Sara, would it help if we stored the credits in a kind of "Pending Credits" area, so that when you're creating invoices, you could see a list of the credits that have not been applied to an invoice, and apply them? (Or have an option to automatically apply any pending credits when doing a recurring invoice?)

The credits really, really, really need to show up on the next invoice for the parents to see, and for us to have the option of automatically applying. And we also really need to be able to see the original payment information (when, how, etc.) so that we can track that. It's imperative in a billing system.

That's great that credits show up, but they don't automatically apply to the next invoice, nor is there a link with the invoice to add a client's credit to their invoice.

How do I make sure I don't miss a client's credit when I'm creating the monthly invoices?

Agreed with everyone's comments. Accounting is a nightmare when original overpayments are not tracked/recorded, and are changed! I am constantly referring to the banking deposit books to find out what the original payment was and where the credit came from. Individual account exceptions are really hard to keep in the back of your mind when you have hundreds of students to keep track of. Agreed that there needs to be a credit line for the invoice and that all payments, in any way/shape/form, need to appear on every single invoice not only for accounting, but for parent tracking at home for income tax purposes. I have also noticed that there are occasions where an invoice is paid off with credits and suddenly disappears from records altogether. No invoice number, nothing. Credits need to be tracked just like invoices for tax write offs at year's end, and invoices should never disappear into thin air!

I am in agreement with the comments below. What is the status of getting this fixed ASAP.

The credits-payments relationship is just messed up in the first place. It's extremely frustrating to find that when I enter a payment the number changes when it is moved over to credit. Payment info should never be changed!!!

I cannot emphasize the importance from an accounting standpoint of the original payment info being maintained. The Credit-Payment-Invoice relationship is a very convoluted way to handle billing. The transaction log from MusicTeachersHelper.com was far more suited to an actual billing functionality for lessons, however, at the least, StudioHelper should be maintaining at least a record of the original payment info. For instance, if a student pays $100 cash on March 20th and it is entered one should always be able to see this without it being split into two payments just because it is applied to two separate invoices. Same with checks which are not so easy to split on entry.

I totally agree with this! And it should show up automatically! If they have a credit on their account, and their monthly tuition invoice is automatically generated, it should also automatically show that credit.

There is a "Statements" option under the "Money" menu that will include all invoices as well as credits, within a date range, and a balance due as of the end date of the statement. This may help in the mean time.

agreed!! and also, since we have so many invoices going out to the same client, there should be a way of doing a statement too (maybe there is! i am new to this! just figuring things out here!!) where all payments and credits are shown and can be sent to clients especially for income tax purposes.

I am in complete agreement on this as well!