How to record a payment and allocate it on iPhone or iPad
On iPhone or iPad, open Finance, then Customer Payments, tap + and enter the customer, payment type, amount and date. Then open the payment, choose Allocate from the ⋯ menu, check the invoice Auto-Match suggests and save.
Recording the payment says money came in; allocating it says which invoice it paid. Both take a minute on a phone. Working at a desk instead? Recording and allocating a payment on Mac follows the same idea and also lets you start from the invoice.
Before you start
- The invoice is finalized. Payments are allocated to finalized invoices with an amount still outstanding. If the invoice is still a draft, see how to create and finalize an invoice on iPhone or iPad.
- You know how the customer paid. Every payment needs a payment type, such as a bank transfer, picked from your company's list.
Record the payment
- Open the list. In the menu, tap Finance, then Customer Payments.
- Start a new payment. Tap + at the top (VoiceOver calls it Add payment). A sheet titled New Payment opens.
- Fill it in. Under Customer, choose the customer. Under Payment Type, choose how they paid. Enter the Amount, check the Currency, and set the Payment Date to the day the money arrived.
- Save. Tap the checkmark at the top (VoiceOver: Create payment). The sheet closes and the payment appears in the list. If the customer, the payment type or an amount above zero is missing, the button shows what is still needed instead of saving.
Allocate it to the invoice
- Open the payment. On iPhone, tap it in the list. On iPad, double-tap its row.
- Go to the Payment tab. On iPhone, the sheet lists its tabs; tap Payment. On iPad, the tabs sit in a sidebar inside the sheet and Payment is already selected.
- Choose Allocate. Tap the ⋯ button at the top and choose Allocate. The Allocate Customer Payment sheet opens and runs Auto-Match.
- Check the suggestion. Auto-Match suggests one open invoice. Its line shows the invoice number, the Outstanding amount and an Allocate amount, which starts at the smaller of the payment and what the invoice still owes. Change the amount if the customer paid part of it on purpose. At the top, Unallocated shows what is left on the payment.
- Save. Tap the checkmark (VoiceOver: Save allocation changes). The sheet closes.
Open the invoice afterwards and look at its Payments tab: under Totals, Amount Paid has gone up and Outstanding has gone down, and the payment is listed under Allocations. A partial payment leaves the rest outstanding, and the customer's next payment can be allocated to the same invoice the same way.
How Auto-Match picks the invoice
Auto-Match suggests one invoice that still has something outstanding. It looks for a matching reference, then for a close amount:
- By reference. The payment's end-to-end ID matches the invoice number or the buyer reference on it.
- By amount. Otherwise, one of the customer's finalized invoices whose outstanding amount is close to the payment, with its due date taken into account when the payment carries a value date.
Each suggestion shows its Method and a confidence percentage. A weak match is not suggested at all. Read the invoice number before you save: when a customer has two invoices for the same amount, the suggestion may be the other one.
When Auto-Match finds nothing
If no invoice fits, the sheet says No allocation lines yet. On iPhone and iPad you cannot pick an invoice by hand in this sheet, so allocate that payment on a Mac, where the invoice's Record Payment button lets you choose the payment yourself. Until then, the payment stays unallocated.
If you run your business mostly from a tablet, running your business from an iPad covers how record sheets and tables behave there.
Frequently asked questions
Can I mark an invoice as paid from my iPhone?
Yes, by recording the customer's payment and allocating it to the invoice. Once the allocated amounts cover the invoice, nothing is outstanding on it any more.
Can one payment be spread over several invoices on iPhone?
Not in one step. Auto-Match suggests one invoice per allocation. For more on partial payments and matching, read how to allocate customer payments to invoices.
Why does the Allocate sheet show no invoice?
Auto-Match found no invoice whose reference matches the payment, and no finalized invoice for that customer with a close outstanding amount. Check that the invoice is finalized and belongs to the same customer, or allocate the payment from the invoice on a Mac.
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