Workflow question - taking payments from customers
burgertime
Member Posts: 3
I just migrated myself from Quickbooks Pro desktop(Windows) to Wave. I'm getting used to the new setup and have a question about work flow. In Quickbooks, when a customer paid me(in person), I would open their invoice, click on "receive payment", then enter the payment. At this point, the (check) payment would go into a Quickbooks account called "Undeposited Funds". That account contained all payments I had taken from customers but NOT yet deposited into my bank account. Once I deposited them to my bank account, I would use the Quickbooks feature "make deposits", and this would clear out my "Undeposited Funds" account, movnig everything into my Business Checking account register.
How does this flow work with Wave?
One of the things I got used to in Quickbooks, was that if I used the "Make Deposits" feature, and let's say, deposited 5 checks totaling $1000.00, then, when I imported my bank transactions into Quickbooks, the program would import the $1000 deposit, and automatically match it to the deposit I made. Is this done somehow with Wave?
Comments
@burgertime Great question! Money in Transit is one of my favorite accounting topics!
If you receive a payment outside of Wave, you have a couple of options for how to bookkeep this properly so your books reconcile:
1) You can add a Money In Transit Account, a sort of fake bank account, which holds the funds before the check clears and hits your bank account. Then, when the funds actually land in your bank account, you can transfer the funds from your Money In Transit Account to your checking account. The steps are laid out in detail in this Help Centre Article here: https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000389783-Recording-check-payments-in-transit
2) If you have your bank connected to Wave, you can wait for the check deposit bank import to show up in your Wave transactions page. From here, you can categorize the bank deposit transaction as a 'Payment for an Invoice in Wave'. This will make sure the pay date is accurate and your invoice will be marked as paid in Wave.
3) If you don't have your bank connected to Wave, you can manually mark your invoice as paid (head to Sales > Invoices > Actions). You can consciously mark the invoice as paid on the day you actually receive the payment or, if you're eager, you can manually mark the invoice as paid at any point. Just remember to edit the date on the transaction to make the deposit date match what's on your bank statement. Reconciliation is really the juice here!
4) If you receive Payments through Wave, properly accounting for money in transit occurs automatically. When the invoice is paid for, the funds go into a temporary holding account called 'Payments by Wave'. Once the the funds process and actually land in your account, Wave shows the funds transferring from the Payments by Wave account into your checking account. You can read about this neat process here: https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004964423-Bookkeeping-changes-to-Payments-by-Wave
Thanks for asking such an important question!
I have a question somewhat related to the answers provided by @ckeen_1244 .
A client made a bank transfer to our company's current account (connected to Wave). The transfer was to make payment for 3 separate invoices, but done in one single transaction. After syncing with the bank, the transaction shows up in the "Transactions" section but I can only apply it to one invoice. How do I split it so that all 3 invoices in the "Sales-Invoices" section are marked as paid?
Decided to use the Money-in-transit account to hold the deposit, and then apply it to the various invoices in the Sales section. Objective met. Hope it's the right way.
hey there @MervynTan
This article has a really great step by step process on how to account for this kind of transaction. Select the third article within titled My client overpaid me, and I use Payments by Wave
https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000278846-Accounting-for-overpayments
This should give you the guidance you need with your particular transaction.
Thanks for the info. This seems like a more practical way to do it. Thank you!
Thank you for this! It's the post that's come the closest to answering my question. I think I'm missing something in the first step though @ChelseaK.
The Help Centre article skips a few steps, I'm afraid, for those of us whose financial institutions do not connect with Wave.
When I input the deposit manually from my bank account, how do I categorize it, and connect it to the payments that have been processed? This is the step I'm missing.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give me!
Hi @Kellye , I think I answered your question in another thread but what you're looking for is our How to create a transfer Help Center article. Check it out!
thank you, @AlexL! I'll check that out!