Taking Payments

All amounts are in Australian dollars.

Read this once and the rest makes sense

When a client pays you, two separate things happen:

1. You record the money - "Mrs Patel handed over $180."
2. You allocate the money - "Point that $180 at INV-1042."

Usually both happen in one dialog and you never think about it. But they are separate, and that is the single most important idea on this page. Money that isn't pointed at an invoice sits safely on the account as credit - it isn't lost, but the invoice still reads unpaid until you point it at something.

Wattle now does the pointing for you at both moments where it can. Money you take lands on the oldest unpaid invoice unless you say otherwise, and if a client is holding credit when you raise a new invoice, it offers to put it there. So credit should now only be sitting around when there was genuinely nothing to point it at - a deposit taken before the bill exists, or an overpayment.

Common tasks

All the payment buttons - the invoice header, the client header, the Financials tab, the dashboard's Pending invoices ⋯ menu - open the same dialog. Use whichever is closest.

Asking for a deposit before there is an invoice

Client → ⋯ → Request a payment. Type the amount, say what it's for if you like, and Create link. Copy the link and send it in a text, an email, or read it out.

The client taps it, pays by card on Stripe's page, and the money lands as credit on their account - exactly where a deposit taken at the counter lands. When you raise the invoice, Wattle offers to put the credit against it.

Nothing is charged until they pay, and the link stays valid until they do.

Or let Wattle email it. Press Email it and the composer opens with the request already in it, ready to send to the client's address on file. The link in that email is built by the server, not by the page, and Wattle refuses to send one for a request that has already been paid or withdrawn rather than mailing out a dead button.

Changed your mind? Press Withdraw request while the dialog is still open and the link stops working. Closing the dialog does not withdraw it - a link you have already read out over the phone keeps working, which is the point.

One thing to know: once you close that dialog there is no list of open requests to go back to, so withdraw before you close if you are going to. An unwanted request is harmless if you never send the link, and you can always create another.

You need Stripe connected first. If your clinic can't take card payments yet, Wattle says so instead of creating a link that would dead-end.

No invoice is raised for a deposit, on purpose. It would burn an invoice number and put a second document on the client's statement for one job. The deposit is credit until there is a real bill for it to go against.

How the account balance works

One running total: everything they've been charged, minus everything they've paid. That single sum folds in charges still sitting on draft invoices, balances due on finalised invoices, and all payments including money you haven't allocated yet.

The figure is never negative. The word tells you which way it runs, so you don't have to know a sign convention to read the screen, and it matches the wording on the client's own invoices and statements. If an invoice on the account is past its due date, an Overdue tag sits beside the figure on the Financials tabs - so "billed yesterday" and "sixty days late" don't look the same.

An invoice's own badge is worked out from allocated payments only. That's why a bill can read Overdue while the money is already on the account - the invoice doesn't know about credit until you point it there. When the account and the invoices genuinely disagree, the balance card now shows both figures rather than the net one on its own, so "owes nothing" can never sit next to an unpaid bill without explanation.

Walk-throughs

Payment methods

Six fixed options: Cash, Credit Card, Debit Card, Cheque, Bank Transfer, Other. A method is required - there's no "unknown". Credit and debit are separate so your takings reconcile cleanly.

If you genuinely don't know (a third-party app paid on the client's behalf), pick Other and write what you do know in Notes, then correct it later.

Gotchas

• "I recorded the payment but it still says Overdue." The money wasn't allocated. Use Allocate to this invoice on the invoice's credit notice, or Allocate on the Financials tab.
• "The balance doesn't match what I expect." Check Recent Payments for any row with an unallocated amount - that's credit not yet applied. The balance counts it; the invoice badge doesn't.
• "I overpaid." The invoice is paid in full and the excess became account credit automatically. It's safe, and you can reallocate it or leave it for next time. An invoice can never record more paid than it is worth, so if two of you take money against the same bill at once, the second one lands as credit rather than disappearing into an already-settled invoice.
• No Take payment button means the invoice is still a draft (finalise it) or already fully paid.
• A split payment that doesn't add up usually means the second amount was the full total again rather than the remaining balance. The excess is credit; move it.
• Two payments showing separately is correct for split tender. It keeps the record honest about how the money actually came in.
• No Send receipt option means your clinic hasn't got email set up - see Emailing clients. Neither option showing is a permissions thing.

Related

Charges vs invoices · Invoices · Estimates · Clients · Glossary