Accounts receivable vs income

I have everything going to the sales income category and when I get a payment I use the recieve payments icon then type in the amount. The payment shows in the register but it puts it against the accounts receivable.  Even if I run a report it shows all the money in the accounts receivable, but if I run a sales income report it shows it in their too. 

That is the flow.  If you did it by journal entry (not recommended) but so you can understand the flow:

debit a/r

credit  income

when you invoice.

When you receive your customer pymt. it credits a/r

debits your bank acct (or undep funds then bank acct).

QuickBooks is a double entry accounting method.

When you run a profit and loss statement, it will show the income at the time of the sale (invoice date), if you run the report on an accrual basis.

If you run it on a cash basis, the income will show at the time of the customer payment.

The flow thru a/r will show on the balance sheet report.

I do not have a balance in Undeposited Funds.  I do have a balance in Account Receivable. 

I create invoices and send out the bill.  When I get a check in the mail and deposit it in the bank I receive the payment in quick books which does post to the bank account and show up in A/R.
So are you saying now I have to somehow receive it again to post as sales income or is the A/R quick books way of showing income?
 

No you are doing it properly.  Create an invoice, record the payment.  Use an item on the invoice that points to income.  You have the proper flow.  No other transaction is needed (unless you use undeposited funds, then you go to banking>record deposit and group your deposit to your bank acct).

My accountant doesn't used quick books software and said that all the payments should be showing as income so that is how this mess got started.  If accounts receivable is the same as income then I guess there is nothing else to do.  I guess I should have started with that question and saved everyone a lot of time.  Thanks for all the help.

I only had a short amount of time to sit down with my accountant and we were mainly discussing other items.  I only get to go every couple months so far as I am a new business and trying to do it all on my own because I can't afford an accountant's rates.  She has been in business over 20 years so I think she will be able to figure it out, I am just trying to do what I can to learn and make things easier come tax time without going all year doing something wrong.  Thank you all for your help.

Just to beat this dead horse into the ground and to clear up how the accounting works here.

When you click the INVOICE icon on the home page and fill out the screen, quickbooks puts the amount you entered into Income AND into Accounts Receivable (double entry accounting). Accounts Receivable is the account that keeps track of what your customers owe you. You can run reports under the Reports > Sales and Customers > A/R Aging Detail menu to see what is in that account.

The next Icon directly to the right of the INVOICE icon is the RECEIVE PAYMENT icon. In this screen you record the payment check information (or cash or credit card) from the customer and this removes that amount frrom accounts receivable and puts it into your bank account or undeposited funds (depends on your company file preference settings). This is why the payment information referes to the Accounts Receivable account. You already recorded income on the previous screen.

Yes, theleftbrain,

I think we have all "beat this dead horse to the ground" on this one.  LOL

To be briefer in my response, I assumed that the user had setup an item linked to income as they had earlier stated that they "had everything categorized as sales income".