Record customer payments

When a customer pays, record the payment against the invoices it settles. The money is booked into the bank account it landed in, the invoices it pays show Partial or Paid, and the customer’s balance falls. The screens call a customer payment a receipt.

Record a payment

1. Go to Receivables ‣ Transactions ‣ Payments and click New receipt.
2. Pick the Customer. Their posted invoices with money still owing appear under Open invoices, with the Balance still due on each.
3. Enter the Payment date: the day the money arrived, so the payment posts in the right period.
4. Pick the Payment method and the Bank account the money landed in.
5. Enter the customer’s cheque or transfer number in Reference, so you can find the payment when you check the bank statement.
6. In Allocate, enter the amount paid against each invoice. Click Pay full balance beside an invoice to fill in all it owes, or Pay all to settle every invoice listed.
7. Check the total under Payment in, then click Save draft and Confirm.

Despite the button’s name, the payment is posted at once and opens with its number. The Allocations tab lists the invoices it paid and what each still owes; each of those invoices now shows Partial or Paid. The ledger has booked the money into the bank account’s ledger account and taken it off the receivable, and the journal entry is on the Related tab.

Field	What it sets
Customer	Who paid. The payment is booked in the customer’s subsidiary, on their posting profile.
Payment date	The date the money arrived. The exchange rate and fiscal period are read at this date.
Payment method	How the customer paid: Bank Transfer, Cheque, Cash or Wire Transfer.
Bank account	The bank or cash account the money went into.
Currency and Exchange rate	The currency the customer paid in, taken from the customer.
Reference	The customer’s cheque or transfer number.
Notes	Anything your staff should know about the payment.

Note

The amount of the payment is the total you allocate. You cannot record money paid in advance, or more than the listed invoices owe, from this screen: allocate it in full to open invoices.

Spread a payment over the oldest invoices

When a customer pays a round sum without saying which invoices it covers, let Axon Suite settle the oldest first.

1. Pick the Customer, so their open invoices are listed.
2. Enter the sum received in Amount, beside Auto allocate.
3. Click Auto allocate.

The sum is spread over the invoices by date, oldest first, each up to its balance. Check the Allocate column, change any amount you need to, and save as above.

Example

A café owes three invoices: 400.00 from 3 May, 250.00 from 10 May and 300.00 from 17 May. It transfers 800.00. Auto allocate pays the first two in full and puts 150.00 against the third, which then shows Partial with 150.00 still due.

Receive a payment in a foreign currency

When the customer pays in a currency other than your subsidiary’s, the payment is converted at its Exchange rate. The difference from the rate the invoice was raised at is booked as a realised gain or loss, to the accounts named in Set the exchange gain and loss accounts.

1. Check that Currency shows the currency the customer paid in.
2. Enter in Exchange rate how many units of your subsidiary’s currency one unit of that currency was worth on the payment date.
3. Allocate and save the payment.

Danger

The Exchange rate field starts at 1, and the payment is booked at whatever rate it holds; it does not look up the rate on file. Always type the day’s rate, or a USD 1,000 payment into SAR books is booked as SAR 1,000 and leaves a false exchange gain or loss on the invoice.

Void a payment

A posted payment cannot be edited. To correct one, void it and record it again.

1. Open the payment from Receivables ‣ Transactions ‣ Payments and click Void.
2. In Date, enter the date the reversal books on.
3. Click Confirm.

The payment shows Void. Its allocations are released, so the invoices it paid are owed again, and a reversing journal entry takes the money back out of the bank account on the date you gave.

Messages you may meet

Message	What to do
No open documents	The customer owes nothing on a posted invoice. Post their draft invoices first.
The customer needs a subsidiary and posting profile before a payment can be recorded.	Open the customer in Sales ‣ Master data ‣ Customers and fill in Posting profile on the Financial tab.
Select a bank account.	Pick the Bank account the money went into.
The bank account is not active in this payment’s subsidiary.	Pick a bank account that belongs to the customer’s subsidiary, or to all subsidiaries.
A document can only be settled in the currency it was raised in.	Set Currency to the invoices’ currency, or record a separate payment for invoices in another currency.
The documents it settles sit on different posting profiles; settle them separately.	Record one payment per posting profile, allocating only the invoices on that profile.
The amount claimed is more than the document still has outstanding.	Lower the Allocate amount; another payment or credit has reduced the invoice since you opened the screen.
The accounting period is closed.	Use a Payment date in an open period.