Understanding Client Balances

At the top of every client’s account, you’ll see balance information for that client. Every client will have a total Balance listed on the left, and some may also have a Past Due, Credit, and/or Open Payment Balance (each of these last three will only be shown if they are not zero).

Balance

This is the total of all of the client’s invoices minus all of the client’s payments.

Past Due

This is the total of all balances due on invoices that have a due date in the past.

Credit

A credit is a monetary amount added to a client’s account that you don’t receive any actual compensation for. An example of this would be if you have a 'Customer Referral Program' and you would like to add a $20 credit for your client for referring their neighbor. Your client will never actually pay you the $20, but you would like to apply the credit to a future invoice. You can learn more about credits in our help article on Applying And Redeeming Client Credit.

Open Payments

Open payments are created whenever a client has overpaid on an invoice. The most common reason this happens is when prepaid services are canceled. An open payment can be applied to another invoice for that client, similar to a credit. You can learn more about open payments in our help article on Understanding Open Payments And Credits In Time To Pet.

Viewing A Client’s Balance Sheet

You can view a client’s Balance Sheet by clicking on the “View” link next to the client’s balance.

By default, the Balance Sheet will only show open items (invoices that have not been fully paid and open payments), but you can select “All Items” in the “Showing” dropdown menu if you want to view all of the client's invoices and payments.

There is also a search box on the top right to help you search for specific payments or invoices. You can type in an invoice number, an amount of an invoice or payment, or a date here, or you can type in “payment” to view just the client’s payments or “invoice” to view just the invoices.

Viewing A Payment’s History

Especially with open payments, you may want to see where the payment came from and which invoice(s) it was applied to in the past. To do this, click on “Edit” next to the payment on the Balance Sheet.

And then, on the next screen, click on “History”:

FAQs

Why does my client have a negative balance?

A negative balance means that your client’s payments exceed the total of all their invoices. This extra amount is an open payment on the client’s account. (See Open Payments above)

Why does my client have a Past Due balance when their total Balance is negative or zero?

This means your client has open payments on their account that are greater than or equal to their past due invoices. Open payments are not automatically applied to invoices so these past due invoices are still considered unpaid even though the client has enough payments on their account to cover them. You can correct this by applying the open payment(s) to the past due invoice(s).

I canceled pre-paid services at no charge to my client. Why is their account not showing a credit balance?

In Time To Pet, this would be considered an open payment and not a credit since this is money you actually received from a client. An open payment can be applied to another invoice for the client the same way a credit can. For more information on applying open payments from cancellations, see our help article on Best Practices For Cancelling Pre-paid Visits.