Payments Received

The Payments screen is the central place for movements of money in and out of the business — at least the kind that happens outside the bank-feed reconciliation flow. The sidebar label is "Payments Received," but the page itself is titled "Payments" and the description says "Manage customer receipts and vendor payments" — it covers six payment types in both directions.

What "Payments" Covers

The Payments screen handles the following types:

For routine bill-pay, you will more often use the Record Payment action on the bill itself (see Bills (UG-021)). The Payments screen is the right place when:

• You want to see all payments in one list
• You are recording a refund or prepayment
• You are clearing several invoices/bills with one payment

Payment Statuses

Getting There

• Click Payments Received in the left sidebar
• The list appears with type filter, status filter, search, and date range

Recording a Payment

Steps

• From Payments Received, click + New
• Select the Payment type — Customer Receipt, Vendor Payment, etc.
• Pick the Customer or Vendor depending on type
• Enter the Amount
• Select the Bank account (the account receiving or sending the money)
• Pick the Method — Cash, Cheque, Credit Card, Debit Card, Bank Transfer, ACH, Wire, Zelle, Stripe, PayPal, or Other
• Enter optional details: Reference (cheque number, last 4 digits of the card, wire reference); Memo
• Click Save

What Happens Next

Books creates the appropriate transaction (Client Receipt, Supplier Payment, etc.), posts it, and updates the customer's or vendor's outstanding balance. The payment starts unassigned — see the next section.

Assigning a Payment to Invoices or Bills

A payment by itself just sits as a credit (for receipts) or debit (for payments) on the customer/vendor account. To clear specific invoices or bills, the payment must be linked to them.

The Books Payments screen today does not expose inline multi-invoice assignment during creation — when you open a payment, the applied-to list shows what it was matched to, but assignment itself happens through:

• Recording the payment from the invoice or bill detail page (the easiest path — the system assigns automatically)
• Bank Transactions → Match to Invoice / Match to Bill, which creates the payment and the assignment in one step
• The Auto-Match action on bank transactions
• Direct API calls (/assignments and /assignments/bulk) for power users

A standalone in-page assignment editor on Payments is on the roadmap.

Auto-Match

If you record a payment and Books can match it to an outstanding invoice/bill by exact customer + amount, an Auto-match action is offered. Use it to skip the manual assignment step.

You can also trigger Auto-match from the bank reconciliation flow — see Bank Transactions and Reconciliation (UG-031).

Refunds

A refund is the reverse of a payment. The Payments screen has dedicated Customer Refund and Vendor Refund types so the direction is explicit.

Customer Refund

When you refund a customer:

• Select Customer Refund as the type
• Pick the customer
• Enter the amount and bank account
• Optionally link to the original receipt or invoice that is being refunded
• Save

The journal entry: credit Bank, debit Receivable (or Refund Liability, depending on your account setup).

Vendor Refund

When a vendor refunds you:

• Select Vendor Refund as the type
• Pick the vendor
• Enter the amount and bank account
• Optionally link to the original payment or bill
• Save

The journal entry: debit Bank, credit Payable (or your refund-receivable account).

Prepayments / Deposits

A prepayment is money received (or paid) before the corresponding invoice or bill exists. Common scenarios:

• A customer pays a 50% deposit before you invoice them
• You pay a vendor a retainer before they send a bill

Use the Customer Prepayment or Vendor Prepayment type. The payment is recorded but stays unassigned. When the invoice or bill eventually arrives, you assign the prepayment to it just like any other payment.

This is the right way to handle deposits — it keeps the cash on your balance sheet without overstating revenue or expense.

Voiding a Payment

If a payment was recorded by mistake, or a cheque bounced:

• Open the payment
• Click Void
• Confirm

What Happens Next

• Status moves to Voided.
• The journal entry is reversed (credit Bank, debit Receivable for receipts; debit Bank, credit Payable for payments).
• Any clearings are removed — the affected invoices/bills go back to outstanding.

You cannot edit a payment after it is posted; void and re-create.

Filters and Search

Use the filter bar:

• Search — by reference, customer/vendor name, memo
• Type — Customer Receipt, Vendor Payment, Refund, Prepayment
• Status — Pending, Completed, Voided (Refunded payments still exist as a status, but the dropdown today exposes only Pending / Completed / Voided)
• Other filters (date range, bank account) are on the roadmap

Common Questions

Tips and Best Practices

• Record payments the day they happen. A fresh payment record makes bank reconciliation a five-minute job.
• Use the right type — Refunds and Prepayments have different accounting impact than Receipts. Don't shoehorn everything into "Receipt".
• Assign payments to invoices immediately. Unassigned payments turn into a phantom credit balance on the customer.
• Don't void payments to "fix" amounts. If the amount is wrong, void and re-create. Editing is not allowed for posted payments by design.
• For Wise outbound, use the Record Payment workflow on the bill itself. It is integrated end-to-end with Wise quoting and the Payment PIN.

Related Guides

• UG-011 — Customers
• UG-012 — Vendors
• UG-020 — Invoices
• UG-021 — Bills
• UG-023 — Transfers Sent (Wise Payouts)
• UG-031 — Bank Transactions and Reconciliation
• UG-070 — Multi-Currency