How to undo a payment in QuickBooks

Work out what needs undoing. If the customer paid more or less than the amount you recorded, the payment only needs its amount changed. If the payment shouldn't be in QuickBooks at all, void it or delete it instead.

Make sure you have the right payment. When you aren't sure which payment belongs to an invoice, open the invoice and use the payment link in its top right corner. If the payment is linked to other transactions, QuickBooks alerts you automatically when you edit or delete it.

If the customer paid by card through QuickBooks, find out whether that day's transaction batch has closed. Before it closes, the payment can be voided. Once it has closed, voiding is no longer the route and you process a refund instead, for all of the payment or part of it. Card refunds can go back only to the card that was used, can't be more than the original sale, and can only be made within 90 days of the sale.

1. Go to All apps, select Sales & Get Paid, then select Sales transactions.
2. Find the payment and open it. You can also reach it from the invoice it paid, through the payment link at the invoice's top right.
3. To correct the amount, change the Amount received field, select Save and close, and stop there.
4. To take the payment out altogether, select More at the bottom of the page.
5. Choose Void or Delete.
6. Afterwards, go to Reports, select Standard reports, and open the Customer Balance Summary report.
7. Select Run report and check the customer's open balance in the Total column.

Once the batch has closed, refund the card instead. Select + New (or + Create), then Refund receipt, and choose the customer. Fill in the fields with the same details as the original sale, choose Credit Card as the Payment method, choose the account in Refund From, and select Save and close. For a partial refund, change the items or the amount. Refund receipts have a how-to of their own.

An edited payment stays where it was and simply carries the new amount. Voiding and deleting both take the payment out, but deleting is permanent: Intuit's help says a deleted transaction can't be reversed.

For card payments, the two routes end differently. Voiding before the batch closes cancels the transaction as if it had never taken place. A refund is a separate step that sends money back to the customer, and it's recorded on its own refund receipt.

Whichever route you take, the Customer Balance Summary report is where to confirm that the customer's open balance is what you expect.