How to record and apply customer credits

This module holds money that benefits a customer but is not yet linked to an invoice. It captures deposits taken before work starts and overpayments where a customer sent more than the invoice total. Applying the credit joins the money to the invoice, fixing the balance.

1. Press Record deposit.
2. Pick the Customer, set the Date to the day the money arrived, and type the Amount.
3. Use Reference for what the deposit is for, for example advance for project X.
4. Press Save. The customer now shows in the list with that Available credit.
5. Go to Cash In & Out and record the money coming in, dated the same day, with the Deposit Received category.

1. Find the customer in the list and press Apply on their row, or click the row and press Apply from the credit history.
2. Available credit is shown at the top. Pick the Invoice. Only their outstanding invoices are listed.
3. The Amount fills itself with the smaller of the available credit and the invoice balance, and max shows that ceiling. Reduce it if you only want to apply part.
4. Press Apply. The invoice balance drops, Available credit drops by the same amount, and the customer disappears from this list once nothing is left.
5. Post the matching journal in Journal Entries: debit Deposits Received / Unearned Revenue, credit Trade Debtors.

1. Click the customer row to open Credit history.
2. Activity lists every entry newest first. Green with a plus sign is credit going in, marked Deposit. Red with a minus sign is credit being used, marked Applied, with the invoice number beside it.
3. An entry labelled Overpayment came from money received that was more than the invoice it was matched to, normally from accepting a bank line in Bank. Nobody typed it here.
4. Available credit at the top is simply the pluses minus the minuses.

1. This screen only lists customers whose Available credit is above zero. A customer whose credit has been fully applied drops off it, history and all.
2. There is no way back to that history from this screen once the credit is fully applied. Record a new credit for them, or read the applied entry against the invoice it settled.
3. Remember that a deposit recorded here does not appear on the customer statement at all. The statement reads invoices, payments and credit notes only.
4. An overpayment is different: the payment it came from IS on the statement, so the customer's statement balance already reflects that money even while the credit sits here unapplied.