Accepting Payments

Customer payments can clear all money owed, be applied to specific chargeable items, or be applied to a customer’s account and allocated at a later date. There are two ways that you can accept customer payments:

Lump Sum Payments: Used when a sum of money is received from customers and is to be applied to their outstanding account balances.

Pay for Selected: Used when items to be paid for are already selected and exact funds for the selected items are received from customers.

What you'll find:

Navigating to the Accept Payments window

Accepting Lump Sum Payments

Paying for Selected Items

 

Navigating to the Accept Payments window

Payments can be accepted from the AR Payments home form or from the Accept Payments button on the Customer Account.

Open the Accept Payments window from the AR Payments home form

Using AR Payments is handy when you are recording a batch of payments.

Navigate to Accounts Receivable > AR Payments.
The AR Payments window opens.

Type the name or find the Customer that is making the payment.

Tip

You can add a quick button for AR Payments to the toolbar.
Navigate to Windows > Customize Toolbar.

Click the Documents button to attach a file.

Open the Accept Payments window from the Customer Account

If the Customer Account is already open, it's quicker to accept a payment from there as the customer field is already populated on the payment.

Click the Customer Account toolbar button and find the customer.
The Customer Account Information window opens.

Click Accept Payment.
The AR Payments window opens.

Accepting Lump Sum Payments

Lump sum payments are used when a sum of money is received from customers and is to be applied to their outstanding account balances.

To accept a lump sum payment
* indicates a required field

Navigate to the Accept Payments window.

(Config U, L,C) Select Lump Sum Payment.
Lump Sum Payment is selected by default.

(Config U) In the Location* box, enter the location that owns the payment.

In the Payment Date* box, today’s date is selected by default.
You can change this date to a past date. Future dates are not permitted.

In the Payment Received* box, enter the amount of money you receive from the customer.

In the Payment Type* box, enter the method of payment used by the customer.
If the payment type you select has a payment type discount associated with it, the payment type discount percentage available appears beneath the Payment Type box. The PTD to Apply box appears.
Cash rounding does not apply to Lump Sum Payments.

In the Tracking/Cheque # box, enter the cheque or EFT reference number.
(can be mandatory)

In the PTD to Apply box (if applicable to the payment type), optionally change the value of the default Payment Type Discount to be applied to items.
The dollar value of the default payment type discount percentage is selected by default.

Leave Include PTD or Include Surcharge (label matches the payment type selected) unchecked if the discount (or surcharge) is not included in the payment.
Check the box if the amount of the payment should include the amount of the discount/surcharge.

Note

Total Available displays the total amount of funds, including payment type discounts, that you can apply to chargeable items. Unapplied Credits displays the total amount of funds, including payment type discounts, that have not yet been applied to chargeable items. As payments are applied, the Unapplied Credits box updates to show you the amount of payment funds remaining.

In the Comments box, enter comments for the printed payment receipts (365 character max).

To enter a specific reference number, clear the Generate Reference Automatically check box and type a number in the Reference* box.
Each payment requires a unique reference number for future tracking. If the Generate Reference Automatically check box is selected, agrē assigns the next sequential reference number for the selected location to this payment.

Note

You can apply the lump sum payment automatically or manually.

When you apply the payment automatically, agrē applies the payment to chargeable items from oldest to most recent until the payment received runs out or there are no more chargeable items remaining.

When you apply the payments manually, you can select the chargeable items to pay for and the amount of funds you want to apply to each of the selected chargeable items.

If you want to accept the payment without applying it to any chargeable items, click Save. The payment is saved and the customer has unapplied credits that can be applied at a later date.

If you want agrē to automatically apply the payment to chargeable items, click Apply Automatically. agrē uses all of the funds available, including the payment type discount. If you change the amount of the payment received, you must click Apply Automatically again.
- or -
In the Pay This column, select the Pay This check box of the chargeable item that you want to be paid. The current balance of the item is copied to the Amount Applied column, which can be optionally changed. If you decide after to apply the payment automatically instead, the information you entered would be cleared.

(configurable) Leave Pro-rate EPD checked if you want agrē to calculate the amount of eligible EPD based on the outstanding balance.
Uncheck if you want the EPD calculated based on the original chargeable balance.

