Receive Payments

Receive Payments records money a customer has paid you against the invoices they owe. You choose the customer, enter what they paid and how, and SeroBooks lists their open invoices and applies the money down them — oldest first — while letting you change every allocation. A payment can settle one invoice, several, or part of one; it can bring in the customer's credit memos, take an early-payment discount, write off a small underpayment, or leave an overpayment on account as a credit.

For a customer paying at the moment you write the invoice, you do not need this screen: choose the payment method on the invoice itself, or use Split (see Create Invoices and Taking a split payment).

Opening Receive Payments

• Customers ▸ Receive Payments
• Home ▸ Receive Payments
• From an invoice's Receive action in the Income Tracker

Customers ▸ Receive Payments opens the list of every customer with a balance — see Customer Balances — with Receive beside each. Click Receive (or double-click the customer, or select them and press Enter) to open the payment for that customer, titled Receive · (customer).

To receive money from any customer — including one who owes nothing yet, such as a deposit before the work starts — type their name in RECEIVED FROM at the top of the list and pick them. The same payment opens for them. With no open invoices it says (customer) has no open invoices. The amount received is left as their credit, to apply to an invoice later or refund. The walk-in customer cannot be picked: The walk-in customer has no account to receive a payment into.

Receiving payments needs the Record right on Receive Payments.

Step by step: record a payment

1. Open Customers ▸ Receive Payments and click Receive beside the customer (or pick any customer in RECEIVED FROM).
2. Type the Amount received.
3. Check the Date — the day the money was received.
4. Choose the payment method (Cash, Debit, Credit, e-Transfer, Cheque…).
5. Type the Reference (cheque #, note…) — the cheque number, e-Transfer reference or card approval. For a credit card you charge a surcharge on, choose it under CARD SURCHARGE (see Card surcharge on a later payment).
6. Check Deposit To, if shown.
7. Look at OPEN INVOICES: SeroBooks has applied the amount to the oldest invoices first. Change any PAYMENT figure to apply it differently — Amount received changes to the new total of the payments applied.
8. If the customer has credit memos, apply them under CREDIT NOTES.
9. Check the totals on the right, then click Record $… (or Save & New).
10. Confirm the summary.

SeroBooks confirms, for example, $1,250.00 recorded against 2 invoice(s). and returns to the list, where the customer's balance is updated.

The payment fields

Applying the payment to invoices

OPEN INVOICES lists every invoice the customer still owes, oldest first — including any General Journal entries that put an amount on their account (shown as "GJ …"):

To pay one specific invoice, click Clear, then type the amount against that invoice.

The amount and the payments work both ways, as in QuickBooks:

• Type the Amount received and SeroBooks applies it down the invoices, oldest first.
• Type a PAYMENT on an invoice (or tick one) and Amount received becomes the total of the payments applied. For example, with $2,464.00 owing on #1290, typing 2,000 in its PAYMENT makes the Amount received $2,000.00 — not $2,464.00 with a $464.00 overpayment.

The one exception: if you typed an Amount received that the payments did not add up to — say $3,000.00 handed over for $2,464.00 owing, the rest to be left as a credit — changing a payment leaves your amount as you typed it, and the difference shows as the overpayment or underpayment.

Applying credit memos

If the customer has unused credits, a CREDIT NOTES section lists them:

Apply all uses every credit; Clear removes them. Select the invoice the credit is for first, then apply the credit. A credit applied moves no money: it simply settles part of the invoice. You can record a payment made up entirely of credits, with no money received.

The totals

Underpayments

When the amount applied to an invoice is less than it owes, an UNDERPAYMENT $…. When you finish: section offers:

• Leave this as an underpayment — the invoice stays part-paid and the rest is still owed.
• Write off the extra amount — choose the account in Write off to (for example a bad debts or bank charges expense). The shortfall is written off and the invoice is closed.

Early-payment discounts

When an invoice's terms give a discount for paying early and the payment is within the discount period, EARLY-PAYMENT DISCOUNTS offers Take $… off (invoice) — (terms), if paid by (date). Tick it to take the discount and choose the Discount account it goes to. The discount reduces what the invoice owes.

Overpayments

If the customer paid more than the invoices you applied it to, Overpayment: $… is left as a credit for (customer), to apply to a later invoice or refund. The credit then appears under CREDIT NOTES next time, and in their ledger as a credit balance (Cr on their balance chip).

The credit is part of the same payment, as QuickBooks shows it: $3,100.00 received for $3,060.00 of invoices is one receipt of $3,100.00 — $3,060.00 applied to the invoices and $40.00 left as a credit — not a $3,060.00 receipt and a second $40.00 one (see One payment, one receipt). Money received from a customer with nothing applied to an invoice is a receipt of its own, with its own number.

If the customer already has money on account, a line says (customer) has $… on account. with Refund it…: record a refund of the credit — Refund credit to (customer) asks for the Refund amount, Paid by (Cheque, Cash, Card…) and, for a cheque, the Cheque number.

Card surcharge on a later payment

When a customer pays one, two or all of their invoices later by credit card and you charge a card surcharge, choose the rate under CARD SURCHARGE — the same rates as the surcharge on an invoice (2.4% is the Canadian cap for credit cards; Custom… takes any percentage). The line beside it shows the surcharge and the total to charge on the card, for example $30.00 on the card as well — $1,030.00 in all, and the Record button adds + $30.00 surcharge.

