The Customer Balance Summary in QuickBooks Online

The Customer Balance Summary shows the total open balance each customer owes you as of a date you choose. It is one line per customer with a single amount, and a grand total at the bottom that equals your total accounts receivable. Think of it as the shortest possible view of your receivables: not how overdue anything is, and not which invoices are involved, just who owes you and how much, right now or as of any past date.

What the Customer Balance Summary shows

Each row lists a customer and the net amount they owe, taking their unpaid invoices and subtracting any unapplied credits or payments still sitting on their account. Customers with a zero balance drop off, so what remains is the list of people who owe you money and the total of it. Because the grand total ties to the accounts receivable balance on your Balance Sheet, this report is a quick way to see which customers make up that single number without opening the full aging.

A snapshot as of one date

This is an as-of report, and it does not change with the cash or accrual accounting method. It shows each customer's balance as of the report date you set, so a run today and a run as of last year-end can differ as invoices are paid and new ones are issued. The date you choose defines the record, which is why a balance summary as of a year-end captures something the current books will not still show once those balances are settled.

Why a CPA or auditor asks for it

The Customer Balance Summary gives an accountant a fast reconciliation of accounts receivable by customer. It answers "who owes us, and how much" in a single page, which is often the starting point before digging into the age of those balances or the specific invoices behind them. When a preparer is closing your year or a buyer is reviewing the business, this report frames the receivables quickly, and from there they can move to the A/R Aging Summary to see how overdue each balance is or to the Open Invoices report to see the individual transactions.

How to run and export the Customer Balance Summary in QuickBooks Online

1. Go to the Reports menu and type "Customer Balance Summary" into the report search box, then open it.
2. Set the report date to the as-of date you want the balances measured against. For an archive, run it as of each fiscal year-end so you keep the receivable position at the close of each year.
3. Run the report and confirm the grand total matches the accounts receivable line on your Balance Sheet for the same date.
4. Use the export control at the top of the report to export it to Excel or PDF. The file downloads to your computer.

Because it is a point-in-time snapshot, an All Dates run does not preserve where balances stood at each year-end, so running it as of each year-end is what keeps the history. Our guide to exporting all your data from QuickBooks shows how the receivables reports fit with the rest of your records.

Keeping the Customer Balance Summary after you cancel

The Customer Balance Summary is one we include on request, and you can also export it yourself while the company is still open. Either way, it is worth keeping, because a cancelled paid QuickBooks Online company stays read-only for 12 months and is then permanently deleted, a trial only 90 days, and the IRS generally expects business records to be kept for at least three years, and longer in some situations. A year-end balance by customer is one of the records you cannot rerun from QuickBooks Online once the company is gone.

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from the A/R Aging Summary?

The Customer Balance Summary gives you one total per customer with no breakdown by age. The A/R Aging Summary takes those same balances and splits each across aging buckets so you can see how overdue the money is. Use this report for the totals and the aging report when the age matters.

Does the Customer Balance Summary account for credits and unapplied payments?

Yes. The balance it shows for each customer is net of unapplied credit memos and payments sitting on their account, which is why the grand total reconciles to your accounts receivable balance rather than to the sum of open invoices alone.

Why keep it if I can see current balances in QuickBooks?

Once you cancel, the company becomes read-only and is eventually deleted, so the live balances go with it. A saved summary as of a specific date preserves what each customer owed at that moment, which is what a lender, buyer, or examiner may ask about long after the books are gone.