Identifying deposits

What this does

Money going out of the bank is an expense until proven otherwise, so the inbox can approve it against an expense account. Money coming in is different: it might be a customer paying an invoice (which clears a receivable and must never be counted as revenue twice), a deposit you already recorded, the owner putting cash in, a refund from a vendor, or interest. Identify deposit on a money-in row asks which, shows you the posting before you commit, and posts it.

Before you start

accounting.manage. For a customer payment, the invoice should already exist; the panel matches against open invoices. If you're working a long list of credits at once, Bulk Apply Deposits is the same decision in table form.

Steps

Click the deposit icon on a money-in row in the Transaction Inbox.

Payer. The name parsed from the bank memo. Edit it if the bank's text was junk; the customer search below follows what you type.

Customer payment or Not a customer payment. The first question.

For a customer payment: pick the Customer (the list includes the owner of every invoice the panel is offering), then under Match open invoices pick the invoice, or the combination of invoices, that sums to the credit. Exact-amount matches are marked. The Physical check switch matters: off, the money posts straight to the bank account; on, it posts to Undeposited Funds so the deposit slip you'll make for the bank run drains it, exactly as a check taken at the counter would. Leave it off for an electronic payment that landed directly.

For other money: pick a Deposit type (Pass-through, Owner contribution, Refund received, Transfer in, Other income) and an Offset account. Sales revenue accounts are deliberately not offered; revenue is recognized when you invoice, never when money lands. Turn on Always classify deposits matching this pattern to save a memo rule so the next credit with the same bank text is pre-classified.

Posting preview shows the entry. Confirm & Post posts it and marks the row reconciled.

Split across customers… hands the credit to the split editor when one credit covers several customers, or mixes a payment with a fee or a refund.

What happens in the books

A customer payment posts Dr the bank account (or Dr Undeposited Funds with the physical-check switch on) / Cr Accounts Receivable, creates one payment per invoice, and marks each invoice paid. Other money posts Dr the bank account / Cr the offset account you chose. Either way the credit is posted once; opening the panel again on the same row says "Already reconciled."

A deposit you already posted

If you posted a deposit slip from Money In → Deposits before the bank's alert arrived, the slip already booked the bank, and identifying the credit again would count the money twice. The panel detects this (a Check Deposit or QuickDeposit credit with a slip of the same amount in the same window) and stops. Reject the inbox row with a reason naming the slip; the bank register already has the deposit, and the reconciliation will clear it from there. There is no button yet to link the alert to the slip directly.

Common problems

Confirm is disabled. No invoice combination is selected, or the selected invoices don't sum to the credit. Use the split editor for a partial payment or an overpayment.

The customer isn't in the list. The payer text didn't match a customer name. Edit the payer field to search by another spelling, or pick the invoice first and its customer appears.

The credit is a processor payout with a fee taken out. The lines won't equal the credit. Use Split across customers… and assign the difference to the fee account.

It's a partial payment or an overpayment. Identify only takes exact matches; the "apply as credit on account" row is shown but not yet enabled. Record the payment from Money In → Customer Payments against the invoice (an overpayment becomes a customer credit, see Credit memos and customer credits), then reject the inbox row with a reason.