How to receive a payment in MYOB

Make sure the invoice exists, because a manual payment has to be recorded against one. Customers who pay through MYOB online payments don't need this at all, since those payments are handled automatically, and if you use bank feeds you can match a deposit straight to its invoice from the bank transactions instead.

Have the payment details ready: who paid, how much, the date and which account it landed in, whether a bank account or a credit card. Asking customers to quote your invoice number when they pay by direct deposit makes each payment quicker to identify.

1. From the Sales menu, choose Record invoice payment. If you start from a saved invoice with Record payment, the customer is already chosen.
2. Choose the customer who paid from the Customer list. Their unpaid invoices are listed.
3. In the Bank account field, choose the bank account or credit card the money went into.
4. Add a Description of transaction if you want one.
5. Check the Reference. Changing it changes the automatic numbering, so the next payment continues from your new number.
6. Check the Date, and change it to the day the payment arrived if needed.
7. If you're allowing the customer a discount, enter it in the Discount ($) field against that invoice.
8. Select the invoices the money covers. MYOB works out the Amount received for each one. For a part payment, enter what was actually paid in that field.
9. Click Save.

The payment is recorded against the invoices you selected, for the amounts you entered, whether that settles them in full or only in part. If the total received was more than the customer's unpaid invoices, MYOB turns the extra into a credit for that customer, which you can refund or put towards another invoice.

The payment can still be edited until it's reconciled or matched to a bank transaction, but only its bank account, description, reference and date. A payment that's been reconciled or matched has to be unreconciled or unmatched first. Deleting is possible too, from Find transactions under the Banking menu. For a receipt, customers who pay online are notified automatically; for anyone else, a copy of the invoice showing the payment does the job.

If you use AccountRight on the desktop, click Receive Payments in the Sales command centre. Choose Deposit to Account for money already in the bank, or Undeposited Funds if it will be banked later, then enter the customer and the Amount Received. Fill in the Amount Applied column for each sale, and click Record once the Out of Balance amount is zero. A payment taken at the time of sale can go straight into the invoice's Paid Today field instead.

On the desktop, payments recorded with Undeposited Funds can be grouped with Prepare Bank Deposit in the Banking command centre, so the deposit matches the single amount in your bank feed. If you recorded an invoice payment in the Receive Money window by mistake, MYOB's fix is to delete it and enter the payment again in Receive Payments.