Recording a Customer Payment
If you offer credit card payments to your customers, the payment will be automatically recorded. When a customer sends you either a cash or check payment for an invoice you have sent, here is how to enter the customer payment in Patriot’s Accounting Software:
Accounting > Receivables > Invoices > Click the “Apply Payment” link
- Select a customer. You can enter a payment for one customer at a time.
- Enter the total payment received from this customer at the top of the screen.
- Enter the payment type
- Enter the deposit (asset) account if different from the default.
- Enter the payment date
- Optional: enter the check/reference number
- All unpaid invoices for that customer will be displayed. For each invoice that the customer is paying in full, click “Pay In Full” in the row for that invoice.
If the customer is paying less than the full amount due, click “Pay Partial” in the row for that invoice and enter the partial amounts in the Applied boxes for each item on the invoice. In this example, there is $3.50 remaining that will be applied to the next invoice.
When you are finished entering the payment, ensure the total Payment Received you entered at the top of the page has been applied to invoices. The green progress bar at the bottom of the page will guide you.
Click “Save Customer Payment,” and you will see a confirmation screen that the payment has been saved. This payment will appear in your General Ledger report, Customer Payment History report, and on the customer’s Payments page.
How do I change a payment on an invoice?
You can either edit, void or delete a customer payment, if necessary.
- Go to Reports > Accounting > Customer Reports > Payment History.
- Find the customer payment in the report. You may need to change the report date range.
- Choose your action:
- Edit will bring you back to the customer payment page, where you can make changes.
- “Void” will reverse the payment and will still appear in the report. See Voiding a Customer Payment.
- Delete will remove the payment and will not appear on the report. For more details, see Void or Delete a Transaction: What’s the difference?
If your customer has overpaid, or you owe them money due to a return or refund, you can enter a credit to be applied later to a future invoice. See Issuing a Credit to Your Customer.