Partial payments, batched deposits and short payments

Partial payments

A partial payment is an agreed or unilateral payment of part of an invoice. The invoice stays open for the remainder, and the ageing should show the remaining balance rather than either the original total or nothing at all.

The common failure is closing the invoice because a payment arrived against it. The second most common is leaving the whole invoice open because the payment could not be applied cleanly, which double-counts the receivable while the cash sits in the bank.

INV-1057   invoice total   1,450.00
  allocated from deposit  1,000.00
  remaining balance         450.00  <- stays open

Batched deposits

A batched deposit is one bank credit covering several invoices, often from a customer's scheduled payment run. It should be split across the invoices named in the remittance advice, with any unexplained balance left unapplied and visible.

Where no remittance advice exists, look for a combination of open invoices summing exactly to the deposit. Treat this as a hypothesis to confirm, not a conclusion: with enough open invoices, several combinations will fit.

Short payments and deductions

A short payment is a partial payment with a cause: an early-settlement discount, a return, a pricing dispute, a chargeback or a fee deducted in transit. The allocation is the same mechanically, but the residual needs a reason code and an owner, because the decision is either to credit it or to chase it.

Recording short payments as generic partial payments is how disputes stay invisible until the balance is too old to collect.

Keeping the arithmetic exact

Splitting invites rounding errors. Hold amounts as integer cents throughout, validate that the sum of allocations never exceeds either side, and show the residual on both sides of every split — invoice remaining and payment unapplied — so a mistake is visible immediately rather than at the close.

How SettlePair models this

SettlePair's allocation sheet supports one payment across several invoices, several payments against one invoice, part payments and unapplied remainders. Amounts are held in integer cents and validated on entry against both remaining balances, so an over-allocation cannot be recorded.

The export carries the allocated amount, the remaining invoice balance and the unapplied payment balance on each row, alongside the confidence score and the evidence summary for suggestions the engine produced.

Common questions

How do I reconcile a deposit that covers invoices from several months?

Split it across each invoice named in the remittance advice regardless of period; the deposit date does not have to fall in the same period as the invoices it settles. Leave any unexplained balance unapplied.

What if a customer pays more than the invoice total?

Allocate the invoice in full and leave the overpayment as an unapplied balance against that customer, with a decision to refund it or apply it to the next invoice.