How Does QuickBooks Online Determine Which Accounts Are Debited and Credited When Creating an Invoice?

When creating an Invoice on QuickBooks Online (QBO), a common question is:

"Can I pass an account_id to control which accounts are debited and credited?"

No, QBO does not support this behavior. Invoices in QBO automatically debit a system-selected Accounts Receivable (AR) account and credit the Income account linked to each item on the invoice. These accounts are not explicitly configurable during invoice creation via the API or UI.

If you need more visibility into which fields are supported when creating invoices or updating items through Rutter's API, you can use our Field-Level Support Explorer.

1. Can I Specify the Debited Account (Accounts Receivable)?

• No, you cannot: QBO selects the AR account automatically.

• How it's chosen: Based on system defaults, often determined by the customer’s currency.

• No override via API or UI: There is no supported field to choose or override the AR account.

• Workaround: If a different AR account is needed, users can use POST /journal_entry to reclassify the balance to the appropriate AR account after the invoice is created.

Community reference on AR behavior

2. Can I Specify the Credited Account (Income)?

• Yes, indirectly: The Income account is determined by the Item used on the invoice.

• Each item is associated with an Income account, and QBO credits that account automatically when the item is invoiced.

• How to modify:

  • Through the QuickBooks UI: edit the item to select a different Income account.

  • Or via API: use PATCH /items to update the item’s invoice_item.account_id.