I was working with a client recently who made a very simple statement after finishing a transaction posting in QuickBooks Enterprise. The client said, “I wish there was a way we could enter information into a transaction, but not have to post it into the general ledger if it wasn’t quite ready?”
I simply responde, “That would be nice wouldn’t it?”
About five minutes later, it hit me what I had told the client, or rather what I hadn’t told the client.
I had completely forgotten about the ability to create Pending Transactions. Apparently, I never taught this client about the QuickBooks Desktop feature.
And in my old age, I had made myself look foolish by acknowledging the client’s inquiry.
Now I had to make myself look even more foolish by saying, “You know what, my mind totally escaped me earlier, there is a way to do exactly what you want to do.”
You can make any Sales transaction in QuickBooks Enterprise (Desktop version)—including Sales Receipts, Invoices, Credit Memos, Pending—whenever they shouldn’t be posted against the ledger because they are incomplete, or you have insufficient quantities to fulfill them.
To use this functionality:
- Input your Sales transaction to the extent possible
- Open the Edit Menu
- Select Mark (form name) as Pending.
All Pending Sales transactions will appear in the Pending Sales Report.
When you are ready to finalize the transaction:
- Open the transaction
- Complete as needed
- Select Mark (form name) as Final from the Edit Menu
My client was simply amazed. I suspect my client was also shocked I had never taught this critical feature before.
It is easy to forget these simple, but useful QuickBooks Desktop features. And if we ProAdvisors forget them, how will our clients and the future generation of ProAdvisors ever know they exist? Because this feature doesn’t even appear in many QuickBooks Desktop training manuals.
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