Payments or bill payments?
In Codat, payments represent accounts receivable only. For accounts payable, see bill payments. These include bills and credit notes against bills.
Overview
Payments include all accounts receivable transaction data. This includes invoices and credit notes.
A payment in Codat usually represents an allocation of money within any customer accounts receivable account. This includes, but is not strictly limited to:
- A payment made against an invoice, like a credit card, cheque, or cash payment.
- An allocation of a customer's credit note, either to an invoice or maybe a refund.
- A payment made directly to that accounts receivable account. This might be an overpayment or a prepayment. It might also be the refund of a payment made directly to an accounts receivable account.
Depending on the payments allowed by the underlying accounting software, some payment types may be combined. Please see the example for more details.
In Codat, a payment contains details of:
- When the payment was recorded in the accounting system.
- How much it is for and in what currency that amount is in.
- Who the payment was paid by – the customer.
- The payment method used.
- The breakdown of the types of payments – the line items.
Payments is a child data type of account transactions.
Payment types
Payment of an invoice
A payment paying a single invoice has one entry in its lines array. This line has the following properties:
- An amount that indicates the amount of the invoice that was paid. This is always positive.
- A links array containing one element with the following properties:
- A type that indicates the type of link, in this case an Invoice.
- An id that contains the ID of the invoice that was paid.
- An amount for the link. The sum of the line.amount and the links.amount must equal 0.
The amount field on the line equals the totalAmount on the payment.
Payment of multiple invoices
A single payment can pay multiple invoices. This can be represented in one of two formats depending on how the customer keeps their books:
- The payment has multiple entries in its lines array, one for each invoice that is paid. Each line follows the example and rules described in Payment of an invoice.
- The payment has a line with multiple links to each invoice. This occurs when the proportion of the original payment allocated to each invoice is not available.
Each line has the same properties as those described in Payment of an invoice, with the amount indicating how much of the payment was allocated to the invoice. The sum of line amounts equals the totalAmount on the payment.
Payments and refunds on account
A payment on account, that is a payment that doesn’t pay a specific invoice, has one entry in its lines array. The line has the following properties:
- A totalAmount that indicates the amount paid by a customer or refunded to them by a company. A payment to the customer is always negative. A refund is always positive.
- A links array containing one element with the following properties:
- A type that indicates the type of link. For a payment this is PaymentOnAccount. For a refund this is Refund.
- The id containing the ID of the customer.
- The amount for the link is 0 – the totalAmount or the amount of the payment or refund.
It is possible to have a payment that is part on account and part allocated to an invoice. Each line should follow the examples above.
Using a credit note to pay an invoice
The payment of an invoice using a credit note has one entry in its lines array. This line has the following properties:
- An amount that indicates the amount of money moved, which in this case is 0, as the credit note and invoice allocation must balance each other.
- A links array containing two elements:
- The first link has:
- A type that indicates the type of link, in this case an Invoice.
- An id that contains the ID of the invoice that was paid.
- The second link has:
- A type that indicates the type of link, in this case a CreditNote.
- An id that contains the ID of the credit note used by this payment.
The amount field on the line equals the totalAmount on the payment.
Refunding a credit note
A payment refunding a credit note has one entry in its lines array. This line has the following properties:
- An amount that indicates the amount of the credit note that was refunded. This is always negative for a refund.
- A links array that contains one element with the following properties:
- A type that indicates the type of link, in this case a CreditNote.
- An id that contains the ID of the credit note that was refunded.
The totalAmount field on the payment equals the amount field of the line. These are both negative, as this is money leaving accounts receivable.
Refunding a payment
If a payment is refunded, for example, if a customer overpaid an invoice and the overpayment is returned to the customer, there are two payment records:
- One for the incoming over payment.
- Another for the outgoing refund.
The payment issuing the refund has a negative totalAmount. This payment also has one entry in its lines array with the following properties:
- An amount that indicates the amount that was refunded. This is always negative.
- A links array that contains one element with the following properties:
- A type that indicates the type of link, in this case a Payment.
- An id that contains the ID of the payment that was refunded.
The amount field on the line equals the totalAmount on the payment and is negative, as this is money leaving accounts receivable.
The payment that was refunded has a line where the amount is positive and the type of the link is Refund. This payment may have several entries in its lines array if it was used to partly pay an invoice.
For example: A £1,050 payment on a £1,000 invoice with a refund of £50 has two lines:
- One for £1,000 linked to the invoice that was paid.
- Another for £50 linked to the payment that refunded the overpayment with a** type** of Refund and an ID that corresponds to the payment.
The line linked to the payment has the following properties:
- An amount that indicates the amount that was refunded. This is positive as its money that was added to accounts receivable. It's balanced out by the negative amount of the refund.
- A links array containing one element with the following properties:
- A type that indicates the type of link, in this case a Refund.
- An id that contains the ID of the payment that refunded this line.
Support for linked payments
Not all accounting software support linking payments in this way. In some platforms, you may see a payment on account and a refund on account.