An invoice already saved cannot take a surcharge, so SeroBooks records it as a small invoice of its own for the customer, paid by the same card payment, on the same date and into the same Deposit To account. The invoice has one line, for the Credit card surcharge item: quantity 1, price and total the surcharge, no tax, and a description naming what it was for — for example Credit card surcharge (2%) on payment of $3,000.00 paid by credit card against Invoice #1281, #1300. The line shows on screen, on the printed or PDF invoice and on the online invoice.

SeroBooks creates the Credit card surcharge item the first time it is needed: a service item with no stock and no tax, kept off the till's product grid, whose income account is Card surcharge collected (your company's account for card surcharges). If you already have an item of that name, it is used.

The customer's balance is unchanged by it, and the bank shows everything the card paid. It is recorded exactly as the surcharge on an invoice: no sales tax, and the income goes to Card surcharge collected — once.

The surcharge is part of the same payment: a $3,000.00 card payment against #1281 and #1300 with a 2% surcharge is one receipt of $3,060.00 settling #1281, #1300 and the surcharge invoice (see One payment, one receipt).

The surcharge is recorded with a payment on an invoice: apply at least part of the money to one, or SeroBooks says A card surcharge is recorded with a payment on an invoice — apply the money to one first. After recording, the message names the surcharge invoice, for example Card surcharge $30.00 is invoice 0231.

One payment, one receipt

A payment applied to several invoices is one payment, as in QuickBooks. All of its parts share one receipt number (for example SP2026/0174), with the same date, method and Deposit To, so:

• the receipt shows one payment — say $3,060.00 — with WHAT THIS SETTLED listing each invoice: #1281 $1,650.00, #1300 $1,350.00, #1303 $60.00 (the surcharge invoice);
• the customer's ledger shows one Payment received row of $3,060.00, its details naming Invoices #1281, #1300, #1303;
• Make Deposits and Undeposited Funds list it as one $3,060.00 payment, matching the one deposit on the bank statement.

An overpayment left as a credit is part of the same receipt too. A $3,100.00 payment for #1281 ($1,650.00) and #1300 ($1,410.00) is one receipt of $3,100.00: WHAT THIS SETTLED lists the two invoices and a line Left as credit for (customer) $40.00, and the panel on the right reads Received $3,100.00, Applied $3,060.00, Not applied $40.00. The customer's ledger shows one Payment received row of $3,100.00 reading Invoices #1281, #1300; credit $40.00, and Make Deposits lists one $3,100.00 payment.

This applies to payments recorded from now on; payments recorded earlier keep the numbers they were given.

Recording

Before recording, SeroBooks shows a summary: Record $… from (customer)? (or Settle $… for (customer)? when credits are used, or Record $… as a credit for (customer)? when nothing is applied to an invoice) — how many invoices will be part- or fully paid, how much comes from credits, and any OVERPAYMENT or UNDERPAYMENT. Click Record Payment.

Messages you may see:

What posts to the books

Each payment applied to an invoice posts:

A card surcharge posts on its own invoice: debit Accounts Receivable, credit Card surcharge collected (the income account of its Credit card surcharge line — once, never also to sales); and its payment debits the Deposit To account and credits Accounts Receivable.

A credit memo applied moves no money: it settles the invoice against the credit already on the customer's account. An early-payment discount or a write-off posts the discount or shortfall to the account you chose and credits Accounts Receivable. An overpayment left as a credit sits on the customer's account (a credit balance in Accounts Receivable) until it is applied or refunded.

After recording: the payment receipt

Every payment can be opened as a Receipt — from the invoice's Payments on this invoice, the customer's ledger or All Payments. It shows Received, Method, Reference, Cheque no. or Card ref, where it was deposited (Deposit to, or On deposit … once it is in a bank deposit, with Change), WHAT THIS SETTLED (each DOCUMENT, its DATE, DOCUMENT TOTAL and APPLIED, then Left as credit for (customer) with any amount the payment left as a credit, or Taken on account — not set against any document yet), TOTAL OF THIS RECEIPT and STILL OPEN FOR THIS CUSTOMER, with a place to attach the remittance or cheque image.

A receipt is one payment method and one Deposit To account. The parts of a split payment — say $65 by debit card and $100 in cash — are separate receipts, each with its own Deposit to and Change; each shows Paid together with and the other parts, which open with a click.

If the payment is already in a bank deposit, SeroBooks warns This transaction has been deposited. If you change it, the deposit will be affected. The server refuses changes in a closed period or to a payment cleared in a bank reconciliation. Editing and deleting payments need the Edit Payment and Delete Payment rights.

Tips

• Always type the cheque number or e-Transfer reference — it shows on the customer's statement and makes bank reconciliation easy.
• Use Undeposited Funds if you bank several cheques together, so each bank deposit matches your bank statement.
• To see a customer's whole history before applying a disputed payment, press Ctrl+J for their ledger.

Common problems

Related articles

• Customer Balances
• Undeposited Funds and the Deposit To account
• Make Deposits
• Create Credit Memos and Refunds
• All Payments
• A customer's ledger and balance (Dr / Cr)