Payment Processing

Processing payments and receipts

Payment journals — paying vendors

The Payment Journal is where Marcus records money going out to vendors (Tell Me > “Payment Journals”).

Manual payment entry

For a one-off payment, Marcus fills in: Account Type = Vendor, Account No. = the vendor, Applies-to Doc. No. = the invoice, Bal. Account Type = Bank Account, Bal. Account No. = the bank. BC auto-fills defaults from the vendor card.

Suggest Vendor Payments — the batch approach

For the weekly payment run, Marcus uses Suggest Vendor Payments instead of typing lines by hand:

1. Set Last Payment Date — BC finds all invoices due on or before this date
2. Set Available Amount to cap the total payout
3. Enable Find Payment Discounts to include invoices with available early-pay discounts
4. Enable Use Vendor Priority to pay high-priority vendors first
5. Choose Summarise per Vendor for one payment per vendor, or keep separate lines

BC generates payment journal lines matching the filters. Marcus reviews, adjusts, and posts.

💡 Exam tip: Suggest Vendor Payments

Last Payment Date = which invoices qualify. Available Amount = budget cap. Find Payment Discounts adds invoices where the discount deadline has not passed, even if the due date is later. Summarise per Vendor means you cannot apply to individual invoices after summarising.

Question

What does the Suggest Vendor Payments function do?

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Answer

It scans all open vendor ledger entries due by the Last Payment Date, applies filters (available amount, priority, discounts), and auto-generates payment journal lines. The user reviews and posts them.

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Cash receipt journals — collecting from customers

The Cash Receipt Journal is the mirror image — it records money coming in from customers. Sofia uses it daily (Tell Me > “Cash Receipt Journals”).

Sofia fills in: Account Type = Customer, Account No. = the customer, Applies-to Doc. No. = the invoice, Bal. Account Type = Bank Account, Bal. Account No. = the receiving bank. Clicking Applies-to Doc. No. shows all open invoices for that customer.

Partial payments

If a customer sends $3,000 against a $5,000 invoice, Sofia enters $3,000 and applies it to the invoice. After posting, the customer ledger entry shows a remaining amount of $2,000 and the invoice stays Open until fully paid.

Question

What happens when a partial payment is applied to an invoice?

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Answer

The payment reduces the Remaining Amount on the customer or vendor ledger entry. The entry stays Open until Remaining Amount reaches zero, at which point it changes to Closed.

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Payment registration — the quick way

The Payment Registration page (Tell Me > “Payment Registration”) is a simplified alternative. BC shows all open customer invoices — Sofia ticks Payment Made next to each paid invoice, adjusts amounts if needed, and clicks Post Payments. BC handles journal posting and application automatically.

💡 When to use which

Use Payment Registration when customers pay exact invoice amounts and you need a fast tick-and-post workflow. Use Cash Receipt Journals when you need partial payments, one payment across multiple invoices, foreign currency handling, or custom dimensions.

Cash Receipt Journal vs Payment Registration

Feature	Cash Receipt Journal	Payment Registration
Complexity	Full journal — set all fields yourself	Tick-and-post checklist
Partial payments	Full control over amounts	Basic support
Multi-invoice payment	Apply one payment to many invoices	One tick per invoice only
Foreign currency	Full support	Limited
Best for	Complex scenarios, high-volume AR	Quick daily recording, small AR teams

Applying ledger entries

Application links a payment to an invoice so BC knows which bill has been paid. It happens automatically when you set Applies-to Doc. No. before posting, or through Payment Registration. But sometimes you need to apply manually after posting.

Manual application after posting

When Marcus posts a payment without specifying the invoice (the vendor sent a lump sum):

1. Open the vendor card > Ledger Entries
2. Select the payment entry > click Apply Entries
3. Select the invoice(s) to apply against
4. Click Set Applies-to ID, then Post Application

Applies-to Doc. No. links a payment to one specific invoice. Applies-to ID groups multiple entries for application — useful when one payment covers several invoices.

