Introduction
From the main menu open Financials, then click the Outstanding balances tile. The screen is headed Customer outstanding. It has one row per customer who has a booking, a payment or a sent invoice with you. Each row shows Customer number, Name, Credit limit and Within credit limit, then four money columns: Open on invoices, Unallocated payments, Invoice balance and Deposit paid. The bold Customer balance column adds them up. At the right-hand end of each row sit two small icons with no text: a person icon that opens the customer, and a banknote icon that opens the customer's open invoices so you can take a payment.
You will use this when:
- a customer rings to settle up and asks how much they still owe
- a bank transfer arrives that pays one or more of a customer's invoices
- a customer form shows a red Credit limit exceeded strip
- you look down the list at the end of the month to see who still owes you money
Words used on this screen
| The screen says | It means |
|---|---|
| Open on invoices | What is still unpaid on the invoices you have sent this customer |
| Unallocated payments | Money the customer paid that is not yet matched to an invoice. Deposits are not counted here |
| Invoice balance | Open on invoices shown as a minus figure |
| Deposit paid | Deposit money the customer paid that has not been turned into an invoice payment |
| Customer balance | Invoice balance + Unallocated payments + Deposit paid. A minus figure means the customer owes you money |
| Booking balance | An older figure worked out from booking totals instead of invoices. Hidden at first |
Every way to do this task
| Route | What you get |
|---|---|
| Financials menu, Outstanding balances tile | Every customer's balance, and the banknote icon to take a payment |
| View on the Credit limit exceeded strip of a customer form | The same open-invoice screen as the banknote icon, for that one customer |
| The customer's balance on the Booking details screen | The same open-invoice screen. See Find your way around the Booking details screen |
| Financials menu, Payments tile, or the booking itself | A single payment where you choose the type yourself. See Record a payment a customer has made |
Use this page for what a customer owes across all their invoices. For a payment taken at the counter before the rental, record it on the booking instead.
How to use
Configuration
Two company-wide settings touch this page. Both need a company administrator account.
- From the main menu open Admin, then Settings, then click the Financial tile. Assign bulk payment method is the payment method that is filled in for you on the open-invoice screen. It starts on Bank, and an empty box also counts as Bank. You can still change the method for each payment. Press Save.
- From the main menu open Admin, then Settings, then click the Operational tile. On the General tab, Outstanding amount type decides which customer balance the Booking details screen shows: Booking outstanding (the starting value), Invoice outstanding, or Booking and invoice outstanding for both. It does not change the Outstanding balances list or the credit-limit check. Press Save.
Before you start: the Outstanding balances screen, the open-invoice screen and the View button on the Credit limit exceeded strip all need a company administrator account. Ordinary staff still see the strip on the customer form, but not the View button.
Using the outstanding balances list
- From the main menu open Financials, then click the Outstanding balances tile.
- Find the customer. Each column heading has its own filter box: type part of a name under Name, or set Within credit limit to show only customers who are over their limit.
- Read the Customer balance column. To see Booking balance as well, switch it on in the column menu at the right-hand end of the column headings.
- To take a payment, click the banknote icon on the customer's row. The screen headed Open invoices of name (customer number) opens. The same four figures and the Customer balance sit across the top, with a line explaining how they add up.
- Tick the invoices the customer paid; they are listed newest first, with their Open amount and Payment status. Amount received fills itself with the total still open on the ticked invoices, and Selected: shows that total underneath.
- If the customer paid only part, type what you actually received in Amount received. Check Payment date (today) and Payment method.
- Click Allocate. The screen headed Register invoice payments spreads the amount over the ticked invoices, oldest due date first, each up to what is open on it.
- Choose the Location where the money came in, and type the bank statement's reference in Reference (bank statement) if there is one. Change the Amount on any invoice if the customer meant the money for a different one. The line Open on the selected invoices: … · Still to allocate: … turns green once the amounts add up.
- Click Register payments. It only appears when Still to allocate is 0.00. Cancel or Back records nothing.
The app says Registered 2 payment(s), total 700.00. and the invoices you paid show their new Open amount and Payment status. For more on splitting one bank transfer, see Split one bank transfer over several invoices.
To let a held deposit pay the invoices, tick the invoices on the open-invoice screen and click Settle deposit instead of Allocate. For every ticked invoice whose booking still holds deposit, the deposit up to the invoiced amount becomes rent and pays the open invoices straight away. The app says Deposit settled on 1 booking(s). … and reloads the screen.
Key details
What the balance counts. Only invoices you have sent count as owed; a booking not yet invoiced adds nothing. Money the customer paid counts in their favour as Unallocated payments until it is matched to an invoice, or as Deposit paid while it is deposit.
