Step 5 — Manage customer debt

Table of contents

• I. Goal
• II. What counts as “debt”?
• III. Pre-flight: create your first receivable
• IV. Find customers who owe you
• V. Record a payment
• VI. Send a reminder
• VII. Approve or reject refund-against-debt
• VIII. FAQ
• IX. Checklist before moving on
• X. Next step
• XI. Related articles

Vietnamese version

Bản tiếng Việt của bài viết này: Step 5 — Quản lý công nợ khách hàng.

I. Goal

You know which customers have open debt, can send reminders, and can record a payment when they pay you back.

II. What counts as “debt”?

Two kinds, both shown in Finance → Receivables:

Type	When it shows up
Wholesale order balance	A wholesale customer buys on credit and hasn’t paid in full.
Negative customer-wallet balance	A customer pays part of an order in cash, the rest goes to wallet, and the wallet goes negative.

Both roll up into the same Receivables list.

III. Pre-flight: create your first receivable

Receivables (/dashboard/finance/receivables) is empty by default — until you create your first on-credit order. To get a row to work with:

1. Add or pick a customer in Customers → List (/dashboard/customers/list) — you need at least one customer with wholesale_credit_enabled = true and a credit limit > 0.
2. Place a wholesale order in Wholesale Workspace (/dashboard/orders/create-wholesale):
   • Pick the customer in the top customer selector.
   • Add a product (or several), adjust qty + price.
   • In the payment split, choose a method that leaves a non-zero unpaid remainder — e.g. pay 30% by cash, leave 70% on customer debt (force_customer_debt: true).
   • Click Submit order.
3. Open Finance → Receivables (/dashboard/finance/receivables) → the new receivable row appears at the top, status open.

If you only ran retail sales (no wholesale), the receivables list will stay empty — retail sales are paid at the counter, no debt is created.

IV. Find customers who owe you

Customers → open a customer → “Debt” tab. The header shows:

• Open balance — total the customer owes across all open debts.
• Oldest invoice — how long it has been overdue.

For a full picture, Finance → Receivables → filter status: open lists every invoice in the store, grouped by customer.

Finance → Receivables — the full-store picture. Filter by status, store, or date range.

Customers — open one to see that customer’s debt detail.

V. Record a payment

1. Open the customer (or open the receivable directly).
2. Record payment → enter amount + method (cash / bank / wallet).
3. (Optional) Add a reference code (transfer txn id).
4. Save.

The receivable transitions open → paid (or open → partial → paid if you only paid part), the customer’s open balance drops, and the Debt tile in Sales overview drops by the same amount.

Finance → Transactions — every payment / refund lands here, including debt receipts.

Partial payments

You can also record partial payments — the system splits the receivable into “paid” and “remaining” automatically and re-buckets the status (open → partial → paid).

VI. Send a reminder

The dashboard does not yet send batch SMS / ZNS reminders, but you can:

• Print / download the invoice from the order detail screen.
• Open Support tickets to escalate to ops if you need a campaign tool.
• (Future) Use Finance → Reminders when the feature ships.

VII. Approve or reject refund-against-debt

If a customer wants to use their open debt to offset (i.e. we owe them less), open the original order → Refund → choose Apply to debt. The debt drops by the refund amount.

VIII. FAQ

The customer paid more than they owed. The excess becomes a wallet balance under Customers → wallet.

Debt belongs to a closed shift. That’s fine — debt follows the store, not the shift. You can open it from any shift.

Can I cancel an old debt? Yes — Owner only. Finance → Receivables → open → Cancel. The audit log records who and why.

Receivables is empty but I sold to a customer today. You probably ran a retail sale (cash / card / wallet at the counter). Retail sales don’t create debt. To create debt, use the Wholesale Workspace with a customer that has wholesale credit enabled.

IX. Checklist before moving on

• You have placed at least one wholesale on-credit order with force_customer_debt: true.
• The receivable appears in Finance → Receivables with status open.
• You can record a partial payment that splits the receivable into two.
• Payments show in Finance → Transactions.
• The Debt tile in Sales overview updates correctly.

X. Next step

→ Step 6 — Read your first report: step 6.

XI. Related articles

• Finance → Receivables & Transactions
• Customers → customer profile + wallet
• Wholesale orders — create the on-credit order
• Orders — enter a wholesale order