Creating an invoice records what the customer owes. It does not record the cash. A customer payment does that: you allocate the receipt across one or more open invoices. Receipt numbers seed as OR-00001 (Settings → Sales → General).
That is different from finalizing an invoice, which can auto-post the sale. Details are in Create and send an invoice and Accounting and chart of accounts.
There is no Payments item under Sales. You record receipts from invoices. All of these create the same kind of payment.
How to open it
| Step | Click |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sales → Sales Invoices |
| 2 | Row Post Payment, View Payments → Add Payment, or Pay Invoices |
Entry points on Sales → Sales Invoices
| Start here | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Invoice row → Post Payment | One invoice. Amount defaults to the remaining balance. You can type a smaller amount for a partial receipt |
| Invoice row → View Payments → Add Payment | Same as Post Payment, after you have checked what is already allocated |
| Invoices list → Pay Invoices | One customer, several open invoices. Enter a paid amount on each line; the receipt total follows the sum |
The invoice must be finalized and still have a balance. Draft, void, cancelled, and fully paid invoices cannot receive a payment.
What you can pay
| Invoice | Can you post a payment? |
|---|---|
| Finalized, unpaid or partially paid | Yes. Post Payment is on the row |
| Draft | No. Finalize first |
| Paid (balance is zero) | No |
| Void or cancelled | No |
Payment date is required. Choose a method, then allocate. You cannot allocate more than an invoice’s remaining balance. For a posted payment, the amounts on the invoices must equal the receipt total — there is no leftover unallocated cash.
Payment method
| Method | Extra fields |
|---|---|
| Cash / Credit card / Other | None required |
| Check | Check number and check date |
| Bank transfer | Bank name and bank account number |
How allocation works
| You enter | What Seedflow does |
|---|---|
| The full remaining balance | That invoice becomes Paid |
| Less than the balance | That invoice becomes Partially paid. You can post another payment later |
| Amounts on several invoices (Pay Invoices) | One receipt covers all of them. Each invoice can appear only once on the same payment |
Reference number and notes are optional. They appear on the receipt PDF.
On Post Payment / Add Payment, Save posts the receipt. Save as Draft stores it without changing invoice balances. Pay Invoices always posts.
Payment status
| Status | What it does |
|---|---|
| Draft | Does not change invoice balances. You can edit or Cancel. Cancelled and draft payments can be deleted. Use Save when the cash is received — updating a draft does not post it |
| Posted | Allocations applied. Invoice paid/balance/payment status update. Not editable. You can Void |
| Voided | Allocations reversed. Invoice balances go back. Cannot be undone |
| Cancelled | A draft you stopped. Closed. Does not touch invoices |
Document status (draft / finalized) stays the same. Payment status is separate.
Payment status on the invoice
| Payment status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Unpaid | Balance still equals the total |
| Partially paid | Some receipts allocated; balance remains |
| Paid | Balance is zero. The list also has an Overdue filter from the due date — that is not a payment status |
View Payments shows every receipt on that invoice (number, date, method, amount, status).
Void from View Payments on the invoice, or from the payment row if you have it open. Only Posted payments can be voided. That puts the allocated amounts back on the invoices. It does not reverse a cash journal, because posting never created one.
Voiding a journal entry is a different action: it only marks that journal. Do not void a journal expecting it to undo a customer payment.
Other guides in Sales