Table of Contents
Introduction
Receipts and payments are used to record the movement of money into and out of your business.
A receipt represents funds received from a customer, while
A payment represents funds paid to a supplier.
These entries affect your bank account and the customer or supplier’s overall balance. However, recording the money movement alone does not automatically settle any underlying invoices. This is where allocations come in.
Allocations close or reduce the outstanding balance of transactions, such as invoices, credit notes, or adjustment entries, ensuring they no longer appear as due or overdue.
Now, let's see how receipt, payments and allocations look like in Indigo Business.
Receipt and Payment Screens
You can create receipts and payments navigating to:
Sales > Sales Receipt
Purchases > Purchase Payment
Business Accounts > Clients (or Suppliers) > select record > Posting > select Receipt or Payment
Regardless of your choice, the Sales Receipt and the Purchase Payment screens share exactly the same elements. The page is divided in three main sections:
The receipt (or payment) details section at the top of the page.
The allocation section in the second half of the page.
The summary and posting section at the bottom of the page.
🔴 Receipt/Payment Details (click to expand)
🔴 Receipt/Payment Details (click to expand)
This section is to define against which client or supplier we're recording the event, the amount and the accounts involved.
Below the relevant fields:
Business Account: select the customer or supplier whose transactions you want to allocate. Only clients are visible for Sales Receipt, while only suppliers are visible for Purchase Payments.
Date: the posting date of the payment or receipt.
Ext ref: any value which can help you identify the transaction better.
Details: a brief description of the transaction (defaults to Receipt or Payment).
Bank/Cash Account: the account from which funds are paid or where funds are received.
Amount (EUR): the total amount being received or paid through the selected bank/cash account.
Charges (EUR): any bank fees linked to the payment or receipt.
Bank Charges Account: the nominal account where bank charges should be posted.
🔵 Allocation Section (click to expand)
🔵 Allocation Section (click to expand)
The allocation section gets automatically populated by the existing outstanding transactions associated to the client or supplier selected and saved in the details section. Here you'll officially ask the system to allocate the transaction, meaning clearing off its outstanding balance, while recording the money flowing in and out your bank or cash account.
The main transactions details are visible in the Transactions tab in a grid format:
Transaction ID: unique identifier of each document available for allocation.
Transaction date: the posting date of the invoice, credit note, or adjustment.
Transaction reference: the document reference (e.g., invoice number).
Ext ref: external reference linked to that specific document.
Total amount: the original value of the transaction.
Outstanding amount: the remaining unpaid balance.
Allocated amount: the portion of the payment you are allocating to that transaction.
The value becomes bold and green if fully allocated, otherwise it shows the partially allocated amount without any formatting.
Select the Items tab, if you want to view the line items and the debit and credit entries that make up the selected outstanding transaction, including the nominal accounts involved.
🟢 Summary & Posting Section (click to expand)
🟢 Summary & Posting Section (click to expand)
You'll find this section at the bottom of the page.
Payment: displays the payment amount entered in the receipt/payment details.
Charges: shows the bank charge value entered in the receipt/payment details.
Write Off: indicates any write‑off amount applied to clear small remaining balances.
Gain/Loss: shows any exchange gain or loss calculated during allocation.
To Allocate: the remaining unassigned portion of the payment.
Discard: cancels the transaction without saving.
Post button: finalises and posts the transaction to the ledger.
Foreign Clients and Suppliers
If you select a foreign client or supplier from the Business Account dropdown:
An additional Amount () field for the foreign currency is displayed.
The Exchange Rate field is displayed. It shows the last recorded exchange rate, according to the selected date. It allows you to override the currently showing exchange rate using the ✏️ pencil button right next to it. More on this ➡️here.
⚠️If you do so, please note that all the transactions in the system will be updated accordingly.
Gain/Loss Account is displayed. It's crucial to record any gain or loss due to exchange rates fluctuations. ➡️ Read more about it.
The Charges (base currency) field is displayed and allows you to fill in the bank charges, if any are applied.
The Bank charges account field pops up and lets you select the account where to record the bank charges related to the transaction.
Sales and Purchase Allocations Screen
You can allocate by matching a receipt or payment with an invoice, credit note, or adjustment. When allocation isn’t possible at that moment—or when no payment exists, such as when an invoice is cancelled with a credit note—the transaction remains outstanding. A stand‑alone Sales or Purchase Allocation lets you close these balances so they no longer appear as due.
Below is an overview of the relevant screen in Indigo Business. The Sales and Purchase Allocation pages look the same and are divided into three sections:
The allocation details section at the top of the page.
The transactions grid in the second half of the page.
The summary and posting section at the bottom of the page.
🔴 Allocation Details
🔴 Allocation Details
Business Account: identifies the customer account whose transactions are being allocated.
Date Field: defines the posting date for the allocation entry, affecting period mapping and exchange effects.
Gain/Loss Account
Gain/Loss Account
determines which GL account receives exchange rate gain/loss differences, or any other differences, calculated during allocation.
For example, if a customer pays in a foreign currency, the system compares:
the exchange rate used on the original invoice
the exchange rate on the day the payment is received
This difference may create a gain or a loss, which is posted to the selected gain/loss on exchange account.
Save button: saves the details and enables the grid functionality without posting to the ledger.
🔵 Transactions Grid
🔵 Transactions Grid
Each row represents a transaction to allocate.
Transaction ID: internal unique transaction identifier.
Transaction date: original document date (invoice/credit note issue date).
Transaction reference: the alpha-numerical reference assigned to the transaction (e.g. INxxxxx for invoices).
Ext ref: optional external reference (e.g., customer PO or system reference).
Total amount: original value of the document.
Outstanding amount: remaining unapplied portion of the document.
Allocated amount: the portion of the payment you are allocating to that transaction.
The value becomes bold and green if fully allocated, otherwise it shows the partially allocated amount without any formatting.
🟢 Summary & Posting Section
🟢 Summary & Posting Section
Write Off (€0.00): amount intentionally written off for rounding or small differences.
Gain (€0.00): displays calculated foreign‑exchange gain from allocations.
Allocation Amount (€0.00): total amount being allocated across all selected transactions.
Discard button: cancels changes made during the session.
Post button: finalises and posts allocations, updating ledger balances.
Shared Buttons
The Sales or Purchase Receipt, Payment and Allocation screens have the same grid buttons in the Transactions tab.
🔴 At the top left:
🔵 At the top right, you can see the regular grid filtering and searching buttons. More on how to use them and how to interact with the grid ➡️ here.
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