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Record and allocate a prepayment

A prepayment records a deposit paid to a supplier before there's an invoice to settle it against. See prepayments for how the remaining balance is worked out and why it can never drift out of step.

Record the deposit​

  1. Go to Purchasing → Prepayments, then select New prepayment.
  2. Fill in the supplier the deposit is for, an amount, a date, and your own reference for it. The reference must be unique for that supplier — reusing a reference already used for the same supplier is rejected.
  3. Save it as a draft. A draft prepayment can still be edited or cancelled.
  4. Once the deposit has actually been paid, select Mark paid.

There's no field to tie a deposit to a specific purchase order — a prepayment is either a standalone deposit against a supplier, or applied to whichever invoices you choose later.

Allocate it against invoices​

Allocation has two entry points, both doing the same thing:

  • Allocate, on the prepayment itself. This opens a panel that stays open, so you can spread one deposit across several invoices in one sitting.
  • Apply prepayment, on a posted invoice. This is single-shot — it applies once — and only appears when there's actually something on that invoice left to apply a prepayment to. The result shows on the invoice under Applied prepayments.

Either way, an invoice is only eligible if it is posted, from the same supplier as the prepayment, and in the same currency. A prepayment moves to partially applied once some of its balance has gone to invoices, and to applied once none remains.

Refund the remaining balance​

Select Refund. A refund always returns the whole remaining balance — there is no partial refund. Refund is available whenever a balance remains, whether the prepayment is paid or already partially applied.

Cancel a draft​

Select Cancel. Cancelling is only possible while the prepayment is still a draft. Once it has been marked paid, cancelling is no longer offered — from that point on the only ways out are allocating it or refunding it. Cancelling a draft has no accounting effect.

Currency​

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

See prepayment statuses for which of these actions is available at each stage.