Question

What is the difference between Applies-to Doc. No. and Applies-to ID?

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Answer

Applies-to Doc. No. links a payment to one specific invoice (one-to-one). Applies-to ID groups multiple entries together for application (one-to-many or many-to-many), useful when a single payment covers several invoices.

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Unapplying entries

Sofia applied a $2,500 customer payment to Invoice 1042, but the customer meant it for Invoice 1089. She needs to unapply first, then re-apply correctly.

1. Open the customer card > Ledger Entries
2. Find the incorrectly applied entry > click Unapply Entries
3. Confirm — BC breaks the link and both entries return to Open with original remaining amounts restored
4. Now apply the payment to the correct invoice

BC blocks unapplication if a later entry depends on it (like a payment discount), or the period is closed.

⚠️ Unapply does NOT delete anything

Unapplying does not remove or reverse posted entries. It simply breaks the link between payment and invoice, restoring the Remaining Amount on both. Think of it as “unlinking” not “undoing.”

Reversing posted journals

When a journal entry was posted with the wrong amount or account, you reverse it. BC creates exact opposite entries to cancel the original.

What can be reversed: general journal entries, payment journal entries, cash receipt journal entries.

What cannot be reversed: posted purchase/sales invoices, posted shipments/receipts — use credit memos instead.

The key rule: only journal-posted entries can be reversed.

How to reverse

1. Open G/L Registers (Tell Me > “G/L Registers”)
2. Find the register with the incorrect entry
3. Click Reverse Register — BC creates opposite entries with the same posting date
4. Review and post

To reverse a single entry from a multi-entry register, find it in General Ledger Entries and use Reverse Transaction.

💡 Exam tip: Which correction method to use

• Unapply — breaks the link between a payment and invoice (no amounts change)
• Reverse — creates opposite journal entries to cancel a journal posting entirely
• Credit Memo — corrects a posted invoice by creating a new document with opposite amounts

Common trick question: “A posted purchase invoice has the wrong amount. How do you fix it?” The answer is NEVER reverse — use a purchase credit memo.

Apply vs Unapply vs Reverse

Action	What It Does	When to Use
Apply	Links payment to invoice, closing the open entry	Payment posted without specifying which invoice it covers
Unapply	Breaks the link between payment and invoice	Payment was applied to the wrong invoice
Reverse	Creates opposite journal entries to cancel the original	Journal entry should not exist (wrong amount or account)

Question

Can you reverse a posted purchase invoice?

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Answer

No. Reverse only works for journal entries (general journals, payment journals, cash receipt journals). To correct a posted purchase invoice, you must create a purchase credit memo.

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Knowledge check

Knowledge Check

Marcus needs to pay all vendors with invoices due in the next 7 days, with a $50,000 budget and high-priority vendors first. Which function should he use?

AManually enter each vendor payment in the payment journalBSuggest Vendor Payments with Last Payment Date, Available Amount, and Use Vendor PriorityCPayment Registration — tick each vendor invoiceDPost a general journal with multiple vendor lines

Check Answer

Knowledge Check

Sofia applied a $1,200 customer payment to Invoice 3055, but the customer meant it for Invoice 3061. What should she do?

AReverse the payment journal entry and re-post with the correct invoiceBDelete the payment entry from the customer ledgerCUnapply the payment from Invoice 3055, then re-apply to Invoice 3061DPost a credit memo against Invoice 3055

Check Answer

Knowledge Check

Olivia discovers a general journal entry posted with the wrong expense account. What is the correct fix?

AUnapply the general journal entryBEdit the posted general ledger entry to change the accountCReverse the journal register to create offsetting entriesDDelete the general ledger entry and re-post

Check Answer

🎬 Video coming soon

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Next up: Bank reconciliation — matching your BC bank ledger to actual bank statements, handling differences, and closing the loop on all the payments Marcus and Sofia processed.