Payments Overview

A payment in Contractors Cloud is a record of money received from a customer — a check, card charge, cash, or mortgage draft — applied against one or more of that customer's invoices. Refunds live in the same place as "anti-payments," so this one ledger is the single source of truth for money in and money returned. Because a payment belongs to the Customer Account rather than to a single project, one payment can pay invoices across several projects at once, and any amount you don't apply becomes customer credit you can use later. Payments drive the numbers you see everywhere else: each invoice's Balance Due, the project's financial summary, sales-rep commission processing, and — when connected — your QuickBooks books.

Quick start — receive a payment

  1. Open the invoice and click Receive Payment. (You can also start from the project's Transactions tab with New Transaction → Payment, or from the Customer Account page's Payments section.)
  2. In the Create Payment dialog, enter the Ref/Check #, pick a Payment Method, and set the Payment Date.
  3. Enter the total in Amount received.
  4. In Outstanding Transactions, check each invoice this payment pays, set the amount per invoice in the Payment column, and give each line a Type (Down Payment, Progress Payment, Final Payment, or Deductible).
  5. Set the Payment Status. A payment reduces invoice balances once its status is Deposited — see Payment Status below.
  6. Click Save.

Where payments appear

  • Customer Account page — the Payments section lists every payment and refund on the account and shows any unapplied credit.
  • Invoice — the invoice summary's Total Paid row expands to show each payment applied to that invoice, and the Receive Payment button starts a new one.
  • Project — the contract's Transactions tab merges invoices, payments, credit memos, and refunds into one running ledger with a balance column.
  • Payment / Refund Report — the company-wide list on the Accounting dashboard. Filter by payment method, status, type, subcategory, creator, QuickBooks state, and dates; the Amount column totals across everything the filters match. Access to this report is permission-controlled.

The Payment dialog

Payments open in one dialog whether you're creating, editing, or viewing. The header fields:

  • Customer Account — who the money came from. Set automatically when you start from an invoice or project; otherwise search for the account.
  • Company — which of your companies receives the payment.
  • Ref/Check # — the check or reference number. This is also what QuickBooks uses to recognize the payment, so fill it in.
  • Payment Method — how the customer paid. Choosing the mortgage-check method adds a Mortgage Company field.
  • Account — the financial account the money lands in (defaults to Undeposited Funds).
  • Unprinted Memo — an internal note; it is not printed for the customer.
  • Payment Date, Received Date, Paid Date — the transaction date (this is the date QuickBooks gets), plus optional tracking dates for when the money was received and deposited. The report shows them as Payment Received Date and Payment Deposited Date.
  • Payment Status — see the next section.

Below the header, the dialog also carries the payment's Files, Customer Contacts, Project Notes, a QuickBooks section (see below), and a Utilities section with Delete Payment.

Applying a payment to invoices

The Outstanding Transactions section of the payment dialog is where the money meets the invoices. Amount received is the total you're recording; Amount applied shows how much of it you've assigned so far. Check an invoice's row to apply money to it, set the amount in the Payment column, and pick a Type for the line. One payment can be spread across many invoices — including invoices on different projects, as long as they belong to the same customer account.

If the Amount received is more than the charges you checked, Contractors Cloud asks: "The Amount Received is greater than the selected charges. This will create a customer credit. Would you like to proceed?" Proceeding banks the remainder as credit on the customer account.

Payment Status

  • Pending — recorded, but not final. The default for new payments (your company can change the default).
  • Held by Insurance, Held by Bank/Mortgage, Held by Customer — holding states used on insurance jobs while a check is out of your hands.
  • Received — the money is in hand but not yet deposited.
  • Deposited — the money is in the bank.

The status that matters is Deposited. Only Deposited payments reduce an invoice's Balance Due and count in the project's financial summary — and only Deposited payments sync to QuickBooks. A payment sitting at Pending or Received is visible everywhere but doesn't move the numbers yet.

Customer credit

Credit is the unapplied part of what a customer has paid. It shows up in three places:

  • On an invoice with a balance: a CUSTOMER CREDIT AVAILABLE banner with an APPLY CREDITS TO INVOICE link.
  • On the Customer Account page: an "Unapplied credit" line above the payments list.
  • On the project's Transactions tab: an Apply customer credit action on open invoices.

Applying credit takes the unapplied money from the customer's existing payments and applies it to the invoice you chose — no new payment is created. You can also open the original payment and check more invoices in Outstanding Transactions; it's the same operation.

Refunds

A refund is a negative payment: it records money going back to the customer and is entered in the same dialog, with its own method list. Start one from the project's Transactions tab with New Transaction → Refund or from the Customer Account page. Refunds show as Total Refunds on the invoice summary, as Project Related Refunds on the project summary, and alongside payments in the Payment / Refund Report (filter Only Refunds).

Payment methods, defaults & tags

Under Company Settings → Payment Customization you can set a Default Payment Type, Default Payment Method, and Default Payment Status that prefill every new payment for the company. The same page manages Payment Subcategories/Tags — your own labels (with Active/Inactive status) that can be attached to payments and payment lines and then used as a filter and column in the Payment / Refund Report. Tags can be imported from another one of your companies.

QuickBooks

With QuickBooks Online connected and payment sync enabled, Contractors Cloud exports payments to QuickBooks as customer payments — including which invoices they pay, so QuickBooks applies them the same way. If your company uses two-way payment sync, payments entered in QuickBooks Online also flow into Contractors Cloud and apply to the matching invoices. With QuickBooks Desktop, payments export one direction only: Contractors Cloud → Desktop.

  • Only Deposited payments are eligible to sync.
  • Each payment's QuickBooks section has a Sync Enabled checkbox — uncheck it to keep that payment out of QuickBooks permanently — and a Sync Payment button to push it now.
  • For QuickBooks admins, the dialog's close button becomes Sync & Close, with a Close without syncing option beside it.
  • Deleting a payment in Contractors Cloud never deletes it in QuickBooks — you'll see a reminder that the payment was not deleted there. Remove it in QuickBooks yourself if it shouldn't exist.

Permissions

A user permission can hide invoice and payment amounts and remove the ability to create payments. QuickBooks actions (Sync Payment, Sync & Close) require the QuickBooks admin permission. Access to the Payment / Refund Report is granted per user in report permissions.

Troubleshooting

"I entered a payment but the invoice still shows a Balance Due."
The payment's status isn't Deposited yet — Pending, Held, and Received payments don't reduce balances. Edit the payment and set its Payment Status to Deposited.

"There's no Receive Payment button on the invoice."
Either the invoice is still a Sales Order (it has no invoice date — set the date to convert it to a real invoice), or your user account is restricted from payments. Ask an administrator to check your permissions.

"A customer credit appeared that I didn't expect."
The Amount received on a payment was more than the invoice lines you checked, so the remainder became credit. Open the payment and apply the rest in Outstanding Transactions, or use APPLY CREDITS TO INVOICE on a later invoice.

"The payment isn't in QuickBooks."
Check, in order: the payment's status is Deposited; its Sync Enabled box is checked; your company's payment sync setting is on; and push it with Sync Payment or Sync & Close (QuickBooks admin required).

"QuickBooks blocked the payment because it falls in a closed accounting period."
QuickBooks does not let connected apps post into a closed period. Enter the payment directly in QuickBooks Online using the same Ref/Check # — with two-way sync, Contractors Cloud will recognize it and link it to this payment instead of creating a duplicate.

"I deleted a payment in Contractors Cloud but it's still in QuickBooks."
That's by design — Contractors Cloud never deletes records out of your QuickBooks. Delete the payment in QuickBooks manually.

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