What is the best practice for entering monies received for things i.e. rents (parking) and rebates from vendors that are in the form of a check?

Would it be to create a cash invoice in the receivables module and apply it to the best fitting G/L account?  Is there a better way to enter receipts of intangibles for parking rent monies and rebate checks from vendors. As of now I am creating a cash account invoice and using an asterisk for the line entry and just providing a description. I am then applying it to the best fitting G/L account code for my system. Is there a better way to go about this?