What should a musician check before marking a client invoice paid?
Published · Updated · Clef
Before marking a client invoice paid, match the payment to the correct invoice, confirm the amount and currency, and check where the money arrived. Keep the settlement evidence beside the invoice. Clef’s manual paid action uses the full invoice total, so resolve partial payments and unexplained differences before using it.
Which records explain the payment?
Bring together the saved invoice, the client’s payment reference, and the receiving account’s evidence. A message saying “sent” helps identify the payer’s intention, but check what actually arrived before treating the invoice as settled. A booking contact and the account sending the transfer may have different names; preserve the connection rather than relying on a name match alone.
For Canadian sole proprietors and partnerships, CRA says income records must include the date, amount and source of income, supported by original documents. Its examples include invoices, receipts, bank deposit slips and contracts. This guide organises a client settlement for review; it does not decide when income is reportable or how GST/HST applies.
Keep an identifying reference in your own settlement record so another reviewer can follow the chain from the invoice to the payment. Use the invoice number, project and payer together when one client has several outstanding jobs. Avoid putting complete bank account numbers into broadly shared notes.
Does the amount settle this particular invoice?
Compare the invoice total with the payment evidence in the same currency. A deposit, an instalment and a final payment can each be legitimate, but they describe different stages of an agreement. Review the agreed payment schedule before concluding that a smaller amount closes the balance.
If a transfer covers several invoices, prepare an allocation showing which amounts belong to each invoice and ask the client to confirm any ambiguity. If a processing fee explains a smaller bank deposit, retain the provider’s settlement breakdown. Do not silently reduce an invoice to make it resemble a net deposit.
An overpayment, refund, credit or currency conversion also needs its own explanation. Set aside unresolved differences for your bookkeeper or accountant. Changing the description of a payment cannot establish the correct accounting treatment, and a payment screenshot cannot explain a separate fee or adjustment by itself.
What happens in Clef’s manual paid dialog?
Clef’s Mark Invoice as Paid dialog displays the invoice number and full total. It provides three entry controls: Payment Date, Payment Received Into and Revenue Account. The summary says it will mark the invoice Paid and create a revenue transaction for that displayed total. There is no partial-amount entry in this dialog.
The manual payment request passes the invoice’s full total to the settlement service. Treat this action as a full settlement decision, rather than using it to record one instalment against a larger invoice. If your evidence describes a partial payment, keep the payment record and arrange the appropriate bookkeeping treatment before using this control.
Check the account selections each time. The dialog attempts to preselect the Cash account with code 1010 and Other Revenue with code 4100, falling back to the first revenue account when appropriate. Those two code defaults are product behaviour, not evidence that either account fits your payment. Review the actual destination and the intended revenue classification.
How would a session fee paid in two transfers be reviewed?
Constructed example in CAD: a producer issues an invoice totalling $900 for a completed editing project. A first transfer of $300 arrives with the project name; a later transfer of $600 names the invoice number. These invented amounts illustrate settlement evidence only and do not calculate tax or determine revenue recognition.
The evidence trail below keeps each event visible. It does not prescribe entering two manual paid actions or creating additional revenue transactions. The reviewer must first understand what is already recorded so the same client payment is not represented twice.
After locating both transfers, compare their combined $900 with the saved invoice and check for reversals or other unresolved adjustments. If only the first transfer can be substantiated, the evidence supports a $300 receipt, not a claim that the whole invoice has been settled.
| Record | Evidence to retain | Review question |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice: $900 | Saved invoice and agreed payment schedule | Is this the invoice the client intended to pay? |
| First receipt: $300 | Transfer date, payer, project reference and destination | Is this an instalment already recorded elsewhere? |
| Later receipt: $600 | Transfer date and invoice reference | Does this complete the supported settlement? |
What should I check immediately before recording payment?
Open the correct saved invoice and read its number and total again. Check the payment date against the supporting evidence instead of accepting a convenient default. Choose the receiving account that matches the actual receipt and review the revenue account with your bookkeeper if the classification is uncertain.
Look for an existing payment record or imported transaction that may represent the same receipt. Keep its identifier with your notes and resolve the relationship before creating another record. A successful click cannot prove that two similarly named records represent different money.
If the invoice already shows Paid, investigate that status and its evidence before taking another settlement action. If the client has paid through a connected online flow, review the existing outcome before manually entering the payment. Keep the original invoice and settlement documents available for the person reconciling the account.
Where does this check fit in the wider bookkeeping process?
Reviewing settlement answers whether this invoice’s payment evidence is complete. Checking a bank statement match is a separate comparison between statement lines and recorded transactions. Use the related bank-match guide when you reach that stage, especially where several receipts have identical amounts.
The invoice-review guide covers the earlier decision about what to send to a client. The accountant-records guide covers the later handoff of the wider bookkeeping package. Together these steps preserve the scope of the work, the amount billed and the evidence of settlement without replacing any one document with a status label.
What else should I know?
Can I enter a partial amount in this dialog?
The current manual paid dialog has no amount field. Keep evidence of the instalment and resolve the appropriate recording approach with your bookkeeper instead of treating the full invoice as settled.
What if the payer’s name differs from the client name?
Keep correspondence or remittance advice connecting the payer to the client and invoice. Ask for clarification if that relationship is unclear; matching an amount alone is weak evidence when several jobs have the same price.
Should I remove a fee from the original invoice total?
Preserve the original billing and settlement breakdown and ask your accountant how to represent the fee. The amount the client settled and the net amount deposited can differ for a documented reason.
Does a Paid label establish the tax treatment?
No. Preserve the agreement, invoice and payment evidence so your accountant can assess timing, classification and any tax treatment using the business’s circumstances.