Check Include Expired EPD if you want to give the customer an early payment discount even if the early payment date has passed (they aren't officially paying early but you want to give them some kind of discount anyway).
You may want to manually reduce the amount.

In the EPD column, optionally change the early payment discount amount to the amount that you want to offer the customer.
You cannot edit the EPD column for a chargeable item until the Pay This check box for the chargeable item is selected.

Note

If an early payment discount is offered on the chargeable items that are selected, the EPD Available column displays the default early payment discount available. Clicking Pay This copies the EPD Available to the EPD column.

You have the option to Include Expired EPDs (and likely reduce the amount since the customer is no longer paying early) by checking the box.

Tip

To view a detailed report for a chargeable item, select the chargeable item from the list to view and then click View Item.

To apply Unapplied Credits to outstanding items, click Apply Credits.

Note

If you are applying the payment received manually, you cannot apply more funds than available. If you overpay a chargeable item, a message appears indicating that agrē will adjust the row so that it is not overpaid. Click OK to continue.

(Config U, L,C) Click Save. A message appears: “Would you like to preview a Payment Receipt?”
Click Yes to save, preview, and optionally print the Payment Receipt.
Click No to finish saving.

The customer’s account is updated. Any amount of the payment that is not applied is saved as an unapplied credit to be applied at a later date.

Paying for Selected Items

Paying for selected items is used when items to be paid for are already selected and exact funds for the selected items are received from customers.

To pay for a selected item
* indicates a required field

Navigate to the Accept Payments window.

(Config U, L,C) Select Pay for Selected Items.
The Payment Received and Payment Type boxes are hidden.

(Config U) In the Location* box, enter the location that owns the payment.

In the Payment Date* box, today’s date is selected by default and cannot be changed.
You can change this date to a past date. Future dates are not permitted.

In the Tracking/Cheque # box, enter the cheque or EFT reference number.

In the Comments box, enter comments for the printed payment receipts (365 character max).

To enter a specific reference number, clear the Generate Reference Automatically check box and type a number in the Reference* box.
Each payment requires a unique reference number for future tracking. If the Generate Reference Automatically check box is selected, agrē assigns the next sequential reference number for the selected location to this payment.

(configurable) Leave Pro-rate EPD checked if you want agrē to calculate the amount of eligible EPD based on the outstanding balance.
Uncheck if you want the EPD calculated based on the original chargeable balance.

Check Include Expired EPD if you want to give the customer an early payment discount even if the early payment date has passed (they aren't officially paying early but you want to give them some kind of discount anyway).
You may want to manually reduce the amount.

In the payment discount available box, optionally change the dollar value of the default payment type discount to be applied to items.
The dollar value of the default payment type discount percentage is selected by default. When you modify the payment type discount, the Pay This Amount box updates.

In the Pay This column, select the Pay This check box of the chargeable item that you want to be paid.
The Amount Applied column displays the total amount of funds being applied to the chargeable item selected.

Tip

To quickly select and clear all the items in the list, click Select All and Deselect All.

Note

If an early payment discount is offered on the chargeable items that are selected, the EPD Available column displays the default early payment discount available.

In the EPD column, optionally change the early payment discount amount to the amount that you want to offer the customer.
You cannot edit the EPD column for a chargeable item until the Pay This check box for the chargeable item is selected.

Tip

To view a detailed report for a chargeable item, select the chargeable item from the list to view and then click View Item.

To apply Unapplied Credits to outstanding items, click Apply Credits.

Note

Early Payment Discount displays the total amount of early payment discount funds.
Total for Selected Rows displays the total amount of funds for the rows that you have selected to be paid, not including the early payment discounts. Pay This Amount displays the total amount of funds the customer owes, including the early payment and payment type discounts.

In the How will this be paid for?* box, enter the method of payment used by the customer.
If the payment type you select has a payment type discount associated with it, the payment type discount percentage available appears beneath the How will this be paid for? box. A new box displaying the dollar value of the default payment type discount percentage available also appears.
If the payment type you select has cash rounding the payment amount will be rounded (indicated by Rnd next to Pay This Amount).

(Config U, L,C) Click Save. A message appears: “Would you like to preview a payment receipt?”
Click Yes to save, preview, and optionally print the Payment Receipt.
Click No to finish saving.

The customer’s account is updated. Any amount of the payment that is not applied is saved as an unapplied credit to be applied at a later date.