In business, you might come across the term “delayed charge” and wonder what that could mean. There’s a bit of confusion between delayed charges and delayed credit in QuickBooks, so let’s take a look at some of these delayed charge types and what they can mean for your accounting purposes.
Note that delayed charges are only available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Essentials. This feature is not currently available in Simple Start.
What is a delayed charge in QuickBooks Online
A delayed charge is a charge that is going to be billed to a customer at a future date. It’s a way to keep a record of what your future revenue will look like for tracking sales. This is considered a “Non-posting” transaction, meaning it will not affect your accounts, but is simply for tracking purposes.
There’s a few reasons why a business would want to delay a charge. It might be a free month of service for a promotion, it might be a grace period, or other reasons.
You shouldn’t often need to use this feature as your business likely is collecting most charges on time. Though it’s portant to understand what a delayed charge is so that it can be recorded and accounted for in your books.
What is the difference between delayed Charge and delayed Credit?
A delayed charge in QuickBooks online is a transaction that will be billed on a future date.
A delayed credit is a credit memo created in advance for possible sales returns.
Create a delayed charge in QuickBooks Online
Here’s how you can create a delayed charge in your QuickBooks Online account:
- Click the + menu at the top of your screen
- Go to the customers page and click “Delayed Charge”
- This will bring you to the page to create a delayed charge. Pick a customer and fill out the relevant details
- Make sure to select a date that you would like to bill this charge on.
- Once the delayed charge is saved, make sure to create and apply the invoice once you are ready to invoice the customer.
