Match payments to invoices

Introduction

When a customer pays on a booking (for example when they book) the money is not yet tied to any invoice. The app ties it to the booking's invoices for you: it allocates it. This page shows where to find money that is still free, how to allocate it yourself, and how to undo an allocation that went to the wrong invoice.

Three screens are involved. Unallocated payments, under Financials, lists every booking payment that is not fully used. The booking's payments screen, headed Booking payments, has an Invoice reconciliation tab with the Allocate to invoices button. On the new invoice screen, Payments and allocations lets you Allocate one payment to one invoice and Reverse an allocation with a reason. A fourth screen, Payment reconciliation scenarios, explains the rules with worked amounts.

You would be here because:

• a customer paid after the invoice went out, and the invoice still looks unpaid
• you are checking at the end of the day for money that is not on any invoice
• a payment landed on the wrong invoice and has to move
• a booking's payments screen warns in red that a payment is allocated for more than it is worth

Terms used on this screen

Every way money reaches an invoice

Use this page when money and invoices do not line up.

How to use

Configuration

Nothing to set up. Allocate and Reverse are on the new invoice screen only; see Use the new invoice screen for the Use new invoice screen setting.

Before you start: Unallocated payments, Allocate to invoices, Allocate and Reverse are for company administrators.

Using the allocation screens

1. Find free money. From the main menu open Financials, then click the Unallocated payments tile. Each row is a booking payment with Payment date, Booking, Customer, Type, Amount, Allocated, Unallocated, Method and Reference. Filter on Booking or Customer to find one.
2. Click a row. The booking's Booking payments screen opens. Click the Invoice reconciliation tab. It shows Invoiced, Rent paid, Deposit paid, Allocated to invoices, Unallocated and Still open on invoices, then the booking's sent invoices and its payments with what each is Allocated to.
3. Click Allocate to invoices at the top of the tab. The free money goes to the open invoices of the same customer, oldest first. A message says how many allocations were made, for example 1 payment allocation(s) created for booking 2041. This happens at once; there is no confirmation.
4. To put one payment on one particular invoice instead, open that invoice on the new invoice screen and click Payments & allocations in the Payment card. Under Unallocated booking payments of this customer, click Allocate on the payment's row. The pop-up Allocate a payment shows the payment and proposes an Amount to allocate: the smaller of the payment's free money and the invoice's open amount. Change it if you need to and click Allocate. Close allocates nothing.
5. To undo an allocation, open the invoice it went to, click Payments & allocations, find the row under Allocated from booking payments and click Reverse. In the pop-up Reverse allocation, type a Reason and click Reverse. The message says The allocation has been reversed. The money is free again. Allocate it to the right invoice with step 4.

When it worked, Unallocated on the payment drops to 0 and the invoice's Open amount goes down by the same sum.

Key details

When the app allocates by itself. When an invoice is sent, the free money on its bookings goes to it. When an invoice is fully credited, its allocations are reversed and the money moves on to the booking's next open invoice. Every night the app also does this for bookings that are returned or cancelled and fully invoiced, so a payment that arrives after the invoice was sent is matched the next morning. Allocate it yourself if you need it matched sooner.

The rules every allocation follows.

A worked example. Booking #2041 has invoice 2026-0412 of €500. The customer paid €200 when booking.

The 5-cent margin. Unallocated payments lists a payment with more than 5 cents free, or more than 5 cents over-allocated. €0.05 left on a payment stays off the list; €0.06 is listed.

Reversals stay on record. A reversal adds a negative row with your reason; the original row stays and is marked reversed. Each allocation can be reversed once, and a reversal cannot itself be reversed. The automatic routes never put the same payment back on the same invoice.

The scenarios screen. Financials → Reconciliation scenarios opens Payment reconciliation scenarios: sixteen numbered cases (prepaid, paid less, paid more, split billing, deposit and settle, credit and corrected invoice, refund after allocation, and the older-invoice cases), each with Situation, What the app does and Result. It is read-only.

What to do next: clear Unallocated payments at the end of the day. Money that stays free after its invoices are paid belongs to the next invoice or to a refund: Refund deposits and overpayments to customers.

Q&A

Why did Allocate to invoices put the money back on the invoice I just reversed? Allocate to invoices fills the oldest open invoice first, and a manual run may pick the same invoice again. Only the automatic routes skip it. To move money to one particular invoice, use Allocate on that invoice's Payments and allocations screen (step 4).

Why does the Invoice reconciliation tab show a red warning that a payment is allocated for more than it is worth? Rent was refunded after the payment had been allocated, so the payment has a negative Unallocated amount and is listed on Unallocated payments. Open the invoice it was allocated to, click Payments & allocations and Reverse the allocation with a reason.

Why does Allocate refuse with "Deposits and payments linked directly to an invoice cannot be allocated."? Deposits are not allocated, and a payment recorded against an invoice already counts there. Move a deposit to rent with Settle first.

Why is there no Allocate button on the invoice's payments screen? The invoice is a draft, an older Not tracked invoice, or credited. None of these take allocations.

Why does Reverse refuse to go ahead? The Reason is empty (Please give a reason for the reversal.), the allocation was already reversed, or the row is itself a reversal.

Why can't I find Allocate or Reverse at all? They are on the new invoice screen only. On the classic screen, use Allocate to invoices on the booking's Booking payments screen; reversing needs the new invoice screen. See Use the new invoice screen.

Why does clicking a row say "This payment is not linked to a booking."? The payment was recorded on the customer without a booking. Allocation works per booking, so the app cannot allocate it. Look the payment up on Financials → Payments and sort it out there: Fix a payment that is missing, doubled or not in the accounts.

Related pages:

• See which invoices are paid and open, for what the payment status and Attention flags mean.
• Split one bank transfer over several invoices, when one transfer pays several invoices of a customer.
• Record a payment a customer has made, to record the money in the first place.