Who Owes You
Everyone who owes you money, one row per customer with the oldest debt first: what they owe, how long it has waited, Pay, Remind and Write off for each job, Pay for all jobs for a customer who owes on several, and statements for the customers you tick.
Accounts > Who owes you lists everyone who owes you money, one row per customer, with the oldest debt at the top. A customer's jobs sit inside their row, each with its own Pay button, so you see the whole of what someone owes before you chase them.
The Summary
The totals are in the summary at the top of the list. Hide summary folds them away and Show summary brings them back, and the list remembers which you chose.
- Owed to you: Everything owed by the customers the list finds, with how many customers and jobs that is. It follows the search and filters below.
- Up to 30 days, 31 to 60 days, 61 to 90 days and Over 90 days: The same total split by how long each debt has waited. A debt is aged from its oldest charge since the customer last paid, so a customer who pays something every month stays near the top only if part of what they owe is old.
- Show: Narrows the list to the customers with a debt of that age, so you can chase the oldest first. The box then says Showing; press it again to see every age.
- Age not known: Only appears when a debt has nothing to date it by, such as an opening balance carried over from before you used Work Planner with no charge since.
A customer with one debt under 30 days and another over 90 counts in both, so the customer counts can add up to more than the total. The amounts always add up to Owed to you.
The List
- Customer: The company name, or the customer's name, with their address. The arrow beside the name opens the customer. Cancelled, in red, shows for customers you have cancelled, and Transferred for customers moved to another business: what they still owe stays on the list until it is paid or written off.
- Owes: The total across every job they owe for. If they have paid ahead on another job, it says how much they are in credit there. That credit is not taken off what they owe.
- Oldest debt: How many days their oldest debt has waited, and the last time they paid towards one of these jobs.
- Jobs owed for: Each job they owe on, with what it owes and how long it has waited, any open invoices (click one to open it), a payment still on its way such as Pending (GoCardless), and Cancelled, in red, when the job has been cancelled, or Transferred when it has moved to another business. Click the job's name to open it.
- Remind about one job: Each job's ⋮ button, beside its Pay, has Remind, which opens Message Customers for that job on your Job payment reminder email and Job payment reminder text, which say what's owed on that job.
- Remind: For a customer who owes on more than one job, their own ⋮ button under Actions has Remind, which opens Message Customers for that customer on your Customer payment reminder email and Customer payment reminder text, which say everything they owe. A customer who owes on one job has no button of their own: their job's Remind does it.
- Pay for all jobs: Under the same ⋮ button, for a customer who owes on more than one job, so one payment can pay for all of them. See Paying for All Their Jobs at Once, below.
Click a row to open the customer. Tick customers and use Send reminders to message them all at once: each customer gets one message however many of their jobs are owed for.
Statements, next to it, makes a statement of account for each customer you tick, for a period you choose: what they owed at the start, what they were charged and paid, and what they owe at the end. Print them together, each starting on a new page, or email each customer their own as a PDF. See Customer Statements.
Taking a Payment or Writing a Debt Off
- Pay: Opens Record payment for that job, to record a payment you have already been given, such as cash or a bank transfer. When the payment could be taken another way too, such as by card or Direct Debit where your business is set up for them, you choose how first, as on Debts. The button reads Pay / Charge when the customer has a Direct Debit you can collect from.
- Invoice: Under the ⋮ button. Makes an invoice for the job's outstanding charges and opens it to send or print.
- Invite to GoCardless: Under the same button, for customers without a Direct Debit when GoCardless is connected.
- Write off: Under the same button, for a debt you no longer expect to be paid. It writes off up to what the job owes, and no more.
Once a payment or write-off is saved, the list updates: the customer moves or drops off, and the totals change with it.
Paying for All Their Jobs at Once
Paying each job with its own Pay is the usual way. When a customer owes on more than one job, their row also has a ⋮ button under Actions, with Pay for all jobs, for when one payment is for everything they owe, such as a bank transfer for the lot.
