Record cash or a check
By the end of this article you’ll have recorded cash or a check handed to you at the car, and know what happens to that record once your phone syncs.
Unlike a card charge, recording cash needs no connection. The money is already in your hand; the phone just writes it down and sends the record on the next sync.
Record it
- Open the job and tap Collect Payment. The Cash or check panel is on the payment screen, under the tip.
- Choose Cash or Check.
- Amount received starts out filled with what the invoice still owes — the line Balance owing: under the field shows the same figure. Change it to what you were actually given. It has to be more than zero: Enter an amount greater than zero. stops an empty one.
- For a check, add the Check number. It’s optional, but it’s what the office will match against the bank.
- Tap Record payment.
The screen changes to Payment recorded with the amount repeated back, and It will sync to the office automatically. That confirmation is the only receipt on the phone for the cash you just took, so it stays on screen until you choose Record another payment — which starts a fresh form for a customer who splits the bill, say half cash and half check.
Working without signal
With no connection the top of the payment screen reads No connection and explains: Charging a card needs a connection and is never queued offline. You can still record cash or a check below — it will sync when you’re back online. The panel works exactly as above. The record is saved on the phone and counts in the pending changes on the sync bar until it reaches the office.
What the office sees
- Once synced, the payment appears on the invoice with the method Cash or Check and the check number as its reference, and the invoice’s balance drops by the amount.
- If the amount clears the balance of an invoice the office has already sent, the invoice turns Paid on its own and the customer gets their paid-invoice email.
- On an invoice the office hasn’t sent yet, the money is held for it and applied when the office sends it.
Good to know
- A partial payment is fine. Record what you were given; the balance shows what’s left. The next payment starts from the new balance.
- More than the balance is fine too. Cash comes in whole notes. The extra becomes credit on the customer’s account rather than being refused.
- The office can refuse a record — the books are closed for that date, your permission to collect was removed, the invoice was voided. When that happens the phone tells you, and the money is never quietly dropped: see A payment the app could not record.
- The balance the field starts from is the phone’s best figure. Offline it can be a little out of date; the office settles the exact amount against the invoice when the record arrives. What you type is what was handed over — that’s the number that matters.
- Recording cash needs the same permission as collecting a card — the one that puts Collect Payment on the job.