logos in the statement come from the master sales form that you customized in our tutorial on How to Customize Invoices.

B. List each transaction including all detail lines

This option will provide a complete recap of the transaction. Each line item on an invoice will be summarized and shown separately. This is what a QuickBooks customer statement looks like when all detail lines are included:

Example of QuickBooks customer statement with all detail lines.

QuickBooks customer statement with all detail lines

The decision to summarize invoices (option 1) or provide detail (option 2) is a personal preference. However, we recommend summarizing the invoices if the customer has already received a detailed invoice.

C. Show aging table at the bottom of the statement

By selecting this option, a summarized accounts receivable (A/R) aging report will print at the bottom of the statement showing any amounts that are past due. We recommend showing this table to alert customers of any overdue amounts. The aging table for our sample invoice looks like this:

Aging Table at the bottom of a QuickBooks customer statement.

Aging Table at the bottom of a QuickBooks customer statement

Click the green Save button once you have selected your statement options.


The Importance of Setting Up QuickBooks Customer Statements

Statements provide a summary of goods and services sold to the customer during the statement period, grouped by invoice. If a customer pays their invoices promptly, then there’s probably no need to send a statement. However, for customers that are slow to pay, statements are a great way to remind them of their outstanding invoices.

Wrap Up

You now know how to set up a customer statement in QuickBooks Online. The next tutorial in our QuickBooks Online Training Course is How to Set Up Expenses in QuickBooks Online, which covers your available options for tracking and billing expenses to customers and the level of expense detail to provide on expense and purchase forms.

← Previous Tutorial

Free QuickBooks Online Tutorials

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About the Authors

Tim Yoder

Find Timothy OnLinkedIn

Tim Yoder

Tim worked as a tax professional for BKD, LLP before returning to school and receiving his Ph.D. from Penn State. He then taught tax and accounting to undergraduate and graduate students as an assistant professor at both the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Mississippi State University. Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor for both the Online and Desktop products, as well as a CPA with 25 years of experience. He most recently spent two years as the accountant at a commercial roofing company utilizing QuickBooks Desktop to compile financials, job cost, and run payroll.

Mark Calatrava

Find Mark OnLinkedIn

Mark Calatrava

Mark Calatrava is an accounting expert for Fit Small Business. He has covered more than 50 accounting software for small businesses and niche industries and has developed an in-depth knowledge of the important features of accounting software and how the importance of these features vary by business.

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