Payments

Payments in SettleWise represent money received from customers. They go through a lifecycle — from creation to validation — with automatic allocation to invoices and sync to QuickBooks.

Payment Sources

Payments can arrive from different channels:

Payment Lifecycle

Every payment follows this flow:

The typical flow

Adding Payments

From the Payments page

1. Navigate to Payments → Add Manual Payment
2. Select the invoice(s) the payment applies to
3. Enter the amount, payment date, and payment method
4. Optionally attach evidence (receipt, transfer confirmation)
5. Save — payment is created as pending

From invoice context

1. Open the invoice to confirm details
2. Go to Payments → Add Manual Payment
3. Select the invoice and enter payment details
4. Save

Payment Reconciliation

Validation is the step where a payment becomes official. During validation, the system:

1. Assigns the customer — confirms which customer this payment belongs to
2. Assigns the register — which bank account or cash drawer received the funds (required)
3. Allocates to invoices — distributes the payment across matched invoices
4. Applies credits — if the customer has available credits and credit intent was flagged, credits are applied before cash
5. Creates the receipt — generates a receipt number and PDF
6. Posts to QuickBooks — payment recorded in QB with proper allocation
7. Updates invoice statuses — invoices move to partial, paid, or completed

Accounting Connection

Validated payments can feed the Accounting workspace. When the payment is assigned to a register, SettleWise can post a balanced deposit entry:

This is why register assignment and product category revenue mapping matter. They determine where payment actuals appear in account activity and the Income Statement.

Payment Methods

SettleWise supports these payment methods:

The payment method is set when creating or receiving a payment. For email-sourced payments, the system auto-detects the method from the email content.

Resolution Types

When a payment is confirmed, it receives a resolution type that describes how it was applied:

How Allocation Works

When a payment covers multiple invoices, SettleWise needs to decide how much goes to each invoice. There are two strategies:

FIFO — Automatic (Default)

The system allocates using First In, First Out — oldest due date gets paid first:

1. Sort invoices by due date — oldest first
2. Fill sequentially — complete invoice 1 fully before moving to invoice 2
3. Credits first — if the customer has available credits, those are applied before the cash amount
4. Excess becomes credit — if payment exceeds all invoice totals, the remainder automatically becomes a customer credit

Example: Customer pays $3,000. They have two invoices: Invoice A ($1,000, due Jan 15) and Invoice B ($1,500, due Feb 1).

Manual Allocation — User-Specified

When a customer tells you how to split the payment, you can override FIFO and enter exact amounts per invoice. This is available both when adding a manual payment and during manual resolution.

The system validates in real time: green border means valid, red means the amount exceeds the invoice balance.

See Add Payment Manually for the step-by-step flow.

Overpayment Handling

When a payment exceeds the total amount owed:

• The excess is automatically created as a customer credit (type: overpayment)
• In QuickBooks, this is stored as unapplied amount on the Payment — no separate document is created
• The credit can be applied to future invoices automatically

Credit Intent

When recording a manual payment, you can flag "Use credit" to indicate that available customer credits should be applied during validation. This creates a combined payment where:

• Existing credits are consumed first (oldest first)
• The cash amount covers the remainder
• You can also create a $0 credit-only payment to apply credits without any cash

Payment Evidence

Attach proof of payment to any payment record:

• Upload screenshots, receipts, or transfer confirmations
• Supported formats: PNG, JPG, PDF
• Files are stored securely in S3 and visible to team members

Manual Resolution

Some payments can't be matched automatically. When the sender is unknown, the amount doesn't match any invoice, or there are multiple possible matches, the payment is flagged as Required Actions.

To resolve it:

1. Open the payment detail panel
2. Assign a customer (if unknown)
3. Select invoices to apply the payment to
4. Set allocation amounts (optional — or let FIFO handle it)
5. Assign a register and click Confirm Payment

The entire flow — customer assignment, invoice matching, validation, receipt generation, and QuickBooks sync — happens in one atomic operation.

If the payment came through WhatsApp, the same resolution logic applies, but the AI agent can ask follow-up questions in the conversation to identify the customer, invoice, or allocation before final confirmation.

See Resolve a Payment Manually for the full step-by-step guide.

Payment Investigation

When you receive a deposit and don't know who it's from, the AI assistant can help investigate. It analyzes unpaid invoices, asks targeted questions to eliminate candidates, and narrows down until the match is found.

"Recibí una transferencia de $5,000 y no sé de quién es"

See Payment Investigation for details.

Best Practices

• Record payments the same day — enter payments as they arrive to keep your dashboard and reports current
• Always include a reference — add check numbers, transaction IDs, or transfer references to make reconciliation easier
• Validate promptly — review pending payments daily so matches are confirmed while context is fresh
• Attach evidence for large payments — upload receipts or transfer confirmations for audit purposes
• Use AI investigation for unknowns — instead of guessing, let the assistant narrow down unmatched payments
• Set a default register — saves time during validation if most payments go to the same account

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