A customer payment and the bank deposit that contains it are normally two linked stages of one collection, not two receipts. Use the payment to explain which invoice was settled and the deposit to explain when funds reached the bank. Count the cash once. If a downloaded deposit was added as new income instead of matched to the recorded payment, resolve the duplicate bookkeeping path before using either record in a forecast variance review.
Intuit's payment guidance explains that a customer payment can be applied to one or more outstanding invoices and placed in Undeposited Funds or directly into a bank account. Its duplicate-transaction guidance distinguishes a linked payment-and-deposit pair from duplicate bank-feed income.
One collection can create several records
The payment provides customer and invoice allocation. A later deposit can group that payment with other receipts and provides bank-account evidence. Collapsing both into one anonymous row can lose invoice lineage; adding both as cash can double the collection.
The Undeposited Funds guide explains the holding-account stage. The payment-date versus deposit-date guide preserves the two dates without substituting one for the other.
Build a payment-to-deposit bridge
For each apparent pair, record:
- customer payment identifier, date, amount, and method;
- invoice numbers and amounts reduced by the payment;
- deposit identifier, deposit date, bank account, and batch total;
- other receipts included in the same batch;
- processing fees or adjustments recorded separately;
- bank-feed transaction and matched status; and
- reviewer and correction reference for any duplicate posting.
The bridge should show that the payment components, adjusted only by supported batch items, agree with the deposit. If one payment covers multiple invoices, use the multiple-invoice allocation workflow. If the deposit cannot be linked to supported invoice payments, route it through the unmatched-payment exception.
Handle a later return without breaking lineage
A bank return changes the conclusion without making the original records disappear. Link the returned event to the payment and deposit, reverse the prior cash treatment on the observed date, and confirm whether the accounting source reopens the invoice. The returned-payment and reopened-invoice guide provides that next control.
For collections reporting, mark the invoice reduction once. For bank availability, mark the deposit once. For variance review, use one collection amount with both relevant dates and evidence references. If the receipt is returned, add the reversal and rebuild timing from fresh evidence.
Decision rule
Linked payment and deposit records are evidence layers for one cash event. Preserve both, count neither twice, and repair an added bank-feed duplicate before interpreting cash performance. If linkage remains incomplete, keep the amount out of new expected receipts and assign a reconciliation owner.
AR Pulse analyzes an authorized QuickBooks receivables export; it does not post, match, or delete transactions. View the example report for the source-to-action structure.