Settlements

Settlements is a quick way to take a payment from a customer and use it all on their unpaid invoices. It is the same payment screen as Payments received, with one rule added: every dirham you enter must be matched to an invoice. Completing a settlement records the payment: money goes into the account you choose, and the customer owes less.

Where: Sales › More › Settlements. Also from the till: More › Collect payment, for the customer on the sale
Number: ARREC-000001, given when you complete the settlement
Posts to: The cash, bank, card machine or Pay by link account that received the money, and Accounts Receivable
Who: Managers and admins

What it’s for

Collecting money from a customer who bought on credit and now pays all or part of what they owe.
Paying several invoices at once, in full or in part.
Getting a payment right the first time: the screen will not let you keep money unmatched.

A settlement is an ordinary customer payment. It gets the same ARREC number as any payment, and you find it later in Payments received. These are the differences from Payments received:

	Settlements	Payments received
Customer advance	Not possible. You cannot keep money unmatched	You can keep the extra as a customer advance
Choosing a customer	Opens on Which customer are you settling?	Opens on the list of payments
New customer	Not offered. The customer must already exist	New customer is offered in the search
Final button	Review settlement, then Complete settlement	Review and confirm, then Post customer receipt
Seeing earlier payments	No list here. Use Payments received	The list of all payments

To keep extra money as an advance, or to record a payment that has no invoice yet, use Payments received.

Fields

Choose a customer first. Then the screen has three parts: the payment, the invoices, and the notes.

Field	What it means	What it changes
Customer	Search by code or name. Each result shows the code, Active or Archived, what they owe and any advance. An archived customer can still settle invoices	Loads their open invoices and balances
Receipt date *	Starts on today. It cannot be in the future, and cannot be before an invoice it pays	The date of the entry
Payment type *	Cash, Card or Bank transfer. Pay by link also shows when your company has switched on a provider	Which account receives the money
Financial account *	For Cash and Bank transfer: the cash or bank account that received the money	The account that grows
Card machine / clearing account	For Card: the card machine that took the payment	The machine’s clearing account grows
Pay by link provider *	For Pay by link: the provider that took the payment	The provider’s account grows
Amount *	The money received. Typing it shares it over the oldest invoices first, until you change a row yourself	The size of the entry
Reference	For cash: optional	Search and the receipt
Transaction reference *	For card or bank: the bank or card ID	Search and the receipt
Order number *	For Pay by link: the provider’s order number	Search and the receipt
Allocate	One box for each open invoice. Enter how much of this payment goes to that invoice	What the invoice still owes
Internal notes	Up to 2,000 characters. Only your staff see them	Nothing

At the top, a strip shows what the customer owes, any customer advance, and any cheques received. If the customer is on credit hold the strip says “Credit hold - collection remains available”. Each invoice row shows its dates, the total and what was credited, what was already paid, what is still outstanding, and Overdue if it is past due.

Buttons

Nothing touches your accounts until Complete settlement.

Button	When you see it	What happens	Accounts
Cancel	Customer search and the form	Takes you back to Which customer are you settling? The form is cleared. A box asks first if you typed something	No change
Change source	The form	Goes back to choosing a customer	No change
Pay full	Each invoice row	Puts that invoice’s full outstanding amount in its box	No change
Auto-allocate oldest	When the customer has more than 5 open invoices	Shares Amount over the invoices, oldest due date first	No change
Clear allocations	When the customer has more than 5 open invoices	Empties every invoice box	No change
Review settlement	The form	Checks everything and opens “Complete this customer settlement?” with a summary	No change
Back to review	The summary box	Closes the box so you can change something	No change
Complete settlement	The summary box	Records the payment	Posts

What you see after you complete it: a message “Receipt ARREC-… saved” with a Print button for the receipt voucher. The screen then goes back to Which customer are you settling? so you can settle the next customer. Open Payments received to see the new payment.

What gets posted

Completing a settlement writes one journal entry, dated on the receipt date. The receipt, the invoice matches and the journal are saved together, or not at all. A settlement posts no sales, VAT or stock: those were booked when the invoice was posted.

Example 1A cash part-payment on a credit invoiceInvoice AED 105.00 · cash AED 50.00

Invoice total (100.00 + 5.00 VAT)105.00
Cash received and settled against it50.00
Still owed after the settlement55.00

Account	Debit (AED)	Credit (AED)	Why
1000Cash on Hand (the cash account you pick)	50.00		Cash came in
1100Accounts Receivable		50.00	The customer owes less
Total	50.00	50.00	Balanced

The invoice stays open for AED 55.00. Sales Revenue, Output Tax Payable and Inventory do not change.

Other cases follow the same pattern: money goes up in the account you pick, and Accounts Receivable goes down by the total you matched.

