Payments & Invoicing
Record a payment, refund or cancel an invoice
Once an invoice is sent, you handle what happens next from the invoice itself: record money you got another way, refund a card payment, or cancel an invoice that shouldn't stand.
The short version
- Open the invoice.
- Record a payment, issue a refund, or cancel it.
- To chase a late payment, send a reminder from Receivables on your phone, or turn on automatic reminders.
On your phone
- Tap the Money tab and tap the invoice.
- Record a payment: tap Record Payment.
- Enter the Amount Received, pick a method (Cash, E-Transfer, Venmo, Check), and set a Payment Date if it wasn't today.
- Tap Confirm Payment.
- Refund a card payment: tap ↩ Issue refund, write a reason, and leave the amount blank for a full refund.
- Tap Confirm refund.
- Cancel the invoice: tap Cancel Invoice, then Cancel Invoice again to confirm.
- Remind a client: on the Money tab, tap the Receivables card, then Remind on the client.
- The card shows only when clients owe you money.
On the web
- Click Financials in the left sidebar and click the invoice.
- Record a payment: click Record Manual Payment (Record Remaining Payment if it's part paid).
- Enter the amount and method (Cash, e-Transfer, Cheque, Stripe or Other), and click Record Payment.
- Refund a card payment: click Issue Refund, write a reason, leave the amount blank for a full refund, and click Confirm Refund.
- Cancel the invoice: click Cancel Invoice and confirm.
What your client gets
- A recorded payment: no email. The invoice shows as paid, or partly paid, in their account.
- A refund: an email saying how much was refunded, and that it usually reaches their card in 5 to 10 business days. They always get it.
- A cancelled invoice: no email. It's hidden from their payments list unless they choose to show cancelled invoices.
- A reminder: an email with the invoice, and a link to pay by card if you take online payments. Chester skips anyone who has turned off payment reminders.
Good to know
- Part payments are fine. Record less than the balance and the invoice shows Partially Paid until the rest comes in.
- Paid too much? The extra becomes credit for that client, used on their next invoice. Chester shows this before you save.
- No service fee on cash, e-transfer or cheque. Chester's 5% only applies to card payments.
- Refunds are for card payments only. If they paid another way, pay them back yourself.
- On a card refund, Chester returns its fee. The refund comes out of your payout, and Chester gives back its share of the 5% fee.
- Cancel only works before money is recorded. You can cancel a draft, sent or overdue invoice. Once a payment is on it, refund instead.
- Cancelling can't be undone. The visits on it go back to Unbilled, so you can invoice them again.
- Automatic reminders are off to start. Turn them on in Settings, then Invoice Automation: by default, the first goes 7 days after the due date, then every 7 days, up to 3.
- Who can do this. Anyone with Manage billing & invoices. Owners have it to start.
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