A credit limit is the most a customer or a guest is allowed to owe you before the system refuses to save another invoice on credit. Nothing is enforced until you switch it on — a fresh system lets everyone buy on credit without limit.
Before you start
- You need Company Settings access to turn enforcement on or off.
- You need Customer Master access to set limits on customers and customer types, and Booking Management for guests.
- Cash sales are never affected. A limit only ever blocks a credit invoice — one the customer hasn't paid for in full at the point of sale.
The two switches
Both live on Setup → Preferences, and both start off:
| Switch | What it checks |
|---|---|
| Enforce credit limit on customer credit transaction | The customer's outstanding balance plus this invoice, against their limit |
| Enforce credit limit on guest before credit transaction | An in-house guest's running folio balance against the guest's limit |
Leave them off and nothing below applies — the limits you type are just recorded for reference.
What "blank" means
Blank means unlimited. This is the single most important thing to know. A customer or guest with no limit typed can owe any amount, even with enforcement switched on.
Zero means no credit at all. If you type 0, every charge has to be covered by payment there and then. Type 0 only when you mean it — it is not the same as leaving the box empty.
Where to set each one
Customer
Customers → open a customer → Credit limit. Set for one specific account: "Chike Motors may owe up to 2,000,000".
Customer type
Sales → Customer Types → open a type → Credit limit. Applies to every customer of that type who has no limit of their own, so you can say "all Corporate accounts get 500,000" once instead of on every customer.
The customer's own limit always wins. A type limit of 0 is ignored — a zero there is usually left over from the default rather than chosen, and treating it as "no credit" would freeze every customer under that type. To give one customer no credit, type 0 on the customer.
Guest
Check-In wizard → More details → Credit limit when you're checking somebody in.
Afterwards, open the guest's record and edit it there. For a guest who is already in house, the quickest route is the Guest Details button on their folio — clicking their row in Guests In House takes you to the folio, not the registration form. For a guest who has checked out, click their row in Guests In House (with closed stays shown) and the registration form opens directly.
The guest's limit is compared against their folio balance — what they've run up on the room so far. Leave it blank for a normal guest. Set a figure for a walk-in you don't know, and 0 for a guest who must pay for everything as they go.
Steps — putting a limit on a corporate account
- Go to Setup → Preferences and switch on Enforce credit limit on customer credit transaction. Save.
- Go to Customers and open the account.
- Type the amount in Credit limit and save.
- Raise a test invoice on credit for more than the limit. The save is refused with a message telling you how far over it goes.
Tips
- The customer check uses the ledger, not the invoice list, so payments and credit notes are already taken into account.
- Unpaid sales orders don't consume credit — only posted invoices do. A large open order won't block a small invoice.
- Raising a limit takes effect immediately; no need to re-open the invoice screen.
Common problems
- "Credit limit exceeded" but nobody set a limit → check the customer's customer type. With enforcement on, a type-level limit applies to every customer of that type who has none of their own.
- A guest is blocked and their limit box is empty → an empty box is unlimited, so the block is coming from the customer side instead. Look at the sponsor customer on the folio.
- You typed 0 meaning "no limit set" → 0 means no credit. Clear the box completely to make it unlimited.
- The message names a customer you don't recognise → self-paying guests get a customer account created automatically in their own name. That account is the one carrying the limit.
- Enforcement is off but a save is still refused → the credit limit isn't the only guard. A guest who has already checked out can never take new charges, whatever their limit says.