Summary
If you're looking for Unapplied Payments in general, go to Reports > Payments with Unapplied Amount, filter the date range and click the customer's name to go to that account.
Key Points
If you're looking at an account with Unapplied Payments, go back through the chain of events to find out what happened.
Deleted an invoice
Deleted a payment
Payment was never applied to an Invoice
Too much money applied to an Invoice
Credit incorrectly applied as a payment
Note If a customer is ahead in payments, such as paying a year in advance, the account will have an unapplied amount until the payment is applied to the invoices as the invoices are created.
Deleted an invoice
If you deleted an invoice, a dollar amount in Unapplied Payment appears because the payment is still there. If the Invoice was purposely deleted, delete the Payment. If the deletion was accidental, follow these steps to get the Invoice back:
From the Dashboard, click Sales
Click Invoices
Click Invoices in the upper-left corner, near the folder icon
Click Archived
To the left of the deleted Invoice, click the check box
Click the Bulk Actions button
Click Restore
In the customer's account click the Payments tab
Edit the Unapplied Payment
Under Outstanding Invoices, add the dollar amount entered in Method to the Invoice that was recovered
Click Save & Apply
Deleted a payment
If you deleted a payment, dollar amounts in Open Invoices and Unapplied Payment appear because the invoice is still there. If the Payment was purposely deleted, delete the Invoice. If the deletion was accidental, follow these steps to get the Payment back:
From the Dashboard, click Sales
Click Payments
Click Payments in the upper-left corner, near the folder icon
Click Archived
To the left of the deleted Payment, click the check box
Click the Bulk Actions button
Click Restore
In the customer's account click the Payments tab
Edit the newly recovered Payment
Under Outstanding Invoices, add the dollar amount entered in Method to the Invoice this Payment applies to
Click Save & Apply
Payment was never applied to an Invoice
If a Payment was entered but not applied to an Invoice, do the following:
Go to the customer's account
Click the Payments tab
Look down the Unapplied Amount column
Open the Payment that has the Unapplied Amount
Under Outstanding Invoices, add the dollar amount entered in the Method box to the Invoice this Payment applies to
Click Save & Apply
Too much money applied to an Invoice
If too much money was applied to an Invoice, the Amount Due column in the Invoices tab will be a negative number.
Go to the customer's account
Click the Invoices tab
Look down the Amount Due column
Open the Invoice that has a negative number in the Amount Due column
Click the Edit button in the bottom-right corner
Make the necessary adjustment (this usually means to update the amount to match the Invoice and then click the Distribute Payment button to pay off other Invoices)
Click Save & Apply
Credit incorrectly applied as a payment
If a credit was accidentally selected as a payment type, that will appear as an unapplied payment. Do the following:
Click the Payments tab
Look for a credit payment that matches the Unapplied Payment
Edit that payment
Change the Payment Method to cash, check...
Click Save & Apply
Also see:
May 2017
Updated, April 2019