Why a receipt has to be recorded in the ledger
The bank balance moves the moment a customer pays, but the ledger shows the money only once an entry records it. Until then the invoice stays open in the receivables listing and the cash account understates what the company holds. The posted receipt is also the ledger side of the comparison a bank reconciliation performs later: the statement shows money arriving, and the entry says what the company did with it.
How a customer receipt is posted
- Read the movement and fix its date. The trigger is a payment that has arrived: a bank credit, a card settlement or a collection recorded operationally. The entry belongs to the date the money moved, not the day someone notices it.
- Debit cash or bank for what arrived. The debit carries the net amount the account received, the figure a bank statement can be compared against later.
- Record supported deductions separately. A documented bank fee, valid withholding or approved discount has its own treatment and account. A deduction merely claimed by the customer is investigated; it does not automatically clear the receivable.
- Credit the receivable for the amount settled. The credit reduces the customer balance by the applied amount. A partial payment leaves the remainder open. If allocation is pending, the receipt can be recorded in the designated temporary account until supporting evidence identifies its destination.
Example: a receipt with a bank fee withheld
Ashgrove Foods invoices Pellham Distribution USD 24,800 on invoice 4471.
Pellham pays by bank transfer, the bank withholds a fee of USD 62, and USD 24,738 reaches the account. The figures are illustrative and in US dollars; the agreement makes Ashgrove responsible for the bank fee.
The entry has three lines: debit bank USD 24,738 for the money received, debit bank fee expense USD 62 for the charge the bank kept, and credit accounts receivable USD 24,800.
The two debits add up to the credit: USD 24,738 + USD 62 = USD 24,800, so the entry balances with the amount invoiced.
What reached the bank is the invoice less the fee: USD 24,800 – USD 62 = USD 24,738.
The receivable clears in full even though less arrived than was invoiced, because the fee is a cost of collecting the money, not a reduction of the sale.
Posting records that the customer paid; it does not decide which invoice the payment settles, which belongs to the application step.
One movement, several open invoices
One entry can carry more than one customer balance.
A single receipt can clear several open invoices, and the credit to the receivable is then written as one line per invoice, each carrying the amount that invoice was settled for, adding up to the total credited. The split is decided in the application step, and posting records the split that was chosen.
The date the entry belongs to
A receipt belongs to the period in which the money moved, not to the period in which someone recorded it. A transfer dated the last day of March and entered in April still belongs to March, because that is when the bank balance changed. Recording it only in April misstates the March balances, even if the cumulative amount agrees after the April entry.
Where the entry sits among the neighboring jobs
Bank reconciliation compares the ledger against the bank statement, and the posted entry supplies the ledger side. An unapplied payment is a receipt that was posted and not yet matched to an open invoice.
A remittance advice declares what the customer is paying and which deductions apply. Cash application decides which invoice the money settles.
From the receipt to a traceable journal entry
Posting a net receipt requires a model that distinguishes cash, the receivable settled and any approved fee or adjustment. Simetrik generates journal entries from configured rules using source data, reconciliation results and operational records, then sends them to the ERP that holds the books.
Validation and synchronization status are part of the control: a correctly calculated entry can still fail to reach the ERP. The transaction, posting version and ERP response need to remain connected so that a retry does not become a duplicate receipt. AI can assist with basic posting-model fields; the team approves the model and its accounting rules.