Record an advance payment and allocate it later

Before you start

You need the customer in Customers. The invoice does not need to exist yet - that is the point of an advance.

Steps

1. Open Accounting > Customers > Customer Payments and click New Payment.
2. Choose the Customer and type the Amount received.
3. Check the Payment Journal (the bank or cash account the money went into) and the Payment Method. Type the Bank/Card Reference if you have one.
4. Click Save Payment. The payment is saved as Posted but Unallocated: the money is in the bank and on the customer's account, waiting for an invoice.
5. Later, when the invoice exists and is confirmed, open the payment and click Allocate to Invoice.
6. Choose the invoice from the list, which shows what each one still owes. Check the amount, then click Apply Allocation. Type a smaller amount if you want to keep some of the money for another invoice. Add Row splits the payment across several invoices.
7. The payment now shows Fully allocated, or Allocated and Unallocated amounts if some money is left. Click Allocated Invoices to see which invoices it paid.

What happens next

The invoice shows as paid by the amount allocated, and the customer's balance is updated. To record money that pays one invoice directly, read Record a customer payment.