Recording money that has come in - Pacten Guides
Recording a payment is how an invoice stops being outstanding. Under Finance → Payments in, or directly from the invoice or account it settles.
- Amount — what actually arrived, which is not always what was invoiced.
- Date — the date the money was received, not the date you are typing.
- Method — how it came in. This is what lets you later reconcile against a bank statement.
- What it settles — the invoice or invoices the money is against.
Recording less than the full amount moves the invoice to Part paid, leaving the rest outstanding and still aging. The invoice is not settled and does not pretend to be. Further payments are recorded the same way until it is.
A credit reduces what a customer owes without money changing hands; a refund is money actually returned to them. Both show on the account’s transactions alongside invoices and payments, so the running balance stays true.
Recording a payment says a customer has settled something. Logging a deposit in the bank register says money arrived in a specific bank account. They are related but not the same, and both exist because the second is what you reconcile against a statement.