# Record a Payment

Enter what arrived, then decide separately which invoices it settles.

The amount is a fact about your bank; the allocation is a decision. Recording them as two steps is what lets you keep up with the first without waiting on the second.

## Record one

- **Go to Payments Received and select Payment**

  Or record it from the invoice, which fills in the customer and the amount.

  ![The Customer Payments list with its Payment action and columns for Payment Date, Payment Number, Reference Number, Customer, Invoice Number, Payment Mode, Amount and Status.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/payments-received/payments-list.png)
- **Choose the customer and enter the amount**

  What actually arrived, not what was invoiced. They differ more often than anybody expects.
- **Set the date, the payment mode and the account it landed in**

  The date is when the money arrived rather than when you are entering it.
- **Apply it to invoices, or leave it unallocated**

  Their unpaid invoices load once the customer is chosen. Money you cannot yet place can sit as a credit on the account.

> **Note:**
>
> **A payment touches no stock**
>
> This is the one step in the sales chain with nothing physical behind it. Recording, editing or deleting a payment changes a balance and nothing on a shelf.

## What arrived against what was owed

| What arrived | What to do |
| --- | --- |
| Exactly one invoice's total | Record and allocate to it |
| Less than the invoice | Allocate what arrived; the invoice reads Partially Paid |
| More than the invoice | Allocate the invoice, leave the rest as a credit |
| A round sum for several invoices | Record once and allocate across them |
| Money for goods not yet invoiced | Record it unallocated and apply it when the invoice exists |

> **Tip:**
>
> **Use the reference number for their remittance**
>
> It is the field that lets you find a payment again from what the customer's bank sent you, which is rarely your invoice number.