A worked example. A customer has two sent invoices: number 1001 for €600, due 1 October, and number 1002 for €400, due 15 October. Nothing is paid on them. The customer also paid a €250 deposit on the second booking.
| Before | After a €700 bank transfer | |
|---|---|---|
| Open on invoices | 1,000.00 | 300.00 |
| Invoice balance | −1,000.00 | −300.00 |
| Unallocated payments | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Deposit paid | 250.00 | 250.00 |
| Customer balance | −750.00 | −50.00 |
When you tick both invoices, Amount received shows 1,000.00. You change it to 700 and click Allocate: invoice 1001 (the older due date) gets 600.00 and invoice 1002 gets 100.00. Invoice 1001 is now paid and invoice 1002 is partly paid with 300.00 open.
The credit limit uses the customer balance, and reaching it exactly is still fine. A customer is within their limit while what they owe, after unallocated payments and deposit paid, is no more than Credit limit. With a limit of 750.00, a Customer balance of −750.00 is within the limit; −750.01 is over it. A customer with no limit filled in is checked against 20,000.
Opening an over-limit customer blocks them, and the block lifts itself. Each time their customer form, their booking on the Booking details screen or the customer picker opens, the app checks the limit. Over the limit, it switches Blocked on with the reason Credit limit exceeded, and the form shows the strip "Customer exceeded cremit limit of {limit} with {amount}. To unblock the customer, first raise the credit limit or capture payments." The misspelling is the app's own. A blocked customer's bookings cannot be confirmed or picked up. Once a payment, a settled deposit or a higher limit brings them back within the limit, the next check lifts the block by itself. You do not need to switch Blocked off. A block set by hand or for the blacklist is never lifted this way. See Find blocked and inactive customers.
What a payment records. Each invoice with an amount gets its own invoice payment, with the method, date, location and reference you chose. It counts towards the invoice's paid amount and status, and on each booking the invoice covers. For what Paid, Partially paid and the Attention flags mean, see See which invoices are paid and open.
What to do next: if the customer was blocked for credit, open their customer form once so the block lifts. For a customer who still has overdue invoices, see Send reminders for overdue invoices.
Q&A
Why is a customer still blocked after they paid? The block is checked again when their customer form, their booking or the customer picker opens. Open their customer form once. If Blocked is still on, they are still over the limit, or the block was set by hand or for the blacklist. The Blocked tab on the customer list shows which; see Find blocked and inactive customers.
Why does "The amounts per invoice must add up to the amount received." appear? The Amount boxes on Register invoice payments do not add up to Amount received. Change the boxes until Still to allocate shows 0.00, or change Amount received. Nothing was recorded.
Why does "An amount per invoice must be between 0 and what is open on that invoice." appear? One Amount box is more than that invoice's Open amount, or below zero. The app does not let you overpay an invoice here. Record the extra money as a separate payment instead; see Record a payment a customer has made.
Why does "Please choose the location where the payment was received." appear? Every payment needs a location. Pick one in Location on Register invoice payments and click Register payments again.
Why does "There is no deposit to settle: none of the selected invoices has a booking that still holds deposit." appear? None of the ticked invoices belongs to a booking that still holds deposit, for example because it was refunded or settled already. Use Allocate with the money the customer paid instead.
Why does "Select one or more invoices." appear? You clicked Allocate or Settle deposit without ticking an invoice. Tick at least one first.
Why can I not find the Register payments button? It only shows while Still to allocate is 0.00. Change the Amount boxes until it is.
Why is an invoice missing from the open-invoice list? The list shows only sent invoices with more than five cents still open. Draft invoices and paid invoices are not listed. For an invoice that was credited, see Take back an invoice with a credit note.
Why does an invoice show "Before go-live" as its payment status? It dates from before your company started tracking invoice payments in the app. Its Open column shows what was still open at that time, and you can pay it like any other invoice.
Why does the customer balance look better than the open invoices? Deposit the customer paid counts in their favour under Deposit paid. Use Settle deposit once the rental is over to let that deposit pay the invoice.
Why is a customer missing from the list? Customers who have no booking, payment or sent invoice are not listed, and neither are archived customers. Clear the filter boxes under the column headings too, because they are remembered from last time.
Why is the list empty, or the icons are missing? The screen and its payment icon need a company administrator account. Ask your administrator.
Related pages:
- Set a customer's payment and invoicing terms for the credit limit itself.
- Match payments to invoices for money that is not yet matched to an invoice.
- Refund deposits and overpayments to customers for deposit that should go back to the customer.
- Confirm a booking for the other checks that refuse a confirmation.