A Receipt is the voucher you record when a customer pays you — cash, cheque, bank transfer, UPI, or anything else. This guide covers when to use a Receipt vs the Paid now via shortcut on an invoice, and how to track customer balances after receipts are recorded.
Time to read: ~10 minutes. You’ll need: at least one customer with an outstanding invoice, and at least one Cash or Bank account in your Chart of Accounts.
What you get when this is done
- A clean record of every payment received against each customer.
- Up-to-date customer balances — the Dashboard’s Receivables tile and Receivables Ageing report reflect every receipt instantly.
- Auto-deposit to the right account: cash to your cash box, bank transfers to the bank account, UPI to the UPI settlement account.
- A printable / shareable receipt voucher that you can send the customer as confirmation.
Where to find the screen
From the sidebar: Daily → Transactions → Receipt tab.
When to use a Receipt vs “Paid now via” on an invoice
Booksmor offers two paths for recording incoming money. Pick the right one:
| Situation | Use |
|---|---|
| Customer pays at the same time you raise the invoice (B2C, retail, cash sale). | Sales Invoice with Paid now via ticked. Booksmor auto-posts both the sale and the receipt in one click. |
| Customer paid earlier than the invoice (advance, deposit, partial up-front). | Receipt first → then Sales Invoice later. The advance stays as credit on the customer’s ledger. |
| Customer pays later than the invoice (standard B2B credit-term flow). | Sales Invoice first → Receipt when payment arrives. |
| Customer makes a part-payment toward an outstanding invoice. | Receipt for the part-paid amount. Remaining balance stays open. |
| Customer pays a lump sum that settles multiple invoices. | Receipt for the total — Booksmor applies it against the customer’s AR account; the lump knocks down outstanding invoices in order of date. |
The Paid now via shortcut is the right answer in well over half of SMB sales — counter, e-commerce, anything paid up-front. Use plain Receipt for the credit/advance/partial cases above.
The basic flow
- Daily → Transactions → Receipt tab.
- Customer — pick the customer who paid. (For receipts from non-customers — a refund from a vendor, interest from the bank — use a Journal voucher instead.)
- Through (Cash / Bank) — pick the account the money landed in. Booksmor lists every Cash and Bank account from your Chart of Accounts.
- Amount ₹ — what the customer paid.
- Description / narration — optional. “April invoice payment”, “Advance for May order”, etc.
- Click Post.
A green banner: ✓ Posted — serial RCT/2026/00001. The receipt is now in your books:
- The Cash / Bank account you chose is debited (your asset increases).
- The customer’s Accounts Receivable balance is credited (their ledger goes down by the same amount).
How receipts settle invoices
Booksmor uses the customer’s Accounts Receivable ledger as a running balance — not invoice-by-invoice allocation. This is simpler and matches how most SMBs actually think:
- Posting a sales invoice adds to the customer’s AR.
- Posting a receipt reduces the customer’s AR.
- The Dashboard’s Receivables tile and the Receivables Ageing report show the net balance per customer.
If you need to see which invoices and receipts have netted off, run the Customer Ledger report (Sidebar → Reports → Ledger, then pick the customer’s AR sub-account). You’ll see every invoice and every receipt against this customer in date order, with a running balance.
Booksmor doesn’t force you to specify “this receipt is for invoice #X”. You can leave it as a running balance and reconcile by looking at the ledger.
Advance receipts (customer pays before invoice)
Sometimes a customer pays a deposit or full advance before you raise an invoice. Record the receipt first:
- Receipt tab → pick the customer → pick the Cash / Bank account they paid into → enter the amount.
- Description: “Advance for order #ABC” or similar.
- Post.
The customer’s AR now shows a credit (negative outstanding) for the advance amount — the Dashboard’s Receivables tile excludes them (they don’t owe you, you owe them goods/service).
Later, when you raise the actual sales invoice for that order, the invoice adds to AR. The advance and the invoice net off automatically on the customer’s ledger.
GST on advances: Indian GST law treats advances received as taxable in the month of receipt (with some exemptions for goods supplies). Consult your CA on whether the advance needs to flow into GSTR-1 as an “advance received”. Booksmor’s GST module surfaces advances in the appropriate section.
Part-payments
Customer paid ₹5,000 against an invoice of ₹12,000? Record a Receipt for ₹5,000. The customer’s AR drops by ₹5,000; the remaining ₹7,000 still shows as outstanding.
