Allocate an existing payment
Allocating means matching a payment you have already recorded to one or more invoices. You do this whenever a payment was recorded on account, when a lump sum covers several invoices, or when you deliberately left money unmatched to deal with later.
Before you begin
- The payment must be Posted and have an unallocated balance left to match.
- The invoices you match to must be issued and still have an outstanding balance.
- A payment and an invoice must be in the same currency to be matched, and the invoice must have its exchange rate locked (which happens when it is issued).
Allocate from the payment
This is the usual route when one payment clears several invoices.
- Go to Payments → Customer Payments and open the payment (or open it from the Unallocated Items report).
- Select Add Allocation. The Allocate Payment to Invoice window opens.
- Find the invoice:
- Leave Filter by customer on to see only the linked customer's invoices, or switch it off to search all customers.
- In Search Invoice, type an invoice number or customer name. Matching invoices with a balance appear; pick one.
- Check the invoice summary (total, balance due, currency, due date), then enter the Amount (Invoice Currency) to apply. It defaults to whichever is smaller — the invoice's balance or the payment's remaining unallocated amount.
- Select Create Allocation.
Repeat Add Allocation for each further invoice until the payment is fully matched (or leave a remainder on account).
[Screenshot required: Allocate Payment to Invoice window showing the invoice search and Amount field]
Allocate from the invoice
If you are looking at the invoice and know a recorded payment should cover it:
- Open the invoice and go to its Payments section.
- Select Apply existing payment.
- Choose the payment from Select Draft Payment, set Amount to Apply to This Invoice, and select Apply Payment.
Leave Post payment immediately ticked to commit the payment as part of applying it, or untick it to keep the payment as a draft for posting later.
Searching for invoices
- Only invoices that can take a payment appear as selectable — that is, issued invoices with an outstanding balance.
- An invoice that cannot currently take a payment (for example one that is voided or written off) may still be listed but shown as blocked, with the reason; you cannot allocate to it.
- If the payment is linked to one customer but you pick a different customer's invoice, Sales Scribe warns you about the mismatch and asks you to confirm before it will allocate.
Removing an allocation
If you matched a payment to the wrong invoice, move it: remove that match, then allocate the payment to the right invoice.
- On the payment's details page, next to the allocation, select Reverse this allocation (the circular-arrow button) and confirm.
- The amount goes back on the payment's unallocated balance, and the invoice is owed again.
- Select Add Allocation and apply the payment to the right invoice.
The payment itself is untouched — it stays Posted, because it was right all along; only where it was applied was wrong.
- It is a correction, dated with the allocation. A reversing entry is posted on the allocation's own date, so your reports read as though the money was never applied to that invoice. The original allocation stays on the payment's page, struck through and marked Reversed, for the record.
- If the allocation's date is in a locked period, the reversal is refused like any other posting into it — unless you can override the lock.
- A payment taken online works the same way: the money simply becomes money on account. Nothing goes back to the customer's card — they did pay. (To return money to the card, refund the payment instead.)
- A refunded or reversed payment's allocations cannot be reversed: the payment has already been undone as a whole.
Note: Removing an allocation returns the money to the payment; it does not delete or refund the payment itself. To undo the payment entirely, see Void a draft payment or Refund or reverse a payment.
What happens next
- Each invoice you allocate to has its Amount Paid increased and Amount Outstanding reduced, and its status is recalculated (Partially Paid, Paid or Overpaid).
- The allocation is posted to your accounts on the settlement date — the later of the payment date and the invoice date. A receipt dated before the invoice it settles is applied on the invoice's date, so an earlier balance sheet correctly shows the money as unallocated. Because it is a posting on that date, an allocation whose settlement date falls inside a locked period is refused unless you can override the lock — finish allocating before you lock a period. As soon as you pick the invoice, the dialog tells you the date the allocation will be posted on and, if that date is locked, what will happen when you click — before you click.
- The payment stays Posted. Allocating does not change the payment's status — only the invoice balances change.
- Any amount you have not allocated remains on account and continues to show on the Unallocated Items report.
Troubleshooting
- There is no "Add Allocation" button. The payment is probably still a Draft. Post it first — allocation is only available on Posted payments.
- "The amount to apply … is more than the invoice still owes." Reduce the amount so it is no more than the invoice's remaining balance.
- "That allocation has already been reversed, so there is nothing to remove." It was reversed since you opened the page — perhaps in another tab. Reload the payment to see where it stands.
- The invoice you want isn't in the search. It may be fully paid, still a draft, voided, written off, or in a different currency from the payment. Only same-currency, issued invoices with a balance can be matched.
- A currency-mismatch message. A payment can only be allocated to an invoice in the same currency. Record a payment in the invoice's currency instead.