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Prepayments

A prepayment is money paid to a supplier before there is an invoice to settle against — a deposit against future purchases.

Statuses​

A prepayment moves through draft, paid, partially applied, applied, refunded, and cancelled.

The remaining balance is always worked out fresh​

The remaining balance on a prepayment is not stored — it's worked out from what has been allocated to invoices so far. Because it's calculated rather than kept, it always reflects reality: there's no separate figure that can drift out of step with the allocations behind it.

Allocation is many-to-many​

Allocating a prepayment against an invoice is not a one-to-one match. One deposit can spread its balance across several invoices, and one invoice can draw on several deposits at once. To be eligible, an invoice must be:

  • Posted — a draft or held invoice can't draw on a prepayment.
  • From the same supplier as the prepayment.
  • In the same currency as the prepayment.

A refund returns the whole remaining balance​

A refund is whole-balance only — there is no partial refund. Refunding a prepayment returns everything still unallocated on it; you can't refund part of the remaining balance and leave the rest allocated.

Cancelling is only possible while still a draft​

A deposit can only be cancelled while it is still a draft. Once it has been marked paid, cancelling is no longer available — from that point on the only ways out are allocating it or refunding it.

The reference must be unique per supplier​

The reference on a prepayment is one you choose yourself, not a system-generated number. It must be unique for that supplier — reusing a reference already used for the same supplier is rejected.

Currency​

Prepayments are recorded in pounds. Other currencies are not yet supported for prepayments.