Cash Basis Accounts Receivable
in QuickBooks
Why is it Negative?

Kathy writes:

When I run a Balance Sheet, the cash basis accounts receivable shows as a negative amount. Do you know why?

My reply:

This is usually due to customer payments that were not applied to invoices. Run an A/R Aging Summary to find the individual amounts:

Reports > Customers & Receivables > A/R Aging Summary

Adjust the ending date so it matches the ending date on your Balance Sheet.

Double click on each negative amount you see there. This should take you to the Receive Payments screen. Look in the lower half of this screen - are there any invoices this payment may be applied to?

Similarly, there may be some customer prepayments that don't yet have invoices to apply them to. These are really not negative A/R, they are an Other Current Liability.

If you work with an accountant, discuss this with him/her. It may be that the money can stay where it is, or it may need to be moved to an Other Current Liability account for tax/reporting purposes.

Take care and thanks for writing.