When an invoice has a balance due, the green "Collect Payment" panel appears on the invoice show page. (If the document is still an Estimate, the same panel reads "Create Invoice & Collect Payment" because recording a payment creates the invoice for you.)

The composer row at the top of the panel has Payment Method, Amount, and Reference # fields, plus an Add button.

  • Payment Method: Cash, Credit Card, Check, Financing, EFT, Store Credit, or Open. Use EFT for money moved by bank transfer or ACH. It draws no card surcharge and asks for no card details; put the confirmation number in Reference #.
  • Amount: defaults to the full balance due. Type a smaller number to split a payment. For Cash, you can also type more than the balance (the cash the customer handed over) and the panel will work out the change.
  • Reference #: check number, card last four, financing approval code, etc. Optional.
  • Due Date: appears only when you pick Open. Defaults to your configured Open terms (typically 30 days out).

If your shop runs card payments through an external processor (Square, Stripe, a leased Verifone, etc.) and you have selected "I use an external card processor" under Settings > Payments, picking Credit Card surfaces a second row with three optional fields: Card brand, Card last 4, and Auth code. None are required, but filling them in makes end-of-day reconciliation against your processor's settlement statement much cleaner. The row also shows which processor you selected ("Recorded against Square...") and a link to change it.

Making change on a cash sale: when you enter a Cash amount larger than the remaining balance, a green "Change due" line shows exactly how much to hand back, and only the balance is applied to the invoice (the balance never goes negative). The invoice and the printed receipt keep a permanent record of the cash tendered and the change given, for example "Tendered $205.00, Change $4.50". This applies to Cash only; the other payment methods still apply the exact amount you enter. It works the same whether you collect on an existing invoice or take payment while creating or editing the invoice.

Click Add to queue the payment in the table below the composer. You can add several rows (for example, half in cash and half on a card) and the totals update as you go. Picking Credit Card surfaces a small surcharge preview if your shop has CC surcharge configured.

When the queued total covers the balance, the button reads "Post Invoice" and a "Post invoice now" checkbox appears. Leave the box checked and click Post Invoice to finalize the sale on the spot; you will be asked to confirm, because a posted invoice can no longer be edited. Uncheck the box and the button reads "Collect Payment" instead: the money is recorded, the receipt shows a zero balance, and the invoice sits at Paid until someone clicks Post Invoice on the invoice page. Your shop can pick which way the box starts under Settings > Payments > Posting behavior. Either way, the invoice status updates based on what was collected and whether the work is finished:

  • Partial: some balance is still owed after the post.
  • Paid: the balance is fully covered but the invoice has not been finalized. This happens when the invoice has a work order still open, an off-catalog line that nobody has resolved yet, or when "Post invoice now" was unchecked at payment time.
  • Posted: the balance is covered and the work is finished. This is the terminal state; stock deductions are finalized at this point.

A Paid invoice advances to Posted when you close its work order, or when you click Post Invoice on the invoice page at pickup. See "How Invoice Statuses Work" for the full lifecycle.

Use the Open payment method when a customer is being billed on account (a dealer, a customer with terms, an open invoice the shop wants to track). The Open amount lands as an open receivable on the Accounts Receivable page until a real payment is recorded against it.

You can record additional payments on a Partial invoice the same way; the Collect Payment panel reappears as long as there is a balance due.