You can post any number of part-payments against the same customer; each reduces the running AR balance.
Receipts from non-customers
If the money isn’t from a regular customer (e.g. interest on a bank deposit, vendor refund, owner contribution), use a Journal voucher instead:
- Transactions → Journal tab.
- Line 1: Debit the Cash / Bank account.
- Line 2: Credit the appropriate income or liability account (e.g. “Interest income”, “Owner’s capital”).
A Receipt voucher is specifically for customer payments and requires a customer ID.
After posting — voucher view, share, edit
Click into the Recent vouchers row (double-click) to open the Voucher view. From there:
- Print / PDF — generate a printable / downloadable receipt voucher you can send the customer.
- Share — copy link, send via WhatsApp, or email the receipt.
- Edit — change the amount or account; Booksmor amends the underlying postings. Under GST, you must enter a Reason.
- Delete — remove the voucher (void with audit trail). Under GST, a Reason is required.
Same pattern as Sales Invoices — see Sales Invoices KB doc for details on the voucher view.
Tracking customer balances
Three places give you the answer to “How much does each customer owe?”:
| Where | What you see |
|---|---|
| Dashboard → Receivables tile | Total outstanding across all customers. Click for a drill-down. |
| Reports → Receivables Ageing | Per-customer outstanding, bucketed by age (0–30 days / 31–60 / 61–90 / 90+). Spot slow payers. |
| Reports → Ledger (pick a customer’s AR sub-account) | Full invoice-by-receipt history for one customer, with running balance. |
The Sales by Customer report (under Reports → Sales) shows total billed per customer — useful for top-customer rankings, but doesn’t show what’s outstanding.
Common questions
My customer pays via UPI. Which account should I pick under “Through”? Whichever account the UPI settled into. Most SMBs have a separate “UPI / Razorpay / Cashfree” account in their Chart of Accounts that catches all UPI receipts, then sweeps to the main bank as a separate transfer (recorded as a Journal). If you collect UPI directly to your current account, just pick that account.
Can I record a receipt in a different currency? The receipt uses your tenant’s Base currency (set in Settings). Multi-currency vouchers aren’t supported in the current release.
Customer paid by cheque that hasn’t cleared yet — what do I do? Two approaches, pick one:
- Pessimistic (recommended): record the receipt only after the cheque clears. The invoice stays open until then.
- Optimistic: create a separate Chart of Accounts entry called “Cheques in transit” (asset type), post the receipt there immediately, then move it to your main Bank account via a Journal voucher when it clears.
Can two receipts share the same number?
No. The voucher series (RCT/2026/00001, RCT/2026/00002, …) is strictly sequential.
My customer paid me in advance, but later cancelled the order. How do I refund? Use a Payment voucher (not Receipt) to send the money back. Pick the customer as the party, the Cash / Bank account as “Through”, and the refund amount. The customer’s AR returns to zero.
Why doesn’t Booksmor ask me which invoice the receipt is for? Booksmor uses a running-balance model rather than invoice-by-invoice allocation. Most SMB customers pay against a running total (“here’s ₹50,000 toward what I owe you”), not specific invoices. You see the netted view in the Customer Ledger report. If you need strict invoice-by-invoice allocation, contact support — it’s on the roadmap.
The Customer dropdown is empty. You haven’t added any customers yet. Either click + New beside the dropdown to add one inline, or go to Masters → Customers to bulk-add.
The Cash/Bank dropdown is empty. Your Chart of Accounts has no Cash or Bank accounts. Either bootstrap the standard COA (Masters → Chart of Accounts → Load standard COA) or add the account manually with Type = asset and a category like Cash & Bank.
Troubleshooting
Receipt posted but customer balance didn’t change. Refresh the customer view — Booksmor caches the dashboard summary for a moment. If the balance still doesn’t move, check that you picked the right customer in the Receipt form (the dropdown is sorted by name).
Post button is disabled. Most common: no customer picked, no Cash/Bank account picked, or Amount is blank/zero. Receipts require all three.
The receipt’s voucher number jumped (e.g. RCT/2026/00007 to RCT/2026/00009). A voucher was created and deleted in between. Gaps in the series are normal under GST and don’t need to be backfilled.
Need more help? Email support@booksmor.com with: the customer name, the receipt number (if posted), and a screenshot of what’s going wrong.