Madame Illa runs Illa Hardware in Akpakpa, Cotonou. Michel Agossou, a mason, has been buying from her for years. When he starts a building site, he takes cement and iron rods now and pays when his own client pays him. For a long time Illa wrote these sales in a notebook. Each evening her cashier, Sènami, told her who had paid, and Illa crossed out the lines by hand. Some weeks she found two different totals for the same customer. This page follows Illa and Michel through each step of a credit sale. The same steps apply to any business that lets regular customers pay later, such as a pharmacy, a drinks depot that supplies bars, or a wholesaler.

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Decide who can buy on credit

Illa does not give credit to everyone. Before Michel’s first credit sale, she opens his customer record and sets how far she trusts him:
  • Credit allowed: without it, no credit sale to Michel is possible.
  • Opening balance: the 85,000 FCFA he still owed from the notebook, so that nothing is lost when Illa moves to Exowpee.
  • Maximum balance: the most Michel may owe in total, for example 500,000 FCFA.
  • Maximum credit per sale: the largest credit sale Michel may make without approval, for example 150,000 FCFA.
  • Due date: the date by which Michel should have settled the credit orders that have no due date of their own.
You set these with Create a customer or Edit a customer.

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Sell on credit

On Tuesday, Michel takes twenty bags of cement. The seller creates the order for Michel, and the cashier confirms it without collecting the full amount. The unpaid part is added to what Michel owes, and the stock goes out as for any other sale. Exowpee checks Michel’s limits when the order is created, and again when the cashier confirms it. If he already has an overdue order, or if the sale would take him above his maximum balance or his maximum per sale, the seller must ask for approval, otherwise the order is refused. The order then waits for someone who can approve it. Here, that person is Illa. She lets the sale through with Approve an order. Without approval, the cashier cannot confirm it on credit.

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Take a repayment at the register

On Saturday, Michel comes back with 200,000 FCFA by MTN MoMo. Sènami records it with Record a customer payment. A repayment is always taken at a register that is open, with one of that register’s payment methods: cash, mobile money, bank transfer, card or cheque. The money first settles Michel’s unpaid orders, the ones due first before the others. If he wants it to pay a particular order, the cashier names that order. Whatever goes beyond the orders reduces his opening balance. Michel cannot pay more than he owes. The payment is also posted in Illa’s accounts, in the mobile money account linked to that payment method.

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Know where you stand in the evening

Illa no longer waits for the cashier’s report. In the evening she checks the total all her customers still owe with View total credit owed. Opening balances are not part of that total. To see what Michel has paid over the weeks, she uses List customer payments, filtered on Michel.

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Correct a mistake

Sometimes a payment is recorded for the wrong customer. A payment that was recorded cannot be edited, but it can be cancelled with Cancel a customer payment. Cancelling means paying the money back through the register, for the full amount received. The orders the payment had settled are reopened, and the customer owes that amount again. No action restores a cancelled payment; if the customer pays again, record a new payment.

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When a cheque bounces

Some customers settle by cheque. If Michel’s cheque comes back unpaid, his debt is not lost. Follow it with the cheque tools: record a new payment that replaces the cheque, or, as a last resort, write the debt off.

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The rules

  • Only a customer allowed to buy on credit can buy on credit or have a repayment recorded.
  • A credit sale above the maximum balance or the maximum per sale, or for a customer with an overdue order, needs an approval before it can be confirmed.
  • A repayment is recorded by the cashier of an open register, with one of that register’s payment methods that accepts incoming money. Methods of type other are refused.
  • A repayment cannot be more than what the customer owes on the chosen orders plus the opening balance. Its reference must be unique in the company.
  • Without chosen orders, a repayment settles the orders due first.
  • A recorded payment cannot be edited. Cancelling it refunds the full amount received through the register and puts the debt back, and cannot be undone. It is refused while a cheque of that payment has been handed over to the organization.
  • The total credit owed counts credit orders only, not opening balances.

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All the actions of this topic

  • List customer payments: Shows the payments customers made toward their credit balance, optionally for one customer.
  • Record a customer payment: Records money a credit customer pays back, and applies it to their unpaid orders (the ones due first, or the orders you choose).
  • View a customer payment: Shows one payment made by a customer toward their credit balance.
  • Cancel a customer payment: Cancels a recorded customer payment by refunding the customer, which puts the debt and order balances back.
  • View total credit owed: Shows the total that customers still owe on credit orders for the company, not counting opening balances.
From other topics, also used here:
  • Replace a bounced cheque payment: Records a new payment from the customer to make up for a bounced or returned cheque, closing the open debt (company space).
  • Write off a cheque debt: Gives up on collecting an unpaid cheque and writes the customer debt off as a loss (company space). A reason is required.
  • Create a customer: Registers a new customer, optionally allowing them to buy on credit with an opening balance and limits.
  • Edit a customer: Changes a customer details, including credit settings and limits.
  • Create an order: A seller creates a new order with items, discounts and customer, as a draft awaiting payment. It may go to approval when a discount or credit limit requires it.
  • Confirm and cash a sale: A cashier finalizes an order by recording the payments received. Stock is taken out, accounting and customer credit are posted and an invoice snapshot is created.
  • Approve an order: An approver accepts an order that needed approval, for example for a large discount or a credit sale.
  • See a customer’s store credit: Shows the store credit a customer holds, one wallet per currency, with the balance of each kind of credit.
  • List a customer’s store credit movements: Lists every credit and withdrawal recorded on a customer’s store credit, newest first by default.
  • Pay a customer’s store credit out in cash: Gives a customer cash from their refundable credit, from the open register of the cashier making the call.