Take and record a payment

Payments reach you two ways. The client pays online and it records itself, or something arrives in the post and you record it.

Online payment

If Online payment is on for an invoice, the client gets a pay link and can pay by card or bank transfer without contacting you.

Those payments record themselves against the invoice, and the status moves without anyone touching it. Nothing to do.

Card details are entered on a secure payment page. They never pass through LedgerOS and are never stored by your firm.

Recording a payment yourself

For a check, a wire, or anything that arrived outside the pay link.

1. On the Payments card, click Record payment.
2. Enter the Amount.
3. Set the Date the payment was received, not today's date.
4. Choose a Method — Card, ACH, Check, Cash, or Other.
5. Add a Memo if the reference matters later.
6. Save.

The date field is the one people get wrong. Recording a check received on the 28th as paid on the 3rd distorts every aging report you'll run afterwards.

Partial payments

Record the amount actually received. The invoice shows as Partial and the balance stays outstanding.

Don't round a partial payment up to close the invoice. The difference reappears later as a reconciliation problem, and it's a bigger job then than the ten seconds it takes to record the real number.

Refunds and voids

Refund/void sits on the Payments card.

A refund returns money. A void reverses a record that shouldn't exist — a payment entered twice, or entered against the wrong invoice.

What the client sees

An invoice with online payment enabled shows in their portal with a way to pay. Once it's paid it shows as paid, and payment history is visible to them.

Payments you record by hand appear the same way to the client as ones taken online. They don't see the method you selected internally.

Notes and limits

• A payment belongs to an invoice. Recording money against a client without an invoice is a retainer, not a payment.
• Recording a payment doesn't send a receipt automatically.
• Refunds are permission-gated separately from recording payments.
• Deleting a payment isn't the same as voiding one. Voiding leaves the audit trail intact.