Some invoices are never getting paid. The customer moved, the amount is too small to chase, or you handed it to a collections agency. Leaving it open keeps it on your overdue list, keeps reminders going out and makes your outstanding balance look bigger than it is.
A write-off closes it out honestly: the work was billed, the money never came, and your books say so.
The owner or an admin can write off an invoice.
1 Write it off
Open the invoice and click Write off, or click Write off on its line in Who owes me. The box says how much will be written off: everything still owed, or what is left on a partly paid invoice.
Pick a reason:
- Moved, no forwarding address
- Sent to collections
- Disputed and settled
- Too small to chase
- Other (type a short note, up to 200 characters)
Confirm, and the invoice reads Written off.
A write-off is refused on a draft or void invoice, an invoice with nothing owed, and while a card or bank payment on the invoice is still going through.
2 What changes
- The invoice leaves Who owes me and the customer’s balance.
- Payment reminders, the day 7 text and late fees stop for it, and a pending autopay charge on it is cancelled.
- It is not a payment. Nothing shows as money received.
- The invoice PDF reads Written off instead of carrying a paid stamp.
- While it is written off, the invoice cannot be edited or voided. Undo the write-off first.
3 Where it shows
Reports show the amount as Bad debt, on the day you wrote it off. It is never counted as revenue collected or as cash. The invoice still counts as billed, which is how accrual books treat it: the write-off is the loss.
The customer’s statement gets a dated Written off line for the amount, so their balance adds up.
With QuickBooks connected, a write-off books to QuickBooks as a credit memo against your bad debt item. Set that up once in the QuickBooks settings by making an item named Bad debt that posts to your bad debt expense account and entering its Id. Until it is set, write-offs wait and you get an alert. An invoice that came over from QuickBooks is managed there, so it cannot be written off in ClippingCash while QuickBooks is connected.
4 Undo it, or get paid after all
Wrote off the wrong invoice? Open it and click Undo write-off. The amount is owed again, the invoice goes back to sent, partly paid or overdue, and the statement shows Write-off reversed.
If the customer pays after all, just record the payment as normal. The payment takes back as much of the write-off as it covers first, so nothing is counted twice. A full payment ends the invoice Paid; a partial one leaves the rest written off.