Receipts and payments
Settle a sales invoice in full
Record a customer's payment against one sales invoice by its number, so the invoice shows as paid and the receipt posts to the books in the same step.
3 min readLast updated
In this article
A credit sale leaves an open invoice on the customer's account. When the customer comes back and pays that invoice, record the payment here against the invoice number. The invoice is marked as settled, the customer's balance falls, and the receipt is posted to the books at once.
For a payment on account that is not tied to one invoice, use Receive a payment from a customer.
Before you start
The sales invoice must be posted and not yet paid. The screen is meant for an invoice that has no payment recorded against it.
For cash, your user needs a cash box, set by an administrator on your user record.
For bank transfer, card or wallet, the method must be linked to an account for your branch. See Set up payment methods.
The current year's fiscal year must be active for your branch. The payment is dated today.
Steps
Open Accounting › Receipts › Full Customer Payment.
In Customer, select the customer who is paying.
In Invoice number, search for and select the invoice. Make sure it is an invoice of the customer you selected: the list shows all sales invoices.
Enter the Amount paid.
Optional: enter a Discount if you accept less than the invoice total as full settlement.
Choose the Payment method. For a cheque, also enter the Cheque serial no., the Bank account that holds the cheque until it clears, and the Due date.
Optional: add a Note.
Select Post payment.
A message confirms the posting and shows the batch number of the journal entry.
What happens next
The invoice: the amount and discount are recorded against the invoice, so it no longer appears as open.
The books: the customer's receivable account is credited with the amount, and the money account is debited: your cash box, the cheque's bank account, or the account linked to the method. A discount is credited to the customer and debited to the branch's allowed-discount account.
The note: the journal entry's description carries the invoice reference, so you can trace the payment from the voucher.
Cheque: a cheque payment is added to the cheques register as Not collected. See Collect or bounce a cheque.
Common questions
The system refuses the payment and says the invoice is already paid. Payments already cover the whole invoice, so there is nothing left to settle. Check the customer's statement before you record anything else.
Can I pay several invoices at once? No. This screen settles one invoice per payment. Record each invoice separately, or record one payment on account from Receive from Customer.
Where do I see the result? On the customer statement and in Accounting › Transactions › Transactions, where you can open the voucher by its batch number.