My newly created invoices are going straight to paid ?

Howdy, terry-barnes.

I can help you determine why you'll receive a message stating it say paid straight away every time you create a new invoice. 

QuickBooks Online offers automation features, such as automatically applying payments to an invoice, which can be turned off.

To resolve this issue, you'll need to turn off the Automatically apply credits option and then, unlink the automatically paid invoice to the payment. 

Here's how to turn off the Automatically apply credits: 

1. Click the Gear icon and choose Account and Settings. 
2. Select Advanced on the left of the screen. 
3. Click the Pencil icon in Automation. 
4. Remove the check mark in the Automatically apply credits box. 
5. Click Save and select Done. 

Once done, please follow the steps below on how to unlink the invoice and the payment. 

1. Click Sales at the left panel. Then choose Customers section. 
2. Find the customer and click it to expand the page. 
3. Select on the invoice that was shows paid. 
4. Click the Payment link. Then select the date link. 
5. Under Outstanding Transactions on the Receive Payment page, uncheck the invoice that was automatically paid. 
6. Click Save and close. 
7. A prompt will appear. Click Yes to confirm the edit. 
8. If applicable, repeat the steps for other invoices. 

Please check this article on how to use the credit toward an invoice, refund the customer, or enter the overpayment as a tip in QuickBooks: Handle a customer credit or overpayment in QuickBooks Online. 

That'll do it. I'm confident that you'll have the setting to automatically apply payments to the oldest invoice turned off in no time. 

You are always welcome to reach back out to me if there's anything else you need concerning QuickBooks. I'm always here to lend a helping hand. Wishing you and your business continued success.