# What payments received are

The money a customer has paid against a repair invoice, and why a payment you know exists may not be on this list.

A payment records money arriving from a customer. Repairs calls the screen **Payments Received**; the form behind it is headed **Customer Payment**, and both names mean the same record. What makes a payment appear on this list is not who sent it but what it was set against: only money allocated to an invoice raised from a repair shows here.

**Video coming soon:** How money reaches a repair invoice, and where it shows up

## Highlights

- **Allocation is what puts a payment on this list**, not the customer or the amount.
- **One payment can settle several invoices**, which is why allocation is a separate step.
- **The mode and the deposit account** record how the money arrived and where it went.
- **Refunds are recorded from the payment**, not by deleting it.
- **A payment with no allocation** is real money that has cleared nothing.

## The list

![The Payments Received list under a tab reading Payments Received, headed Payments Received with the subtitle Manage and track all customer payments across your organization. Columns read Payment Date, Payment Number, Reference Number, Customer, Invoice Number, Payment Mode, Amount and Status. Rows include PAY-00050 for Ipswich Marine Fabrication against INV-00057 by BACS for 702.00 pounds, PAY-00049 for Dartmoor Aggregates against INV-00060 by CHAPS for 1,895.15 pounds, and PAY-00043 for Norfolk Grain Handling against INV-00069 by CHAPS for 652.80 pounds. Every row carries an Invoice Number and a green Paid badge. The foot reads showing 1 to 18 of 18 results.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/repairs/sales/payments-list.png)

*Payments allocated to repair invoices. Note that every row names an invoice: that is what put it on this list.*

> **Warning:**
>
> **A missing payment usually means a missing allocation**
>
> This is the most confusing screen in Repairs, and the reason is worth stating plainly. A payment appears here only when it has been allocated to an invoice that came from a repair ticket. Take a cheque, save it without allocating it, and it will be nowhere on this list, even though the money is recorded and the customer is right that they paid you. Open the payment from Finance, allocate it, and it appears.

## What a payment holds

![Payment PAY-00043 open, with a Refund button in the header. An Associated Documents panel on its Invoices tab shows INV-00069 dated 22/06/2026, badged Overdue by 47 days, invoice total 652.80 pounds and amount applied 652.80 pounds. Customer Details name Norfolk Grain Handling Ltd. Payment Details list Payment Number PAY-00043, Payment Mode CHAPS, Deposit Account Bank Accounts, Date 24/08/2026 and Reference Number INV-00069 with an IRONVALE-UK tag. An Invoice Allocations table below repeats the invoice number, date, amount and the amount allocated.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/repairs/sales/payment-detail.png)

*The allocations panel is the important half. It is what ties this money to that invoice.*

- **Payment Mode**: How the money arrived: cash, cheque, a bank transfer such as CHAPS, or a card. It is what you reconcile a bank statement against.
- **Deposit Account**: Where the money landed in your books.
- **Invoice Allocations**: Which invoices this payment settled and by how much. A payment can be spread across several.
- **Associated documents**: The same invoices shown with their current state, so you can see whether the bill is now clear.

> **Tip:**
>
> **An allocated amount smaller than the payment is normal**
>
> A customer settling four invoices with one transfer produces one payment and four allocation rows. What matters is that the allocated total matches the money received; anything left over stays as credit on their account.