Managing Customer Deposits without Payment Collections: recommended workflowLast updated on 05/12/2023

Often a customer is required to pay a deposit on a job before work has even begun. The company receiving the money has an obligation to provide the goods or services to the customer or to return the money. Because of this, the deposit is considered a liability to the company.

Set up General Ledger Accounts
Manage Customer Deposits

Things to know

There are two primary ways to take deposits, depending on the configurations of the user. These are without Payment Collection enabled and WITH Payment Collections enabled.
All workflows assume the user has Appointments enabled.
All Workflows assume technicians have one or both of the following permissions:
- Schedule additional appointments on a job
- Request an additional appointment for a Job

Workflows

Set up General Ledger Accounts

Create a Liability Account in QuickBooks to hold the prepayments on future work.
1. Account Type: Other Current Liability
2. Detail Type (QBO ONLY): Other Current Liabilities
3. Account Name: Deposits on Future Work (or something similar)
Create the liability account in your ServiceTitan General Ledger
Map your new ServiceTitan General Ledger account to your new QuickBooks account

Manage Customer Deposits

Create Batches for deposit payments and invoices, so everything is accessible in one place in QB.
1. After each of these batches is exported, you will go into QB and make the General Journal Entries (step 4 below).
2. To look up individual batches in QuickBooks Desktop:
  1. Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard
  2. Click on the Advanced tab at the top of the new window
  3. Select “Memo” in the Filter list.
  4. Type “Batch: [BATCH # YOU ARE LOOKING FOR]”, and press Enter on your keyboard.
Receive the Deposit:
1. On Mobile
  1. Sell an estimate and Select “Yes” when asked if the work will be performed on this job. Tap “Apply”.
  2. Tap into the INVOICE and tap “Pay”
  3. Receive the payment for the deposit
  4. Tap Closeout and select “Use when you need another appointment scheduled for this same job.”
  5. Give a reason for the additional appointment and tap Closeout.
2. From the Office
  1. Note: If receiving a Deposit from a Follow Up, follow the instructions described in Book sold estimate items into existing jobs.
  2. Click the invoice and record the Deposit like a normal payment. Be sure to enter something in the memo field so you know this is a customer's deposit.
Batch the customer Deposit to your Deposits batch, and export to QuickBooks on your normal export cadence.
Move the Customer Deposit to your Liability Account
1. In Quickbooks - Create a General Journal Entry (Company> General Journal Entry) to move the Deposit from AR to your Liability Account, and Memorize the JE if it is the first time you are doing this. Be sure to put the customer name in the name field for both the Accounts Receivable and Customer Deposits Received rows.
2. Ensure your customer deposit is reflected in all the correct places: Deposits on Future Work Liability Account, the customer's register, Undeposited Funds, and the Balance Sheet.
Export Final Invoice & Payment to QuickBooks
1. When the job has been completed, export the invoice to QuickBooks in your Invoices with Deposits Batch. When the final payment has been received, export that to QuickBooks in your Customer Deposits Batch.
2. In QuickBooks, the customer will now show a balance equal to the deposit.
Double-click on the General Journal Entry we made earlier, and click on Reverse.
Update the date of this new Journal entry and click save.
Receive a Payment for this customer to apply the AR credit to the AR balance. (Customers> Receive Payments)
Apply for the credit in the pop-up window and click Done. Then click Save & Close on the payment window.
Double-click on the original payment, apply the pmt to the invoice and click Save & Close.
Optional: Confirm the effect of the journal entry is showing up everywhere it needs to: Deposits on Future Work Liability Account, the customer's register, and the Balance Sheet.