Sometimes a customer pays before you have billed them. For example:
- a company pays ahead for guests who arrive next week;
- a client pays a deposit for an event;
- a customer leaves money on account.
Record it as a receipt with nothing allocated. The whole amount is held as the customer's credit, and it is used on their invoices later.
Before you start
- You need the Payment Receipt right.
- The customer must already exist under Sales → Customers.
Steps
- Open Sales → Customer Receipts → New.
- Pick the customer.
- Add the tender: method (cash, transfer, card…), the account it went into, and the amount.
- Leave every invoice unticked.
- Click Save. The system asks you to confirm that the full amount will be held as the customer's credit. Click OK.
Using the credit later
- When you take the customer's next payment, tick Apply brought-forward credit on the receipt. The credit is added to what you can allocate to their invoices.
- For a hotel guest, a payment the sponsor made in advance appears in the folio's Sponsor box as Credit on file. Apply Sponsor Credit opens a receipt that applies it to the guest's bills, with no new money.
- Only payments taken in this system count; payments recorded in the old desktop system don't (they don't record which bills they paid).
Tips
- The customer's Statement of Account shows the payment straight away, as a credit.
- For a hotel room booking, take the deposit on the advance booking itself instead. It is then linked to the booking and applied when the guest checks in.
Common problems
- "Apply the payment first — … is unapplied while … of invoice balance is still outstanding" → the customer already owes on unpaid invoices, so the payment must go to those first. Tick the invoices (or click Auto-allocate). Whatever is left over becomes credit.
- "At least one invoice allocation is required" → this message no longer appears. If you still see it, the system needs updating.