02.6 Applications

Definition: What is it?

The Invoice Applications sub menu is where payments that have been made (or received) can be linked or allocated to an invoice. The phrase 'applying' an amount to an invoice is often used to describe this. The screen is divided into 3 main areas as follows:

• Payments Applied (which shows details of the total amount 'Applied' and the total amount 'Open'. Note that 'Open' here means outstanding)
• Possible Payments to Apply (which shows all the payments that have been sent from the same party id as the invoice - for a sales invoice this would be the customer party id)
• Assign Payment to Invoice (which allows you to manually assign a specific payment id to this invoice)

GENERAL NOTE: General Ledger accounting transactions are generated during the payment application process but unless your GL is setup with Unapplied Cash and Applied Cash accounts - I'm not sure that there will be any true accounting impact. In the Sales Order process the accounting transaction generated the following GL Accounting transaction is generated for 'Payment Applied'

What is it used for?

This is used to link payments to invoices. It is also used to allocate which part of a payment is allocated or applied to a specific invoice. This is extremely useful if your customers pay multiple invoices with a single payment.

Example:

• A customer could send a single payment of $1000 that can be used to pay for two invoices (eg $400 and $600)
• Using this applications sub menu allows you to allocate part of the $400 to one invoice and the balance ($600) to the other invoice
  
  

By default all 'unapplied' payments that have been entered into OFBiz from the customer will be available for selection even if they have not yet been flagged as formally 'Received'. This means that these are payments that have not already been linked to another invoice. If only part of a payment amount has been linked to an invoice then the remaining amount is left available to be allocated to another invoice. Also note that a single invoice could be paid by multiple payments being applied to it.

What's on the screen?

To do
 

How do I apply a payment (or payments) to an invoice?

Example: To apply a payment to an invoice

1. Select the 'Applications' sub menu for the invoice
2. A list of unapplied payments for the party id will be displayed
3. Press the 'Apply' button next to the entry that needs to be applied to the invoice (NOTE: More than one entry may be used. Also only part of a larger amount may be used)
4. The Payments Applied total at the top of the screen will be updated with the amount selected. Also the Amount Open will be reduced by the amount selected.
5. Once the total invoice amount has been selected a message will be displayed and only the first part of the screen will be displayed
6. The top part of the screen will now be updated to show the 'Payments Applied' total is equal to the invoice total and the 'Amount Open' is zero.
   

How do I update an applied payment for an invoice?

Payments that have been applied to an invoice can be updated. This means that you can change the details of the payment transaction or adjust the amount that was applied to the invoice. 

Example: To update a payment applied to an invoice

1. Select the 'Applications' sub menu for the invoice
2. A list of payments already applied to the invoice will be displayed in the top part of the screen
3. Enter or use the lookup to change the 'Payment Id' if required
4. Enter the updated amount in the 'Amount to Apply' field if required
5. Press the 'Update' button
   

How do I remove an applied payment (or payments) from an invoice?

NOTE TO CHECK: It can be done before transaction has been posted to GL but also need to check if its can be done if the transaction has been posted. 

Example: To remove an applied payment from an invoice

1. Select the 'Applications' sub menu for the invoice
2. A list of payments already applied to the invoice will be displayed in the top part of the screen
3. Press the 'Remove' button next to the payment entry that needs to be removed
4. The entry will be removed and the top part of the screen will be update the 'Payments Applied' total and 'Amount Open'