Paying a sales receipt from the customer's advance (balance allocation)

If a customer has an advance (credit balance) in their account—from an earlier overpayment, a refund, or a service credit—you can use that balance to pay a sales receipt without asking them for new money. This is called a balance allocation.

Before you start

• The customer must have a positive balance (credit) in their account. You can check this on the customer's profile or in the receipt's customer details.
• The sales receipt must already exist and be saved.
• You must have permission to record and allocate payments.

Steps

1. Go to Sales Receipts Open in Usystems and open the receipt you want to pay from the customer's balance.

2. Scroll down to the Payments section.

3. Click Add Payment or the option to add a new payment row.

4. In the payment row:

   • Leave the Amount field empty or zero for now—you'll set it in the next step.
   • Look for an option called Balance Allocation or Use Customer Balance. Click it.

5. A dialog or panel will appear showing:

   • The receipt amount
   • The customer's available balance
   • A field to enter how much of the balance to apply

6. Enter the amount you want to allocate from the balance. You can:

   • Allocate the entire receipt amount if the balance is large enough (the receipt is now fully paid).
   • Allocate only part of the balance, leaving the receipt partially paid (the customer will owe the remainder).

7. Confirm the allocation. The payment row will update with the allocated amount and method (usually shown as "Balance Allocation").

8. Click Save to record the payment.

Accounting impact

When you allocate a customer's balance to pay a sales receipt, the system reduces their credit balance and reduces their receivable (money owed). No cash or bank account is debited—the money is just reclassified from a customer credit into payment of the receipt. If you are fully settling the receipt, its status changes to "Paid."

Tips & common mistakes

• Partial allocation: You do not have to use the entire customer balance in one go. If a customer owes 1,000 and has a balance of 500, you can allocate 500 and the receipt will show 500 paid and 500 unpaid.
• Balance not showing? If you see no customer balance option, the customer either has no credit or you may not have permission. Ask your system administrator.
• Overpayment of the receipt: If you try to allocate more than the receipt amount, the system will usually cap it at the receipt total. The customer's remaining balance stays in their account for future use.
• Mixed payments: On a single receipt, you can combine balance allocation with cash, card, or other payment methods. For example, allocate 500 from balance and collect 200 in cash to fully settle an unpaid 700 receipt.