u/Ocelot-Chance

Context: I manage finances for a nonprofit summer recreation association. We manage an onsite cafeteria. We require all members to pay a $500 deposit at the beginning of the season, and use the funds for startup costs. Members are automatically billed weekly via QBO e-mailed invoice for meals consumed.

The way we want it to work: Each invoice debits the $500 balance until the balance is exhausted, at which point the member pays. An invoice will show meal charges, any credit remaining on the account, and a net total payment due.

The way it actually works: QBO automatically issues invoices each week without checking for or applying any credit remaining from the $500 deposit. The member gets an invoice which shows nothing but meal charges and an amount due, and calls to ask why their deposit wasn't applied.

Trying to fix it: Our accountant tells me there's no way to configure QBO to do this automatically because "there's no per-customer escrow ledger". The only solution she offers: tell members not to pay their invoices for a few days. This gives her time to manually apply credits to new invoices, and reissue an invoice showing the applied credit and the correct amount due.

My question: This can't be right, can it? How is it possible that accounting software won't automatically apply credits on a customer's account? How do law offices handle retainers? They manually apply payment to every new invoice? How do wholesale businesses handle prepayments or overpayments on charge accounts?

If this is really how QBO works, does someone at least know the reason so I can make peace with it?

Over the past year we got 2 phones for our two daughters from Fi, and added 2 new numbers. In both cases we ran into 2 very frustrating and confusing situations that I have been unable to resolve.

Daughter #1: I ordered a Pixel 10 Pro for her under promotion. When it arrived, I activated my number in it, and gave her my old Pixel 7 Pro. Fi immediately cancelled my 24-month promotion, and charged me full price for the Pixel. I was very confused until the Fi representative directed me to the fine print of the promotion, which explained that I had to keep the specific individual and number selected at activation tied to the hardware to get the promotion.

"But why?", I asked. "I added a new user with a new number on my account. I'm keeping it active. I'm using the new phone on my account. Why does it matter which member uses which phone?" They refused to restore the promotion.

Daughter #2: We bought her a Pixel 3 LTE watch (and no phone) but we couldn't activate the watch without tying it to a phone. So I ordered a Pixel 9a for her under promotion. When I tried to activate the Watch and 9a using her e-mail account, Google wouldn't allow it. "We can't tie the watch to her e-mail address because she's a minor." I said, "But I want her to carry your watch because she's a minor."

Apparently this isn't allowed under the Watch rules because it would be tracking a minor (which is confusing, since minors are allowed to carry phones on Fi that track them and report their location in a few different ways).

So I activated the 9a under my alternate Gmail address and tied her Watch to it.

This was fine until today, when I switched from a Galaxy Watch to a new Pixel 4 watch. I tried to activate it on my regular e-mail (a legacy vanity e-mail hosted by Google) and was told I needed to use a "personal Gmail" because my primary address shows up as a business address. No problem, I thought: my daughter is now 13, and she's eligible to use her own e-mail. I'll recover my alternate Gmail, and use that.

I contacted Fi Support to ask them to switch her Fi account to her Gmail. They told me I'd lose the 9a promotion, which would mean forfeiting $228. "But why?", I asked. "I'm keeping the same number in the same hardware with the same user. Why does that affect my promotion?" Because: rules. Then they told me that it would be impossible to move her anyway because she's a minor. After asking several times for an explanation, they acknowledged that they could move her because she's 13, but I would still lose the promotion.

At this point I'm banging my head against the wall. None of this makes sense to me, and I've had 3 other carriers (T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint) over many years who could care less who uses the hardware as long as (a) you keep paying for your number, and (b) you keep using the phone you got.

I have 4 numbers, 3 Pixel phones, and 2 Pixel watches. Has anyone found a Fi decisionmaker who can look thoughtfully at customer loyalty and make a consumer-friendly decision?