As the name suggests, Payment Methods are a list of the ways by which a customer can make a payment. They’re maintained on the Lists->Customer & Vendor Profile Lists->Payment Methods menu selection as 1 of 9 profile lists for Customers & Vendors. This particular profile list is only used for Customers.
A Payment Method can be one of 11 pre-defined Payment Types:
- Cash
- Check
- American Express
- Discover
- MasterCard
- Visa
- Other credit card
- Other
- Debit Card
- Gift Card
- E-Check
These Payment Types are part of the QuickBooks program itself and can’t be maintained by a user.
The Customer’s Payment Method is specified on the Receive Payments and the Enter Sales Receipts windows, and payments are grouped by Payment Method on the Payments to Deposit window if you’ve opted to use the Undeposited Funds account.
If you have a lot of payments to deposit, you can opt to the filter the items on the Payments to Deposit window to only include 1 particular Payment Method. Therefore, you should create Payment Methods that match the way your customer payments are grouped into deposits.
You can also specify a customer’s Preferred Payment Method on the Payment Info tab of the Edit Customer window.
Payment Methods primarily serve the function of grouping related items on a deposit, so your firm’s approach to bank deposits should drive the methods you create and maintain on this list.