How to Make Partial Payments in QuickBooks

There are times when it's necessary for small business owners to accept a partial payment from a customer or pay only part of a vendor invoice. By default, QuickBooks prompts for the full amount due when creating invoices or paying bills. However, you can enter partial payments in QuickBooks in almost the same manner you use to record full-amount payments.

Partial Payments to Vendors

Launch QuickBooks, then click "Vendors." Click "Pay Bills" and enable the "Show all bills" option.

Scroll down to the bill that you want to pay partially. QuickBooks displays the total amount of the bill in the "Amt. Due" column. Click the "check mark" column to select the bill for payment.

Enter the amount of the partial payment in the "Amt. to Pay" column. In some cases, QuickBooks may prepopulate the "Amt. to Pay" field with the total amount of the bill. If it does, clear the field and enter the amount of the partial payment.

Click the "Payment Method" drop-down list and select the appropriate payment type for the partial payment. If you're using a check, select the "To be printed" option if you use QuickBooks to print your checks. Otherwise, select the "Assign Check No." option and enter the check number manually.

Click "Pay & Close" to record the partial payment and close the Pay Bills window.

Receive Customer Partial Payments

Click "Customers" and select "Receive Payments." The Customer Payment window opens.

Click the "Received From" drop-down and select the name of the customer making the partial payment. The customer's outstanding balance appears to the right of the Received From field.

Enter the amount of the partial payment in the "Amount" field. Select payment method in the "Pmt. Method" drop-down list. If the customer is paying with a check, enter the check number in the "Check #" field.

Select the invoice to which you want to apply the partial payment in the invoice list by clicking the "check mark" column.

Enter the amount of the partial payment in the "Payment" column.

Click the "Print" button to print out a copy of the payment for the customer. Click "Save & Close" to record the partial payment and close the window.