Invoices less payments in GnuCash

Question

I use GnuCash to manage the finances for my small business. I offer prepaid accounts to my customers who don't want to be bothered with invoices or have a fixed service budget.

I have set up the accounts as liabilities, and it seems obvious that after posting the invoice, I can enter a payment that goes into the liability account to reduce its balance. However, what happens when I have an invoice of, say, $100, and a prepaid balance of $25? I need to deduct the $25 from the prepaid balance and then issue a bill for the remaining $75. However, when I print an invoice (even if it has payments against it), it shows the total due as the full amount of the invoice.

How can I alter the total due so that it shows the true balance of the invoice (that is: total invoice amount less payments against it)?

Answer 1

Include a line-item on the invoice for a $25 credit against the liability account, then send the adjusted invoice to the client. This is really no different than any other credit, for example if you were to offer them a 10% discount for a holiday sale, and that discount equals -$25.00 on the bill, the only difference in accounting between the two would be the account against which you credit the adjustment to the bill.