There are several ways to add an on-demand payment to an invoice through Simfuni. One is to add a payment that will charge your client's existing payment method, and the other is to log an external transaction that has occurred outside the Simfuni platform.
To add an on-demand payment you'll need to have the "Create payment on existing invoice" user permission granted to your Simfuni account.
Charge Client's Payment Method
You can pull a payment from a client by charging their existing payment method when:
- The invoice is overdue. In this case, you can charge a payment for part of the overdue amount or all of the overdue amount.
- Charging the client for the entire remaining balance of the invoice.
Creating a Payment to Charge the Client's Payment Method
- To start, click on the Actions menu and select "Add payment".
- Select "Charge client's payment method".
- Choose to charge the entire outstanding balance of the invoice or just the overdue amount. If you choose the overdue option then fill in the amount the the payment should be - this can be any amount up to the full overdue balance.
Here you can also add a note to the payment. This will not be visible to the client but it will display in the Payment variations section of the Partner Portal.
- Next, review the details of the payment you're going to charge. Check everything is correct, and confirm that your client has already agreed for this payment to be charged against their payment method. Click confirm to charge the payment.
If the client's payment method is a credit card then the payment will be processed straight away. If the payment method is direct debit then the payment will be processed within 24 hours.
After you have created the payment, you can view the details in the Payment variation section of the invoice.
There are a few cases where the option to charge a payment against the client's payment method is disabled:
- If the first payment hasn't been made yet, as there's no existing payment method for Simfuni to charge against.
- If the policy has been cancelled.
- If the invoice is already fully paid.
- If a payment is already scheduled for today.
Logging an External Transaction
When you don't want to charge the client's payment method but instead want to log an external payment the client has made via a different channel, you can add an external transaction. There are two types of external transactions that can be added - either a payment you have received from the client or a refund you have made to the client.
Adding an external transaction will affect upcoming payments. This is to ensure the account is balanced and the customer isn't over or under charged.
If you select the payment type then the next upcoming payment will be lowered by the same amount to account for the external payment the customer has already made.
If you select the refund type then an upcoming payment for the same amount will be scheduled to balance the external refund already given to the customer.
Creating an External Transaction:
- To add an external transaction, click on the Actions menu and select "Add payment".
- Select "External transaction".
- Choose the appropriate transaction type, the date the transaction occurred, the amount of the transaction, and add a note. This note will not be visible to the client but it will display in the Payment variations section of the Partner Portal.
- Review the details of the transaction and click confirm. The external payment will display in the Payments section, as well as the Payment variations section.
- In the upcoming payments section a new scheduled payment (if it was a refund) or a lower upcoming payment (if it was a payment) will display, to reflect the amount that was processed externally. This amount will include transaction fees if applicable.
Please note: Adding an external transaction that is of the "payment" type (i.e. accounting for a payment the client has already made to you) is only available if the invoice is overdue. It isn't possible to log an external payment against an invoice that is already up-to-date on payments.