Courier company · Pricing and payment

Prepaid balances

Balances of prepaid customers, deductions on orders, top-ups, negative balances and the low balance warning.

Prepaid credit is a balance the customer loads in advance. For a customer who pays with prepaid credit, each order's amount is deducted from this balance. The Accounting › Prepaid balances page lists these customers, lowest balance first.

Making a customer pay with prepaid credit

1. On the Settings › Pricing tab, go to the Customer types section.
2. Click the row of the type you want to edit, or create a new type with Add, and tick Pays with prepaid credit.
3. Assign this type to the customer on their record. The Account section of the record shows the Prepaid balance and the latest movements.

How does the balance change?

• Deduction: when an order is saved, its amount is deducted from the balance. If the order is cancelled, the amount is returned; if the price changes, only the difference is deducted or returned.
• Top-up: if online payment is on, use Payment link › Prepaid top-up on the customer record to send the customer a card payment link. Customers can also top up from the customer portal. When the payment succeeds, the amount is added to the balance. See Online payments.
• Manual top-up / adjustment: click Top up / adjust prepaid on the row in the Prepaid balances list or in the Account section of the customer record. Top-up adds a positive amount; Adjustment can be positive or negative (e.g. -25) and needs a description. The button is shown to the Company owner, Administrator and Accounting roles.

Step by step: monitoring balances

1. Open Accounting › Prepaid balances from the left menu.
2. To find a customer, type a name or code in the box and press Enter.
3. Turn on Low balances only to see only customers below the threshold. Their rows are shown in red.
4. Download the list with Export to Excel.

Low balance threshold

Set the threshold under Settings › Payment and bonus › Prepaid low balance warning. Customers whose balance falls below it are flagged in the list and see a warning in the customer portal. Enter 0 to turn the threshold off; Low balances only then shows negative balances.

Negative balances: who is allowed?

Should orders be accepted when the balance is too low? You decide this for the whole company first, and then separately for any customer you choose.

Company-wide: If Prepaid balance may go negative is ticked on the Settings › Pricing tab, the order is accepted and the balance goes negative; otherwise the order is rejected with an insufficient prepaid balance error.

Customer-specific rule:

1. Open the customer's card.
2. In the Account section, press Negative balance rule.
3. Choose one option under Orders when the balance is insufficient (options below).
4. If you chose Accept, you can enter a Negative limit. E.g. with 500 the balance can go down to -500 at most; an order that would exceed it is rejected. Leave it empty for no limit.
5. Press Save.

The options:

• Follow the company setting: the company-wide setting applies (default).
• Accept (balance may go negative): this customer's orders are accepted even if the company setting is off.
• Reject (balance cannot go negative): this customer's balance cannot drop below 0 even if the company setting is on.

The card shows a summary of the rule (e.g. "May go negative down to 500 (customer-specific)") and the Available amount, which is the balance plus the negative limit. This button appears for the Company owner, Manager and Accounting roles.

Cancellations and refunds are always credited back; the rule only affects new deductions. If you tighten the rule later, an existing negative balance is not erased; only new orders are refused.

Good to know

• Prepaid orders appear as Prepaid on Charges and are not marked paid or unpaid.
• Prepaid movements can't be changed; the balance is the sum of all movements.

Having trouble?

• A customer is missing from the list: the customer's type is not prepaid and they have no prepaid movements.
• An order failed with an insufficient prepaid balance error: have the customer top up, or allow negative balances. If the error mentions a negative balance limit, raise the customer's Negative limit.
• I turned on the company setting but the customer's order is still rejected: the customer's Negative balance rule may be Reject; set it to Follow the company setting.