An advance isn't available for allocation

An advance (prepayment or credit balance) is money that a customer has paid before you issued an invoice, or money you have paid to a vendor before they sent a bill. When you create a new invoice or bill, you should be able to use available advances to reduce or pay the amount. If an advance is not showing up as available, follow these steps to diagnose the problem.

Symptom

You are trying to allocate (apply) an advance or credit balance to an invoice or bill, but:

• The advance does not appear in the list of available amounts.
• You can see the advance on the contact's balance, but the system will not let you use it.
• The allocation form shows zero available balance even though money is due.

Likely causes (ordered by probability)

1. The advance is in a different currency. If the advance was made in a currency different from the document you are creating, Usystems does not automatically allow the allocation. You can still use the advance, but the system requires you to approve the currency conversion.

2. The advance came from a different contact. If you have two contacts with similar names (e.g., "John Smith" and "John Smith LLC"), the advance may be on the wrong contact. Always check that you have selected the correct customer or vendor.

3. The advance is already allocated. If the advance was already used to pay a previous invoice or bill, it is no longer available. Check the contact's payment history to see if the advance was used.

4. The advance has an unusual status. Rarely, an advance may be marked as cancelled, reversed, or held for some other reason. Check the contact's balance details.

5. The contact itself is inactive or locked. If the contact record is inactive or has been deleted, their advances are not available for new allocations.

6. A network or sync issue. On rare occasions, balance data may not have updated immediately. Try closing the form and reopening it.

Fix for each cause

Advance in a different currency:

1. When you are creating or editing the invoice or bill, look for the Allocation or Advanced allocation section.

2. If you see a message like "Available balance: 0" or "Cannot allocate: currency mismatch," it means the advance is in a different currency.

3. Scroll down in the allocation section and look for an option to Use advances in other currencies or Override currency check. If you see it, select it to enable the advance.

4. The system will calculate the exchange rate at the current date and deduct the converted amount.

5. Review the converted amount to confirm it is correct, then save the document.

Advance on a different contact:

1. Go to Contacts → Customers or Contacts → Vendors Open in Usystems

2. Search for the contact by name. If you see multiple contacts with the same or similar names, open each one.

3. Check the Balance section of each. The advance you need should be on the contact you are working with. If it is on a different contact, you will need to transfer it or contact your administrator.

4. If you have the wrong contact selected, go back to the invoice or bill and change the customer or vendor field.

5. Once you have the correct contact, the advance should appear in the allocation list.

Advance already allocated:

1. Go to Contacts → Customers or Contacts → Vendors and open the contact. Open in Usystems

2. Scroll to the Invoices or Bills section and look at the payment history of recent documents.

3. Look for an entry that shows an advance was applied. If you see one, the advance is no longer available because it was already used.

4. If the advance was applied to the wrong document, ask your administrator to reverse that allocation. This will make the advance available again.

5. Once reversed, you can apply the advance to the correct document.

Advance with unusual status:

1. Go to Contacts → Customers or Contacts → Vendors and open the contact. Open in Usystems

2. Look for a Balance detail or Ledger view that shows all advances and payments on record.

3. Find the advance in question and check its Status. If it says anything other than "Available" or "Active," it may not be allocatable.

4. If the status is "Cancelled," "Reversed," or "On hold," contact your administrator to investigate why.

5. If it was cancelled in error, ask your administrator to reactivate it.

Contact is inactive:

1. Go to Contacts → Customers or Contacts → Vendors. Open in Usystems

2. Open the contact. Look for a Status field or a notice at the top of the page.

3. If the contact is marked Inactive, Archived, or Deleted, you cannot allocate their advances to new documents.

4. To use the advance, the contact must be reactivated. Ask your administrator to change the status back to Active.

5. Once reactivated, the advance will become available for allocation.

Network or sync issue:

1. If you just recorded the advance (a payment or refund), wait a few seconds and then refresh the page.

2. Close the invoice or bill form you are working on without saving (click Cancel).

3. Go to Contacts → Customers or Contacts → Vendors and open the contact to confirm the advance is still there.

4. If the advance is showing on the contact, go back to create the invoice or bill again. The advance should now be available.

5. If the advance is still not showing, ask your administrator to check the payment or refund record to confirm it was saved correctly.

When to contact support

Contact your administrator or support if:

• The advance is showing on the contact but is completely unavailable for allocation, even in the same currency.
• You see conflicting data (the contact's balance shows an amount, but no advance is listed).
• An advance was reversed in error and needs to be restored from a backup.
• You need help transferring an advance from one contact to another.

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