Recording payments & issuing refunds

When a customer pays you outside the app — a bank transfer, cash, a card machine, or anything else — you log it manually so the invoice shows as paid. The Record payment button lives in the invoice editor's toolbar. It only appears on a finalized invoice (one that has a number and isn't voided), and only owners and admins can use it; members can build and send documents but can't record money against them.

When you record a payment, the app adds a line to that invoice's payment ledger and immediately recalculates the amount paid and the status. Once the total paid reaches the invoice total it flips to Paid; if some is paid but not all, it shows Partially paid.

You don't have to be paid in full at once. Record whatever amount actually arrived and the invoice moves to Partially paid, showing how much is still due. You can record as many payments as it takes; each one chips away at the balance until the invoice is fully settled and marked Paid.

The Record payment dialog helps you stay accurate as you go. It always shows the current Outstanding amount, and once you type an amount it shows the Balance after this payment so you can see what will still be owed. The payments panel on the invoice also has a small progress bar that reads something like "paid X of Y" with the remaining amount due, or "Paid in full" once it's settled.

Every invoice has a Payments panel that is the full ledger for that document. Each row shows the method (as a badge), the date, and the amount. Refund rows are tinted red and shown as negative amounts so collections and refunds are easy to tell apart at a glance. Below the list, the progress indicator summarizes how much has been paid against the invoice total.

This ledger is the source of truth. The invoice's amount-paid figure and its Paid / Partially paid status are calculated from it, so they update the moment you add a payment or a refund — you never edit those fields directly.

The app enforces a few guardrails so your numbers can never go impossible. These checks run on the server, so they hold even if two people act at the same time.

There are two ways to record money going back to a customer, depending on how they originally paid.

Manual / offline refund. If you refunded the customer yourself (returned cash, reversed a bank transfer), record it through the same Record payment dialog using a negative amount. The dialog reminds you that a negative value records a refund. This adds a refund row to the ledger and reduces the amount paid, but it doesn't move any actual money — it just keeps your books matching what you already did.

In-app card refund. For payments collected through a real card/payment provider, a Refund button appears next to that charge in the payments list (owner/admin only). Clicking it asks you to confirm, then sends the refund back to the payer through the provider — Stripe-collected refunds settle right away, while Paystack-collected refunds are queued and settle shortly after. You can only refund up to what was charged on that payment, and the same Refund-exceeds-collected guard applies. Note that payments currently run on a built-in test gateway by default, so until a live card provider is connected you'll generally be recording refunds the manual (negative-amount) way.