About manual payment application

Usually a payment document that you receive from a customer references the outstanding document it should be applied to.

In this case, you can use one of the following forms as a starting point to pay the document:

• Sales invoices (AR301000):
  You select the outstanding document here and then click the Enter payment/apply note action.
  The system redirects you to the Customer payments (AR302000) window, where the system has filled on most of the settings of a new payment, which is almost ready for release. For step-by-step instructions, see Pay a specific outstanding document.
• Customer payments (AR302000):
  In this window, you record the payment you have received from the customer, specify the outstanding document in the table on the Documents to apply tab, and release the payment.
  For step-by-step instructions on recording a payment, see Enter a payment document.

In both cases, the system creates an application record (including the paid amount) for the outstanding document.

When you release the payment, the system releases the application record simultaneously.

You can track the history of payment applications on the Application history tab of the payment document.
For step-by-step instructions, see View invoices paid with a specific payment document.

You use the Customer payments (AR302000) window to pay multiple outstanding documents.
In general, you perform the following steps:

1. You record a payment, which you may or may not release.
   
   For step-by-step instructions, see: Enter a payment document.
2. You window the list of documents to be paid.
   You can window it manually or you can direct the system to window the list of outstanding documents of the customer to be paid with the payment.
3. You distribute the payment amount among the manually added outstanding documents or modify the paid amount filled in by the system, if needed, for each automatically added outstanding document.
4. If you have released the payment before forming the list of applications, you click Release in the window toolbar and the system releases the application records you have created. If you have not released the payment yet, you click Release and the system releases the payment and its application records.

You can track the history of payment applications by using the Application history tab of the payment document.
For step-by-step instructions, see: View invoices paid with a specific payment document.

You form the list of outstanding documents by adding documents to the table on the Documents to apply tab one by one; you distribute the payment amount as you prefer.

For step-by-step instructions, see: Form a list of applications manually.

If there are open documents of the Credit note type, you can add them to the list only if the list will include some outstanding documents when you finish forming the list. The system uses balances of the added credit notes for application to an outstanding document. In other words, the system applies the sum of the payment and credit note's balances to the sum of the outstanding documents' balances.

The system creates application records for each included outstanding document, with the amount applied specified in the Amount paid column. When you release the payment, the system releases the application record simultaneously.

For the system to form the list of outstanding documents, you click Load documents on the table toolbar and specify selection criteria in the Load options dialog box. The system loads to the table the list of the outstanding documents of the customer that meet your specified criteria, with documents sorted in descending order by the parameters you have specified.

By default, the sorting order is by due date and reference number.

The system forms the list as follows:

1. If the customer account has open documents of the Credit note type, the system adds them at the top of the list.
   The balances of the open credit notes increase the balance that can be applied to outstanding documents.
2. If the Apply payments to overdue charges first check box is selected in the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window and the customer account has open documents of the Overdue charge type, the system distributes the available payment balance among these documents. If the available payment balance, including the balances of any open credit notes, has not been fully applied, the system searches for outstanding documents of other types.
3. If the customer account has outstanding documents, the system applies the available payment balance to the first document in the list. If the available payment balance, including the balances of any open credit notes, has not been fully applied, the system applies the rest of the balance to the next document in the list and continues this process until the available payment balance is fully applied.

The system creates application records for each outstanding document that is included, with the amount applied specified in the Amount paid column. When you release the payment, the system releases the application record simultaneously. For step-by-step instructions, see Form a list of applications automatically.

When you add an outstanding document to the table on the Documents to apply tab, the system automatically fills the Amount paid column as follows:

• If the balance of the outstanding document is less than the payment available balance, the system fills the Amount paid column with the document balance.
• If the balance of the outstanding document is more than the payment available balance, the system fills the Amount paid column with the payment balance.
• If the payment amount is not specified and therefore the available balance of the payment is 0, the system fills the Amount paid column with the document balance and warns you that the payment is out of balance. You can specify a payment amount that is equal to the value the system added to the Amount paid column. Alternatively, you can specify a smaller amount and adjust the value in the Amount paid column accordingly. If you specify a larger amount, you can add other outstanding documents to fully apply the payment.

