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- Small Business Accounting
- Features
- Customer invoices and receipts
Customer invoices and receipts
Follow customer invoices from issue through receipt allocation. An issued service invoice establishes a customer balance and the corresponding revenue and tax classifications. The local general ledger records that accounting effect once with the invoice reference. The customer’s later payment is another event: it reduces receivables only to the extent that the verified receipt is applied to that invoice.
OverviewOpen Invoices×
Small Business Accounting · Customer invoices and receipts
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Open Invoices
Invoices
Sent2
Blue Heron PrintworksINV-93104
390
14 OctWillowbrook Cleaning Co.INV-77973
190
22 OctAdd
Partially paid2
Tidal Ridge CouriersINV-64472
520
13 OctBlue Heron PrintworksINV-70249
380
15 OctAdd
Overdue2
Blue Heron PrintworksINV-88902
20
10 OctNorthbank Office SupplyINV-30992
90
17 OctAdd
What you can do
Keep the business context together
Set customer terms, currency, invoice date, tax basis and the revenue account before issuing a document. Invoice lines hold the business charge and its accounting classification. Incoming payments retain their own reference and received amount, so a receipt can be investigated without treating an invoice status as proof of collection.
If a customer sends 600 against an invoice for 1,000, the invoice remains open for the balance. The receipt keeps its own amount and reference so the bookkeeper can explain the partial payment. A second allocation cannot use money already consumed by the first, including when two staff members act at nearly the same time.
Give each decision a clear owner
AR Clerk prepares invoices and applies verified receipts within the customer’s entity. Controller / CFO controls financial corrections and period policy. Allocation cannot exceed the available receipt or the invoice’s open balance; excess cash remains unapplied until an authorized decision identifies its destination.
Receipt allocation lines can divide one confirmed payment across several invoices for the same customer, entity and currency. Each line records its amount and retains its source receipt. An overpayment should not force an invoice into a negative outstanding balance. Preserve the excess as unapplied customer money until an authorized allocation or refund is identified. Keep the customer, entity and currency consistent; a similarly named customer in another entity is not a valid destination for the receipt.
Handle exceptions with the original record
A duplicate bank or payment-provider event must not create another receipt. A rejected or reversed payment restores the related open balance through linked accounting entries. Never treat a view filter as the customer or entity access boundary for direct API reads and exports.
Payment reversals need both a customer and accounting explanation. Restore the affected open balance through the supported correction path and retain the original payment reference. Deleting the receipt would hide why the invoice became collectible again and would make the bank reconciliation and receivable report disagree about the same event.
Find the work that needs attention
Open Invoices helps the AR Clerk prioritize collection and allocation. Due dates distinguish future amounts from overdue balances, while customer references make remittance advice easier to match. A receipt without a clear invoice remains available for investigation instead of being applied to whichever open amount happens to look closest.
Configure it around your business
Configure customer terms, revenue mappings, tax rates, bank sources and opening receivables together. Reconcile a fully paid invoice, a partial payment and unapplied money against both the customer balance and posted ledger. The invoice history should remain readable after a contact name changes, a default rate changes or a prior payment is reversed.
What your team sees
- Open Invoices — Review the work and supporting records for this module.
What it keeps track of
Data model- Contacts
- Unified directory of customers and vendors.
Type = Bothhandles a counterparty on both sides. - Invoices
- Customer invoices.
- Invoice items
- AR lines with optional per-line tax.
- Payments received
- Customer receipts applied against one or more invoices.
- Receipt allocations
- Amount-bearing allocations of one confirmed customer receipt across permitted invoices.
- Payment methods
- Named methods for receiving and making payments. Points at the bank account that clears the payment.
Who uses it
Permissions- AR Clerk
- AR Clerk works within the record, field and action scope below.
- Controller / CFO
- Controller / CFO works within the record, field and action scope below.
- Viewer
- Viewer works within the record, field and action scope below.
Set up Small Business Accounting your way.
Start free, then use Proto to change fields, steps and approvals before your team goes live.