# Deposits and balance due

The money taken at the counter, what is left to collect when the equipment goes back, and refunding a deposit when a job is called off.

Workshops take money at two moments: something up front when the equipment is booked in, and the rest when it is collected. Repairs tracks the first on the ticket and the second against the invoice, and the gap between them is the balance due.

## Highlights

- **A deposit is recorded on the ticket**, before an invoice exists.
- **The ticket totals show what is paid and what is left**, as separate lines.
- **A payment against an invoice is a different record** from a deposit on a ticket.
- **Refunds are recorded from the payment**, with a reason attached.
- **A refund does not undo an allocation**, and the panel says so.

## Where a deposit lives

The **Totals and Payment** section of a ticket carries the money alongside the work, so the person at the counter can see the whole picture without opening an invoice.

![The totals panel of a ticket. Services Subtotal reads 2909.00 and Parts Subtotal reads 928.55, followed by Tax at 767.51. Below a rule, Total Amount is 4605.06 pounds in bold, Total Paid shows minus 250.00 in green, and Balance Due shows 0.00 pounds in red.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/repairs/tickets/totals-section.png)

*Total Paid and Balance Due sit under the total, so what is still owed is visible on the ticket itself.*

*The money lines on a ticket*

> **Note:**
>
> **A deposit on a ticket is not yet a payment against an invoice**
>
> The two records answer different questions. The deposit says money changed hands when the equipment arrived; the payment says a specific bill was settled. When the invoice is eventually raised, the deposit is what reduces what remains to collect.

## Collecting the balance

- **Check the ticket's balance before the customer arrives**

  The **Totals and Payment** section gives you the figure without arithmetic.
- **Raise the invoice if it has not been raised**

  Money is allocated to invoices, so there has to be one.
- **Record the payment and allocate it to that invoice**

  The invoice badge moves to paid, or to partially paid if they have settled some of it.

## Giving a deposit back

A cancelled job means returning money you have already taken. Record it as a refund against the payment rather than deleting anything.

![A Refund panel over payment PAY-00043 for Norfolk Grain Handling Ltd, headed Refund - PAY-00043 and noting Full refund 652.80 pounds with allocations are not reversed in brackets. It holds a required Refund Amount of 652.8 in GBP, a required Refund Date of 07/09/2026, a Payment Mode set to Cash, a required From Account picker reading Select account, a Reference Number, and a Description box reading Reason for the refund. Cancel and Record Refund sit at the foot.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/repairs/sales/payment-refund.png)

*The refund panel. Note the line in the header: the money goes back, but what it was allocated to does not change.*

- **Open the payment you are refunding**

  Go to **Payments Received** and select it.
- **Select Refund**

  The panel opens with the full amount already entered.
- **Set the amount, the date and the account it comes from**

  Reduce the amount for a partial refund, such as keeping a diagnostic fee.
- **Write the reason in the description**

  A refund with no explanation is the hardest thing to make sense of a year later.
- **Select Record Refund**

> **Warning:**
>
> **A refund leaves the allocation alone**
>
> The panel says this in its own header, and it catches people out. Refunding money that was allocated to an invoice does not reopen that invoice: it stays settled, and you now have a refund recorded against it. If the bill itself should not have stood, raise a credit note as well.