When you can send card payment links for their business, Pay for all jobs opens a popup of the same name, which says Ann Smith owes on more than one job. A payment pays the debt owed longest first. Choose how they're paying:
- Record payment: For cash, a bank transfer or a cheque you've been given. Opens Record payment set to all their jobs.
- Card payment link: Sends the customer a link to pay for all their jobs by card online. See Sending a Card Payment Link.
Otherwise, Record payment opens straight away, set to all their jobs.
The payment pays the debt owed longest first, in the order the row lists their jobs: each job gets up to what it owes before the next gets anything, and each job's share pays its open invoices, oldest first. Anything more than they owe goes on the job they were charged for most recently, as credit. It's still one payment as the customer sees it: their statement shows it on one line, and its receipt covers all of it. See Taking a Payment.
Searching, Filtering and Sorting
- Search customers: Finds customers by name, company, address or reference, and by the job's address, service or round.
- Show: Everyone by default, or only Active customers, or only Cancelled or transferred customers.
- Business: With several businesses selected, narrows the list to some of them.
- Clear filters: Puts the list back to everyone, every age and every business.
- Sorting: Click Customer, Owes or Oldest debt to sort by it, and again to reverse the order. The list remembers how you left it.
Printing the Debt List
Print Debt List, next to Export CSV, prints the sheet to take out collecting, with a box to tick for paid or part paid and room for the amount. It holds everyone the list finds, not just the page on screen, following the search, Show, the age you have chosen at the top and the businesses, in the list's order, with each customer's jobs together. It needs permission to print documents. See Printing the Debt List.
Exporting the List
Export CSV downloads everyone the list finds as a spreadsheet, not just the page on screen, whether or not you've ticked any customers. It follows the search, Show, the age you've chosen at the top and the businesses, and keeps the list's order, so with the oldest debt first on screen, the spreadsheet starts with it too. There's one row per customer:
- Who they are: Their reference and name, or their company name if they have one, the first line of their address and their town, their postcode and email address, and their mobile number, or their phone number if they have no mobile.
- What they owe: Owes is everything they owe. Up To 30 Days, 31 To 60 Days, 61 To 90 Days, Over 90 Days and Age Not Known split it by how long each debt has waited, as the totals at the top do.
- How long: Oldest Debt (Days) is how many days their oldest debt has waited, Last Paid the last time they paid towards one of these jobs, and Jobs Owing how many of their jobs they owe for.
When you're looking at more than one business, the first column, Business, says which business each customer belongs to.
Who Owes You and Debts
Accounts > Debts lists the same debts one job at a time, so a customer with three jobs shows three times, and it leaves out customers who have left unless you ask for them. Who owes you puts each customer's jobs together and counts everyone, so its total is everything you are owed.
Who Can Use It
Anyone whose role can see debts can open the list. Pay and Pay for all jobs need permission to record payments, Write off needs permission to write debts off, Invoice needs permission to create invoices, Remind needs permission to send emails or texts, and Statements needs permission to print documents or send emails. Buttons someone cannot use are left out. A card payment link for all their jobs also needs Take Card Payments, under Payments. A statement also needs permission to see prices in the customer's business. Export CSV needs Export Reports and Lists under Reports, which owners, admins and the ready-made Accountant role have. See Editing a Role. With more than one business chosen, only those where you can export are in it. It isn't in the iPhone and Android apps, which can't save a download: export from Work Planner in a web browser.
Related articles
- Taking a Payment: The payment choices, and Record payment for a payment you have been given, for one job or all of them.
- Sending a Card Payment Link: A link for the customer to pay by card online, for one job or all of them.
- Write-Off Flow: When to write a debt off and what that changes.
- Debts List: The same debts, one job at a time.
- Printing the Debt List: Taking the debts out with you on paper.
- Message Customers Popup: Writing and sending the reminder.
- Customer Statements: What a statement shows, and printing or emailing them.