Entering Cash Payments

WBAR makes tracking your cash easy by allowing you to post cash at any time during your billing cycle. Payments are entered into a collection file where they can be viewed, edited, deleted, printed and/or re-entered prior to updating. WBAR will print a paper receipt if desired and can also be set to apply full payments against the various field balances of an account. If you desire, you can distribute a payment into any billable field. WBAR will allow credit balances to be created to accommodate any "pay ahead" customers.
 
To enter cash payments, click on Payments, Enter Cash Payments. WBAR will open the Cash Receipts form and ask you for the account number. You must type in a valid account number for each account you wish to post a payment into.
 
                                                                 
 
You may post a payment into the collection file at any time without immediately affecting the balance shown in the customer's account record because payments are not "applied" until they are updated. Payments may be entered for any status including inactive accounts with outstanding balances.

Once you have located the account to receive payment,  use the drop down list to set the Method of the payment. If you want WBAR to automatically apply each payment in full to the outstanding balances shown, check the "Always Post a Full Payment as Billed" checkbox.

You may also enter a reference number such as a check number or tracking number, the date of payment, payment amount, and transaction comment. An amount (Payment field) is required to create a payment entry. If the payment method is Cash or Check and Cash, WBAR will also ask for the amount that has been received in cash.

If you want WBAR to print a paper receipt for each payment, click on the Receipt radio button.

If you change your mind and need to abort a payment you have begun entering, click on the Abort button.

WBAR will not allow a payment to be posted until the transaction amount matches the total of the fields the payment is being applied to.

If you want to hide any of the payment entry fields click the Hide checkbox next to the field. WBAR will ignore any fields in the form which have been hidden. Uncheck to make it appear again. You may hide fields if you do not bill for that particular service and want to speed up data entry.

Click on the Browse button if you want to see payments which are already in the payment collection file.

You may post a payment to an inactive account, however, WBAR will always locate the first account in the "stack" if you have more than one account with the same account number. To post to an an account that is below the active account, type in the account number, then use the arrow buttons at the lower left of the form to skip down until you are on the account you want the payment to apply to.

WBAR will match the payment to the correct customer based on the account number and the customer's last name. If you have two customer's with the same account number and same last name, alter the last name field of the account you want to post the payment to before you apply the payment, ie, BROWN becomes BROWN #2. Then WBAR will be able to match the payment to the correct BROWN account.

When you have completed entering a batch of payments, you will want to print out the Cash Receipts report located in the Payments section of the main menu. Click on Payments, View/Print. The Cash Receipts report will break down each transaction to show how the payment was applied. You should print a report to match each deposit you take to the bank.

You may post any amount of payment, including an amount that will create a credit balance in the service field and/or the total balance. This allows you to process "pay ahead" customers who carry a credit balance from month to month and draw down the balance as bills are created. You may also "mix" your payment entry to create credit balances in one service field while applying the remainder of the payment to other debit balance fields. For example, you will probably want to apply payments to late fees first, and then apply the remainder of the payment to other fields. If the customer over pays, you can apply the payment to the outstanding late fees and the remainder to other fields resulting in an overall credit for the account.

WBAR also allows you to enter cash payments that are made to your office but are not billed as a part of your cyclical billing process. Water and sewer taps, construction charges, and reconnect fees are examples of payments that can be taken in through the payment file. To enter these type of payments, Click on Payments, Other. Non-billed payments will appear in the same file and report as regular cash payments.

Remember, payments entered into the collection file will not appear as reductions to the customer's balance until the payments are applied. You can apply payments after you have balanced your bank deposit with the totals shown on the cash receipts report.