The Other Charge item is aptly named, because you use it for any charge that isn’t quite a service or a product, like shipping charges, finance charges, or bounced check charges. Other Charge items can be percentages or fixed amounts. For example, you might set up shipping charges that are the actual cost of shipping, or calculate shipping as a percentage of the product cost.

If a customer holds back a percentage of your charges until you complete the job satisfactorily, create an Other Charge item for the retainer (the portion of your fee that the customer doesn’t pay initially). Then, when you create the invoice, enter a negative percentage so QuickBooks deducts the retainer from the invoice total. When your customer approves the job, create another invoice, this time using another Other Charge item, called Retention, to charge the customer for the amount she withheld.