Showing "Down Payments" on Invoice

[Wstcst]

I can not figure out how to get a Down Payment to show up in the Invoice. Per "Help" I should accept it as a payment received and apply credit. I do that and it doesn't show as a negative in the invoice. I have tried creating a Credit Memo, but that is really for overpayments and it doesn't work either. If I just manually enter it into the invoice, it doesn't show up as income in my P/L report

[tallman]

To show that the Downpayment was applied to the invocie, you need to use an invoice template that does not start with Intuit. Edit the template and on the Footer tab, check Payments/Credits and Balance Due.
The other part of youe question Payment does not show on P&L, it should never show on the P&L only the invocie amount should show.

[Joey]

You don't say how you recorded the "down payment" in the first place. How did you record that transaction when the customer originally paid you?

[Wstcst]

In my version, Pro v 4 M12A for the Mac, the only options under footer in the Custom Invoice formatting area are "Total" and "Customer Message"

[Joey]

That wasn't my question. When the customer gives you the original down payment, how do you record that? You havent' even started the sale yet. How do you record the deposit of that check into your bank account?

[Wstcst]

Joey
Per instructions in the help section, I "Received Payment" before there was any invoicing and checked "Apply Credit"

[Joey]

That's your problem. First, create a new current liability account called Customer Sales Deposits and then a new Other Charge type invoice item called CustDep (not subject to sales taxes)and link it to your new liability account. A sales deposit is a liability to your company until you complete the sale.
When you first get the money, create a Sales Receipt/Cash Sale for the amount using the CustDep item above. This will make the money available for you to deposit into checking or put into Undeposited Funds until you actually create your checking deposit.
Then later, when the sale is complete, create your invoice for the total sale like usual. Then , on the bottom line of the invoice, use the CustDep item as a MINUS amount to reduce the total due from the customer and move the money out of the liability account and apply it to the invoice.
It works, I promise.

[Joey]

Afterthought, never use Receive Payments unless you have already invoiced your customer. This creates a negative A/R on your Balance Sheet and will appear that way on the Cash Basis Report.

[Wstcst]

I have done what you suggestd, but let me ask some details here to be sure. I have to manually enter the deposit on the invoice, it doesn't kcik over from the Cash Sale entry?
And (2), in my version of QB, there is no option to change the footer in the invoice tmplate to Show Payments/Credits. Did I miss something?
See the string above.