How to record an overpayment in MYOB

Work out which of three situations you're in. A customer who sent more than the invoice total has overpaid. A customer who paid the same invoice twice has made a double payment. And if the customer paid the right amount but it was entered wrongly in MYOB, nothing was overpaid: delete that payment and enter it again.

Ask the customer what they'd like done with the extra money. MYOB lets you put it against another unpaid invoice, refund it, or hold it as credit for a future invoice. Have the amount received, the payment date and the bank account it landed in ready.

If the customer has no open invoice to record the payment against, MYOB's approach is different: create a credit for the overpaid amount, then refund that credit or keep it for their next invoice.

1. From the Sales menu, choose Record invoice payment.
2. Select the Customer, then the Bank account the money was paid into.
3. Against the open invoice, type the total the customer actually paid, overpayment included, in the Amount received field. Don't trim it to the invoice total.
4. Complete the other payment details as you normally would.
5. Click Save. MYOB creates a customer return (credit) for the amount above the invoice total.
6. Go to the Sales menu and choose Sales returns and credits to deal with that credit, or leave it there for a future invoice.

The invoice is paid in full, and the payment recorded in the bank account is the whole amount the customer sent. The extra doesn't vanish: it waits as a credit on the Sales returns and credits page, alongside any other returns for crediting or refunding.

Dealing with the credit is a separate task. Applying it to another open invoice reduces what the customer owes you, while recording a refund pays the money back. Each has its own how-to. You can also leave the credit where it is until the customer's next invoice arrives.

If you use AccountRight on the desktop, record the payment in the Receive Payment window and enter the full payment in both the Amount Received field and the Amount Applied column. When those two don't match, MYOB stops you with an unbalanced transaction error, and the Out of Balance amount has to be zero before the payment can be recorded. A credit for the overpaid amount is then created for you.

For a double payment on the desktop, select Include Closed Sales to see the invoice the first payment closed, then apply the second payment to it. If you later can't find the overpayment, or it shows a different amount from what came in, check whether part of it was entered as a finance charge when the payment was recorded.