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Record a Payment

docs/user-guides/record-payment.md

Audience: owners, managers, accountants Difficulty: new user

What this covers

How to record both money in (customer payments / receipts) and money out (bill payments / supplier refunds), including allocation, partial payments, and over-payments.

Money in — customer payment

When a customer pays an invoice you've sent.

Step 1 — Open the payment form

  1. Go to Sales > Customer Payments.
  2. Click Record Payment.

Step 2 — Identify the customer

  1. Pick the Customer from the drop-down. The screen reloads to show the customer's open invoices.
  2. Set the Payment Date — when the money actually landed.
  3. Pick the Bank Account the money was received into.

Step 3 — Enter the amount

  1. Type the Amount Received. Use the same currency as the bank account (multi-currency conversion happens further down if needed).

Step 4 — Allocate against invoices

  1. The customer's open invoices appear in a table.
  2. Tick each invoice you're paying. The system auto-allocates by oldest first.
  3. To change an allocation:
    • Edit the Applied Amount column directly for partial payments.
    • Untick to skip an invoice.
  4. The Unallocated indicator at the bottom shows any leftover amount.

Step 5 — Post

  1. Click Save Draft to keep working, or Post to commit.

Posting writes: Dr Bank / Cr Accounts Receivable.

Partial payments

Two scenarios:

  • Customer pays part of one invoice. Tick the invoice; type the partial amount in Applied Amount. The invoice stays open with the balance.
  • Customer pays one invoice with money left over. Tick the invoice; type its full amount. The remainder shows as Unallocated and stays as a credit on the customer for use later.

To apply unallocated cash to a future invoice, open the next Customer Payment, pick the same customer, and use Apply Existing Credit.

Over-payments

When the amount received is more than all open invoices combined:

  1. Tick all open invoices to full allocation.
  2. The leftover sits as customer credit (unallocated).
  3. Either refund the customer (Sales > Refund Receipts) or apply it to the next invoice.

Money out — bill payment

When you pay a supplier.

Step 1 — Open the payment form

  1. Go to Purchases > Bill Payments.
  2. Click Record Payment.

Step 2 — Identify the supplier

  1. Pick the Vendor (or Supplier — same thing).
  2. Set the Payment Date and the Bank Account the money came from.

Step 3 — Allocate against bills

  1. Pick the bills being paid. Allocations work the same way as customer payments — tick, edit amount, leave open balance for partials.

Step 4 — Post

  1. Click Post.

Posting writes: Dr Accounts Payable / Cr Bank.

Direct expense (one-step bill + payment)

For small expenses that don't go through a bill (e.g. a fuel purchase paid by company card):

  1. Go to Purchases > Expenses.
  2. Click New Expense.
  3. Pick the Expense Account, Bank Account, Date, and Amount.
  4. Click Save Draft, then Post.

Posting writes: Dr Expense / Cr Bank. There is no AP balance.

Reverse a payment

If you posted a payment by mistake:

  1. Open the payment.
  2. Click Reverse (requires sales.payments.reverse or purchases.bill_payments.reverse).
  3. The system writes a contra entry on the reversal date. The allocated invoices/bills return to Open.

You cannot delete a posted payment. Reversal is the only way to back it out.

Common errors

Error Cause Fix
"Payment cannot be recorded." Customer has no open invoices, or bank account inactive, or amount is zero Check the customer's invoices; pick an active bank account; enter a non-zero amount
"Period locked." Payment date is on or before the lock date Use a date in an open period
"Currency mismatch." Bank account currency differs from payment currency without multi-currency feature Switch on Multi-currency, or use a bank account in the same currency

Related

Source: docs/user-guides/record-payment.md ← All documentation