Foreign currencies
There are two types of currency rate that are included in the payments data type:
Payment currency rate:
- Base currency of the accounts receivable account.
- Foreign currency of the payment.
Payment line link currency rate:
- Base currency of the item the link represents.
- Foreign currency of the payment.
These two rates allow the calculation of currency loss or gain for any of the transactions affected by the payment lines. The second rate is used when a payment is applied to an item in a currency that doesn't match either:
-
The base currency for the accounts receivable account.
-
The currency of the item.
{
"id": "123",
"note": "",
"totalAmount": 99.99,
"currency": "GBP",
"lines": [
{
"amount": 99.99,
"links": [
{
"type": "Invoice",
"id": "178",
"amount": -50,
"currencyRate": 1.9998
}
]
}
]
}
Example data
Object properties
For the sake of brevity, the examples here may omit properties from objects. For the full object definition, see Payments.
Simple examples
{
"totalAmount": 1000,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "x",
"amount" : -1000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"totalAmount": 0,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : 0,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "x",
"amount" : -1000
},
{
"type" : "CreditNote",
"id" : "y",
"amount" : 1000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"totalAmount": 2000,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "x",
"amount" : -1000
}
]
},
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "PaymentOnAccount",
"id" : "y",
"amount" : -1000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"totalAmount": -1000,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : -1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "CreditNote",
"id" : "y",
"amount" : 1000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"totalAmount": -1000,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : -1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "PaymentOnAccount",
"id" : "y",
"amount" : 1000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"id" : "payment-001",
"totalAmount": 1000,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Refund",
"id" : "refund-001",
"amount" : -1000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"id" : "refund-001",
"totalAmount": -1000,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : -1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Payment",
"id" : "payment-001",
"amount" : 1000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"totalAmount": 250,
"lines": [
{
"amount": 0,
"links": [
{
"type": "Invoice",
"id": "x",
"amount": -750
},
{
"type": "CreditNote",
"id": "y",
"amount": 750
}
]
},
{
"amount": 250,
"links": [
{
"type": "Invoice",
"id": "x",
"amount": -250
}
]
}
]
}
Complex examples
{
"totalAmount": 1000,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : 0,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "x",
"amount" : -1000
},
{
"type" : "CreditNote",
"id" : "y",
"amount" : 1000
}
]
},
{
"amount" : 0,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "x",
"amount" : -1000
},
{
"type" : "CreditNote",
"id" : "z",
"amount" : 1000
}
]
},
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "x",
"amount" : -1000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"totalAmount": 2000,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : 0,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "x",
"amount" : -1000
},
{
"type" : "CreditNote",
"id" : "y",
"amount" : 1000
}
]
},
{
"amount" : 0,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "x",
"amount" : -1000
},
{
"type" : "CreditNote",
"id" : "z",
"amount" : 1000
}
]
},
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "x",
"amount" : -1000
}
]
},
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "PaymentOnAccount",
"id" : "customer-001",
"amount" : -1000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"totalAmount": 0,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : 0,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "w",
"amount" : -1000
},
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "x",
"amount" : -1000
},
{
"type" : "CreditNote",
"id" : "y",
"amount" : 1000
},
{
"type" : "CreditNote",
"id" : "z",
"amount" : 1000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"totalAmount": 2000,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "w",
"amount" : -1000
},
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "x",
"amount" : -1000
},
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "u",
"amount" : -1000
},
{
"type" : "CreditNote",
"id" : "y",
"amount" : 1000
},
{
"type" : "CreditNote",
"id" : "z",
"amount" : 1000
}
]
},
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Refund",
"id" : "refund-001",
"amount" : -1000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"id" : "refund-001",
"totalAmount": -1000,
"lines": [
{
"amount" : -1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Payment",
"id" : "payment-001",
"amount" : 1000
}
]
}
]
}
In this example, a payment on account is used to pay the same invoice in January and again in February.
{
"id": "001",
"totalAmount": 5000,
"date" : "1901-01-01",
"lines": [
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "Invoice-x",
"amount" : -1000
}
]
},
{
"amount" : 4000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "PaymentOnAccount",
"id" : "PaymentOnAccount-y",
"amount" : -4000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"id": "001",
"totalAmount": 5000,
"date" : "1901-02-01",
"lines": [
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "Invoice-x",
"amount" : -1000
}
]
},
{
"amount" : 1000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "Invoice",
"id" : "Invoice-y",
"amount" : -1000
}
]
},
{
"amount" : 3000,
"links" : [
{
"type" : "PaymentOnAccount",
"id" : "PaymentOnAccount-y",
"amount" : -3000
}
]
}
]
}
{
"totalAmount": 500,
"lines": [
{
"amount": 500,
"links": [{
"type": "Invoice",
"id": "a",
"amount": -1000
}, {
"type": "Invoice",
"id": "b",
"amount": -1000
}, {
"type": "CreditNote",
"id": "y",
"amount": 750
},{
"type": "CreditNote",
"id": "z",
"amount": 750
}
]
}
]
}