The Customer payments page in Tracksales lets you record payments received from customers, split them across multiple invoices or opening balance, and print or email a receipt. This guide explains how to use it. For recording a payment from a single invoice’s details view, see Creating and managing invoices.

Where to find Customer payments

Open Payments from the main menu under Invoices. You’ll see a list of all payments received: date, reference, customer, payment type, amount, and unused credits. Use search and filters (e.g. by customer or payment type) to find a specific payment. Click a row to open its details in the panel on the right.

Creating a new payment

Click Create payment (or New payment). Then:

  • Customer — Select the customer who made the payment. Once you choose a customer, the form loads that customer’s outstanding invoices and opening balance (if any).
  • Reference — Optional (e.g. cheque number, transaction ID). Can be left blank.
  • Payment type — Choose the method (e.g. Cash, Bank transfer, M-Pesa, Card). Types are configured under Settings > Preferences > Customer payments.
  • Payment date — When the payment was received.
  • Amount received — Total amount the customer paid.
  • Comment — Optional notes.

In the Apply to invoices section, you’ll see the customer’s invoices that have an outstanding balance. Enter the amount to apply from this payment to each invoice. You can also apply part of the payment to the customer’s Opening balance if they had an opening balance. The total applied (invoices + opening balance) cannot exceed the amount received. Any leftover amount stays as Unused credits on the payment and can be applied later (by editing the payment) or left as credit on the customer’s account.

Click Save to create the payment. Invoice balances and statuses (e.g. Due / Paid) are updated automatically. You’re returned to the list with the new payment’s details panel open.

Viewing payment details

When you click a payment in the list, the details panel shows:

  • Payment details — Customer, date, type, amount, unused credits, and comment.
  • Applied to invoices — A table of each invoice this payment was applied to, with the amount per invoice.
  • Opening balance — If any of the payment was applied to the customer’s opening balance, it’s shown here.

From the details panel you can:

  • Edit — Change customer, reference, type, date, amount, or how the payment is applied to invoices and opening balance.
  • Print — Print a payment receipt (the same content as the details view, in a print-friendly format).
  • Email — Send a payment receipt by email to the customer’s email address (the customer must have a valid email in their profile).
  • Delete — Remove the payment. This reverses the payment and restores invoice balances; use only when the payment was recorded in error.

Editing a payment

Open the payment and click Edit. You can change the customer (which reloads invoices and opening balance), reference, payment type, date, amount, and comment. You can also change how much of the payment is applied to each invoice and to opening balance. The total applied cannot exceed the payment amount. Save to update; invoice balances and statuses are recalculated.

Unused credits

If the amount received is greater than what you apply to invoices and opening balance, the remainder is stored as Unused credits on that payment. You can later edit the payment and apply some or all of that credit to other invoices for the same customer. Unused credits are shown in the payment list and in the payment details.

💡 Pro tip

You can also record a single payment from the invoice itself: open the invoice (status Due), click Record Payment, and enter the amount and details. That payment will appear both on the invoice and in the Customer payments list. Use the Customer payments page when you receive one payment that should be split across several invoices or part to opening balance.