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Managing Prepaid Visit Packages

Prepayments of service visits require extra accounting

f your clients want to pay for a “bundle” of visits in advance (e.g., $500 for 10 visits), use the following steps. This ensures that as our app generates the monthly $50 visit invoices, the money is automatically “drawn down” until the balance hits zero.

Track A: QuickBooks Online (Credit Memo Method)Use this track if you are synced with QuickBooks. 1. One-Time Setup

  • Create a Liability Account: Go to Transactions > Chart of Accounts. Create a new account. Set the Account Type to Other Current Liabilities and name it Prepaid Customer Deposits.
  • Create a Service Item: Go to Sales > Products & Services. Create a new Service named Prepaid Visit Package. Set the Income Account to the Prepaid Customer Deposits account you just created.
  • Enable Auto-Apply: Go to Settings (Gear Icon) > Account and Settings > Advanced > Automation. Ensure “Automatically apply credits” is turned ON.

2. Issuing the Package

  • Invoice the Client: Create a standard Invoice for the $500 using the Prepaid Visit Package item.
  • Receive Payment: Once they pay, record the payment to close this invoice.
  • Move to Credit Balance: Create a Credit Memo for the customer for $500 using the Prepaid Visit Package item. This “moves” the money from your liability account into a “bucket” on the customer’s profile.

3. Automatic Drawdown.

When our app syncs a $50 visit invoice, QuickBooks will see the $500 Credit Memo and automatically apply $50 to the new invoice, marking it as Paid.

Track B: Zoho Books (Retainer Method) Use this track if you are synced with Zoho Books. This is the most efficient method.

1. One-Time Setup

  • Enable Retainers: Go to Settings > Preferences > General and ensure Retainer Invoices is checked.
  • Enable Auto-Apply: Go to Settings > Preferences > Invoices. Scroll down to the “Payments” section and check the box for “Automatically apply retainer counts to invoices.” (You can choose to do this “Always” or “Only when the invoice is created”).

2. Issuing the Package

  • Create a Retainer Invoice: Go to the Retainer Invoices module and create a new invoice for $500.
  • Receive Payment: Record the payment against the Retainer Invoice. This money is now held in a “Retainer” bucket for that specific customer.

3. Automatic Drawdown.

When our app syncs a standard $50 invoice to Zoho, Zoho will automatically pull $50 from the customer’s Retainer Balance and apply it to the invoice. The invoice status will instantly change to Paid.

How to check the remaining balance

Section titled “How to check the remaining balance”

Regardless of which software you use, you can see how many “visits” are left by checking the customer’s profile:

  • In QuickBooks: Look at the “Open Credits” on the customer’s transaction list.
  • In Zoho: Look at the “Retainer Balance” at the top of the customer’s overview page.

Note: Once the prepaid balance reaches $0, the next visit invoice sent by our app will remain Unpaid/Open, alerting you that it is time to bill the client for another package.