Recording Customer Payments (Receivables)

When you sell on credit, the customer owes you money. This screen is where you record it arriving, and where you see who still owes what and for how long.

StepsCopy Anchor Link

1. Open Accountant → Receivables and click Record receipt.
2. Type the Customer number and click Check balance. The panel shows what they owe, across how many invoices, and any credit already sitting on their account. First payment from someone new? Click + New customer under the box, fill in their name, email and mobile (plus an optional Category label if you group customers), and they're created and selected on the spot — no trip to the Customers screen.
3. Enter the Amount received.
4. Pick Received as — cash, digital, cheque, bank transfer or other.
5. Set Received on (defaults to today) and add a Reference if you have one — a cheque number or a bank reference.
6. Check the preview. It shows which invoices the money will settle, oldest first, and how much (if any) will be held on their account.
7. Click Record receipt.

How the money is appliedCopy Anchor Link

Payments go against the oldest unpaid invoice first, then the next, and so on. If the customer pays more than they owe, or you record a payment before the invoice exists, the remainder is held as on-account credit — it still reduces what they owe you overall, and it will be applied to invoices as they come.

Reading the Aging tabCopy Anchor Link

The Aging tab groups every unpaid balance by how old it is: Current, 31–60 days, 61–90 days and 90+. The five cards along the top are the totals for your whole business; the table breaks them down by customer.

These figures are open balances — what's actually left on each invoice after everything received against it. A customer who has paid half of a 90-day-old invoice shows the remaining half, not the original amount.

Fixing a mistakeCopy Anchor Link

Receipts can't be edited or deleted — that's what keeps your books trustworthy. If you record the wrong amount, or a cheque bounces, use Reverse receipt from the row's menu. That writes an opposite entry: the money goes back to being owed, the invoices reopen, and both the original and the reversal stay visible in the list.

What it does to your booksCopy Anchor Link

Recording a receipt books it for you: what customers owe you goes down, and the money goes to the account that matches Received as — cash to Cash, bank transfer to Bank, a cheque to Cheques in Hand until it clears, digital to Digital Wallet Settlements Due, and other to Unidentified Settlements. Reversing puts it back where it came from. You never need to pass a journal entry for a customer payment. Two exceptions worth knowing: move a cheque from Cheques in Hand to Bank with a journal entry on the day it clears, and check Accountant → Auto-posting if you want a different account for any of these.

Creating and managing customers from hereCopy Anchor Link

The page header carries a New customer button and a Manage customers link, so a walk-in credit customer can be set up without leaving the receivables screen. The quick form takes just the essentials — name, email, mobile, and an optional Category label — and the full profile can be completed later under Customers. If you don't see these, you don't have the customer-management permission.

Why this matters for commissionCopy Anchor Link

If you pay your staff commission, this screen is what makes a credit sale earn. Commission is calculated on money actually received, so until a customer's payment is recorded here, the sale earns nobody anything. See Sales → Commission Settlements.