Match receipts and credit notes to invoices

Before you start

Use this screen when money or a credit is waiting on a customer's (or vendor's) account and you want to set it against the invoices (or bills) it belongs to. Receipts and credit notes that were never applied show up here. If you only have one payment to allocate, you can also do it from the payment itself - see Record an advance payment and allocate it later.

Steps

1. Open Accounting > Accounting > Match Customers & Vendors. Customers is selected; click Vendors to match vendor bills with payments and debit notes in the same way.
2. The list on the left shows each customer that has open invoices and receipts or credit notes still waiting - with the amounts. Type a few letters in Search to find one, and click it.
3. Invoices are on the left and Receipts & Credit Notes on the right. Suggested matches at the top pair them for you and say why - for example Same amount, or Oldest first.
4. Tick the suggestions you agree with and click Match (the button says how many are selected). The matched invoices drop out of the list. A customer with nothing left to match disappears from the list.
5. To match by hand, pick a credit, pick an invoice, type the Amount if it is only a part of the credit, and click Match next to Match by hand.

What happens next

The matched invoices show as paid, or partly paid, and the customer's balance is unchanged - the credit was already on the account. To see the entries behind a balance, read See balances and the transactions behind them.