To delete a received payment in QuickBooks Desktop, you need to first determine whether the payment has already been included in a bank deposit. An undeposited payment can be deleted directly from the payment record, but a deposited payment requires you to remove it from the deposit first. The process takes just a few clicks once you know which situation you’re dealing with.
Deleting a Payment Not Yet Deposited
If you received a payment and it’s still sitting in your Undeposited Funds account (meaning you haven’t yet recorded a bank deposit that includes it), you can delete it directly:
- Open the original Receive Payment transaction. You can find it through the Customer Center, by searching the customer’s name, or by going to Edit > Find and searching for the transaction.
- With the payment open, go to the Edit menu at the top of the screen.
- Select Delete Payment.
- Click OK to confirm.
Once deleted, the associated invoice reverts to its unpaid status, and the payment no longer appears in your Undeposited Funds. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D while the payment is open to trigger the delete prompt directly.
Deleting a Payment Already Included in a Deposit
QuickBooks won’t let you delete a received payment while it’s still linked to a recorded bank deposit. You have to deal with the deposit first, then circle back to the payment itself.
If the Deposit Contains Only That One Payment
Go to the Banking menu and select Use Register. Choose the bank account where the deposit was recorded, then locate the deposit transaction. Right-click on it and select Delete Deposit, then click OK to confirm. With the deposit gone, the payment drops back into Undeposited Funds, and you can open it and delete it using the steps above.
If the Deposit Contains Multiple Payments
You don’t need to delete the entire deposit. Instead, open it by double-clicking the deposit in the bank register. Find the line for the specific payment you want to remove, select that line, then go to Edit > Delete Line. Save and close the deposit. The payment you removed returns to Undeposited Funds, where you can then open and delete it.
An alternative path to reach the deposit: go to Lists > Chart of Accounts, double-click the bank account to open its register, then double-click the deposit to open it.
Void Instead of Delete
Before you hit delete, consider whether voiding the payment makes more sense. Voiding changes the payment amount to zero and marks the transaction as VOID in your records, but it keeps the original entry visible. Deleting removes the transaction entirely from your books. It won’t appear anywhere except the audit log, and you can’t recover it once it’s gone.
Voiding is generally the better choice for recordkeeping. It preserves a paper trail showing the payment once existed, which is useful if you ever need to explain a discrepancy to an accountant or during an audit. To void instead of delete, open the payment and go to Edit > Void Payment rather than Delete Payment.
The practical difference: if a customer’s check bounced and you need to reverse the payment, voiding keeps a record that the payment was attempted. Deleting makes it look like it never happened.
Payments in a Reconciled Period
If the payment (or its associated deposit) falls within a period you’ve already reconciled with your bank, deleting it will throw off your reconciliation. QuickBooks may warn you about this when you try. Once a reconciliation balance is disrupted, you’ll need to re-reconcile that period to get your books back in line.
For payments in reconciled periods, voiding is almost always the safer route. It zeros out the dollar amount without removing the transaction from the reconciled register. If you do need to delete, be prepared to reconcile that account again afterward. Before making changes, note the original transaction date, amount, and any linked invoice numbers so you can track down any discrepancies that surface.
What Happens After You Delete
When you delete a received payment, a few things change across your file. The invoice that was paid by that payment returns to an open (unpaid) status. If the payment was applied to multiple invoices, all of them revert to unpaid. Your accounts receivable balance increases by the deleted payment amount, and your bank account balance (if the deposit was also deleted) decreases accordingly.
QuickBooks records the deletion in the audit log, which you can access under Reports > Accountant & Taxes > Audit Trail. The log shows who deleted the transaction, when they did it, and the original details. This is the only place a deleted transaction leaves a trace, so if you think you might need to reference the payment later, write down the key details before confirming the deletion.