Several invoices. One settlement for two invoices makes one Accounts Receivable line for the total. The matches to each invoice are kept on the receipt.
No customer advance. A settlement never makes a Customer Deposits line. All of the money goes to Accounts Receivable.

The payment type decides which account receives the money:

Payment type	Account debited
Cash	The cash account you pick, such as Cash on Hand
Bank transfer	The bank account you pick
Card	The card machine’s own account, “Card clearing - ‹machine›”. With no machine, Card and Payment Clearing
Pay by link	The provider’s own account, “Pay by link - ‹provider›”

Card and Pay by link money reaches your bank later, when you record the payout from the card company or the provider.

Where it shows up

Place	What changes
Invoices	Each invoice shows less outstanding. It becomes Part paid or Paid
Customer page and statement	Customer owes goes down. The statement lists the payment with its method
Payments received	The settlement is listed as a normal payment, Fully allocated
Day book	One entry for the payment
Cash or bank account	The balance goes up. A card payment goes to the card clearing balance
Till register close	A cash settlement into an open register is counted as a customer cash collection
Overview	“Owed to you” goes down
VAT return, sales reports and stock	No change

What the app blocks

These checks happen before anything is saved. A refused settlement leaves no half-written records.

Situation	What you see
The customer has no open invoice	This customer has no open invoice to pay.
The customer owes only deliveries with no invoice	No open invoices yet and the deliveries, each with Invoice this delivery. Invoice them first, then take the payment
No amount, or an amount of 0	Enter a positive receipt amount with no more than 4 decimal places.
No invoice chosen	Select at least one open invoice for this settlement.
Amount larger than the rows	Allocate the full receipt amount. Remaining ‹amount› cannot be kept as a customer advance in settlement mode.
Rows larger than the amount	Increase the receipt amount to at least ‹amount›, or reduce allocations.
More than an invoice still owes	Enter no more than ‹amount›. The amount is what the invoice owes
An invoice was paid or changed since you opened the screen	This invoice is no longer open. Reload the customer balances.
Receipt date in the future	Choose today or an earlier date in the company time zone.
Receipt date before an invoice’s date	The receipt date cannot be earlier than an allocated invoice date.
Cash into an open till register on another day	Use today’s company date (‹date›) for this open-register cash collection.
No cash or bank account	Select the cash or bank account that received this payment.
Bank or card with no reference	Enter the bank or card reference.
Pay by link with no provider	Choose the Pay by link provider (Tabby, Tamara).
Pay by link with no order number	Enter the provider’s order number.
Date inside a locked period	The accounting period is locked through ‹date›. Choose a later date, or ask an administrator to reopen the period.
An invoice balance changed while you were posting	An invoice balance changed. Review the highlighted allocation before posting. followed by Current balances were refreshed; review your allocations before retrying.
An invoice was cancelled or is no longer open	An invoice is no longer open for this customer. Review the highlighted allocation. followed by the same “Current balances were refreshed” line
The customer’s balances changed while you were posting	Customer or invoice balances changed. followed by the same “Current balances were refreshed” line
The answer was lost after you pressed Complete settlement	The receipt outcome is unconfirmed. Its original request is saved for recovery; do not enter this payment again.
A change that cannot be saved safely	The receipt did not post. No partial receipt, allocation, or journal was retained.

Warnings that do not stop you

Credit hold. A customer on credit hold can always pay. The strip says “Credit hold - collection remains available”.
Archived customer. The strip says “Archived · collection only”. You can settle their invoices.
Cash into an open register. A note says the cash will go into that register’s close summary, not as another sale.

Who can do it

Action	Admin	Manager	Cashier
Open Settlements and complete one	Yes	Yes	No, cashiers collect payment at the till
Edit a completed settlement	Yes	Yes	No
Delete a completed settlement	Yes	No	No
Cancel a payment, or use Correct today	Yes	No	No

These are the standard roles. Your administrator can give a custom role each action separately in Settings › Users & access.

Fixing a mistake

You have not pressed Complete settlement yet. Press Back to review, change the rows, or press Cancel. Your accounts are not touched.
A wrong date, amount, account, reference or note. Open the payment in Payments received and use Edit receipt. The app asks for a reason and checks the same rules as the first time.
The payment should never have been entered. Open it in Payments received. An admin can use Delete receipt, or Cancel receipt when the screen offers it instead. A cancelled payment is kept in the history, and the invoices become unpaid again.
The month is closed or the bank line is reconciled. An admin can use Correct today. It cancels the payment and enters the right one, both dated today.
A payment by Pay by link. It cannot be edited or cancelled. An admin deletes it and enters it again.

When a change is not allowed, the payment page shows the reason instead of the button. The usual reasons are a locked month, a reconciled bank line, a counted cash drawer, a linked cheque or a linked customer advance.