Collect the balance on a finished job
By the end of this article you will know how to get a finished job paid from wherever you and the customer happen to be, and how to read the invoice afterwards.
The balance lives on the invoice. Balance Due at the bottom of the invoice is the total less every payment on record, and the invoice turns Paid on its own the moment that figure reaches zero. So the first step is always the same: the job needs an invoice — see Invoices: how one is created and when it is sent.
Four ways to collect
- In the field, by card. The technician opens the job on the phone and collects the payment there. The charge goes against the card the customer keeps on file (with an optional tip), or the technician records cash or a check, or — if there is no usable card — emails the customer a payment link from the same screen. The phone needs a connection for a card charge.
- From the invoice email. Sending the invoice emails the customer a Pay now button when card payments are set up. They pay by card from wherever they are, and the payment lands on the invoice by itself.
- With a payment link you send later. On the invoice, Create payment link emails a fresh link for the outstanding balance — for a customer who lost the first email, or when the balance changed. See Send a payment link.
- Cash or check at the desk. On the invoice, Record Payment writes the money the customer handed you into the books — see Record a cash or check payment.
A deposit collected before the work counts too: it is applied when the invoice is created, so an invoice the deposit covers in full is Paid as soon as it is sent.
Reading the invoice afterwards
Open the invoice from Billing › Invoices.
- Payment Records lists every payment on it — the Method (Card, Cash or Check), a Reference such as a check number, the Amount and a Status. Everything the invoice has ever seen is here, including a Failed attempt or a Pending one, so the list is a history rather than a sum.
- Balance Due is the sum that matters. Only captured payments count towards it.
- Payment Links shows each link sent for this invoice and whether it was Paid, with the date.
The same payments, across all invoices, are on Billing › Payments › Transactions, with the customer and job number on each row.
Good to know
- A payment that reached the wrong place. If a payment holds money that no invoice has claimed — a deposit on a job that was then cancelled, an overpayment — its row on the Transactions tab has an Apply button. The dialog lists the customer’s sent invoices with a balance and lets you put the money where it belongs, all at once.
- Partial payments are fine. Record what arrived; Balance Due shows what is left, and the invoice stays Sent until it reaches zero.
- A refund never un-pays an invoice. A paid invoice you refund stays Paid, with the refund listed under Payment Records.
- Who. Recording, applying and refunding need billing edit access — Admin and Accounting. Technicians collect in the field with their own permission; they do not need billing access.