In the top part of the window, you can see the balance of the payment that is available for further application in the Available balance field and the balance that has been applied in the Applied to documents field.

When you window the list of outstanding documents on the Documents to apply tab, the system creates an application record for each line. You can add new documents and remove or modify already-added documents until you release the application records by clicking Release in the window toolbar.

When you release the application records, the system moves these records to the Application history tab, where you can view (but not modify) the list of the applied documents.

If you have mistakenly applied a customer payment or prepayment to the wrong document, you can correct an application record. If the application record has not yet been released, you simply remove the incorrect line from the table on the Documents to apply tab.

If the application record has been released, you reverse the released application record on the Application history tab by clicking the mistaken record and then clicking Reverse application in the table toolbar. When you click the button, the system does the following:

• Adds the reversed application record to the Documents to apply tab with the negative application amount in the Amount paid column
• Changes the status of the payment and of the applied document to Open
• Changes the available balance and the application amount in accordance with the amount of the application that was reversed

You then release the reversed application record, and the system moves it to the Application history tab.

If you have mistakenly applied a customer refund to the wrong document and released the refund with its applications, you can correct the application record similarly. The only difference is that a customer refund cannot have an available balance after it was released. Thus, you must fully apply the available refund balance right after you have reversed the incorrect application record.
You then release both the reversed application records and the new ones.

For step-by-step instructions, see Correct an application record.

You can give a customer a discount for early payment when you apply the payment amount to an outstanding document.

If you have configured payment terms for the customer that define the cash discount period and the discount amount, the system automatically calculates whether to add a cash discount. If the cash discount period of the document has not ended, the system fills in the Cash discount taken column for the document with the discount amount after you have added the document to the table on the Documents to apply tab. You can change the discount amount if needed.

If the payment terms of the customer do not define any cash discount, you can fill in the Cash discount taken column for the document with the discount amount after you have added the document, and correct the applied amount in the Amount paid column.

For details on configuring payment terms with a cash discount, see: About payment terms.

If write-offs are enabled and configured in the system, as described in About write-off setup, you can write off an amount along with the application. For each document that you add for the application, you can specify the amount to write off in the Balance write-off column and the reason code in the Write-off reason code column. The total amount of write-offs is displayed in the Write-off amount field in the top part.

When you release such applications, the system does not create a document of the Balance write-off type.
The system stores write-off details in the document and generates a separate transaction to post to general ledger accounts.

If the Multi-currency accounting functionality is enabled in the Enable/disable functionalities (CS100000) window and multiple currencies and their exchange rates are configured in the system, you can change the cross rate along with the application, if needed.

For instance, suppose you had issued an invoice in a foreign currency, and then you received a payment in this foreign currency.

Your company does not have a bank account in the foreign currency, and the bank used some currency rate to translate the payment amount to the currency of your bank account. In this case, you record the payment to a cash account that represents your bank account and apply it to the invoice. The rate used by the bank may differ from the rate you used to record the invoice.

To make the payment amount and the invoice amount equal, you can adjust the rate in the Cross rate column for the applied invoice. When you release the payment and its applications, the balance of the realised gain or loss (RGOL) account is updated by the amount resulting from the difference in the exchange rates used to record the invoice and the payment.

If your company has a bank account in the foreign currency (so there is a cash account in the system that represents this bank account), you record the payment in a foreign currency to this cash account. When you release the payment and its applications, the balance of the RGOL account is updated by the amount resulting from the difference in the exchange rate on the invoice date and the payment application date.

If the Parent-child customer relationship functionality is enabled in the Enable/disable functionalities (CS100000) window and parent-child relations between customer accounts are configured, you can add to the list of outstanding documents those that belong to child customer accounts. For details, see: Manage parent-child relationships - overview.

You can reserve an open payment for future application. To mark an open payment as reserved, you select the Hold check box for the payment document with the Open status in the Customer payments (AR302000)window.

The system changes the document status from Open to Reserved.

Reserved payments cannot be applied to outstanding documents and are excluded from the auto-application process.
To release the payment from hold, clear the Hold check box.