Customer Deposits are handled in Order Entry or Order Maintenance to be posted to the open order so that the deposit can be applied to the customer's invoice at billing.  A deposit received from a customer that does not apply to a particular open order can be entered on the system through Cash Receipts Application as an O/A On Account transaction to be later applied to invoices. 

When a deposit is received through option F5 Customer Prepay Deposits in the form of cash or credit card, it is imperative that a Prepayment Register/Update is run, located on the Order Processing Menu.  Once the prepayment register is printed, verified, and updated, it is reflected on the order and order form parts.  A cash account is debited and a liability account, customer deposits, is credited.

At the time the order is invoiced, the prepayment is reflected on the invoice reducing the amount owed.  During invoice update, the prepayment amount applied to the invoice is debited out of the customer deposit General Ledger account and the Accounts Receivable account is credited. If, for instance, the customer overpaid an invoice, the remaining prepayment amount will create an on account transaction in Accounts Receivable which can be applied to additional invoices or written off.

The two steps of customer prepayment:

1.  Posting the prepayment

2.  Printing the Prepayment Register and Update

Note: All credit card payments must have a valid credit card number and authorization code or the prepayment will not be updated nor will it be reflected on the order.

Prepayment Register

a.  Subtotals prepayments by transaction type (check, g/l entries and credit card) and includes a deposit total.

b.  An Incomplete Credit Card Report will print out on a separate page for those prepayments without an approval code.  These transactions will not be eligible to apply to an invoice nor will they update to the general ledger until an approval code is entered.

c.  Prepayment General Ledger Type transactions are not included in the report deposit total.  These update to the general ledger during invoice update, not the prepayment register update. When selecting this option, the accounts receivable general ledger account will automatically be credited (during invoice update when the order closes) and the general ledger account chosen in the prepayment will be debited. 

d.  Includes an Open Status column to indicate if the order has been closed.  An asterisk will flag the order if closed, and move the prepayment record to history when the prepayment register is updated.

Canceling An Order with a Prepayment

If a customer has decided to cancel an order with a prepayment the operator can add an additional line in the Customer Deposit Window to reverse the original entry.  This will credit the cash account originally affected and debit customer deposits.