Debts List
How the debts screen groups unpaid work by job, what each column means, and which actions you can launch from the row.
Open Accounts > Debts when you need to see which jobs still have money outstanding. The screen is job-based rather than customer-based, so the same customer can appear more than once when several jobs still carry a balance.
What Counts as a Debt
- One row per job: Each line is a job with money still owing, not one merged customer account balance.
- Invoices are optional: A debt can already be linked to an invoice, linked to several open invoices, or still be sitting on the job without an invoice yet.
- In-progress payment states still show: Pending GoCardless charges, Instant Bank Pay links, and Direct Debit setup links stay visible here so you can tell whether a balance is being chased already.
Debt Summary
- Total debt: The combined outstanding value for the rows currently in view.
- Jobs in debt: The number of filtered jobs contributing to that total.
- Filter-aware totals: Change the visibility or business filter and the summary cards update with the table, so you are always looking at the same slice of data.
Columns Worth Knowing
- Age: Shows how long the current debt has been sitting there. Work Planner works this out from the unpaid charge history, not just the date the job was created.
- Customer and Address: Enough detail to recognise the right job quickly, especially when one customer has several active debts.
- Balance: The outstanding amount still left on that job.
- Last Done: Useful when you want to separate very recent unpaid work from older balances.
- Invoice: Opens the linked invoice directly. If several open invoices relate to the same debt, the column becomes a small invoice menu instead of a single link.
- GC: Shows Direct Debit and payment-link states such as Available, Payment Link Sent, or DD Setup Sent.
- Payment: Shows the saved payment method when nothing is in flight, or a pending provider status such as Submitted (GoCardless) when a collection is already underway.
Working From a Row
- Click the row: Opens the linked job in a read-only popup so you can review the full job without leaving the debt list.
- Pay or Pay / Charge: Opens the payment path for that debt. The longer label appears when a live GoCardless collection route is available as well as manual payment.
- Invoice: Raises an invoice from the debt row when you have invoice permissions.
- Invite to GoCardless: Appears when the customer can be sent into Direct Debit setup but does not yet have an active mandate.
- Write Off: Records that some or all of the balance is no longer expected to be collected.
Selecting Several Debts
Use the checkboxes when you want to send or print documents for several debt rows together. Once at least one row is selected, Send/Print Documents appears in the header and works from those selected jobs.
What Changes Elsewhere
The list itself is only a workspace until you use one of the actions. Recording a payment updates transactions and invoice balances, writing off updates the debt and any linked invoice, and sending Direct Debit or payment links changes the status badges you see in the GC and Payment columns.
Related articles
- Debts Filters: Covers the search, visibility, and business filters in more detail.
- Taking a Payment: Walks through the payment choices and the manual payment form.
- Write-Off Flow: Explains when to write a debt off and what that does to the ledger.
- Invoices List: Useful when the next step is checking or opening the invoice side of the same debt.