Get paid: match a payment to an invoice

Why link a payment to an invoice

When you make out an invoice, Worklog already counts that money as income on the day you issue it. So when the customer actually pays and you log the money coming in, you need to tell Worklog it is for that same invoice. If you do not, the amount gets counted twice and your Profit and Loss looks bigger than it really is.

Linking fixes that. It keeps the payment out of your Profit and Loss, so the invoice you already logged stays the only place that money is counted. You can also tick a box to mark the invoice as paid at the same time.

Before you start

The invoice needs to exist already, so there is something to link to.
You link the payment when you log the money coming in, not on the invoice itself.

Link a payment as you log income

This is the everyday way, for when a customer pays you and you record the money by hand in Log Income.

Open Log Income.
In Amount, type the money that came in.
In Received from, put the customer's name. If you pick a customer here, Worklog looks up their invoices for you.
Find the box labelled 'Is this payment for an invoice? - optional' and tap it.
A list opens. If you named the customer, their invoices show first under their name, with the rest below. Tap the invoice this payment is for. You can also use the 'Search by customer, number or amount' box to find it.
A blue note appears: 'Linked to [invoice number] — kept out of Profit & Loss so this payment isn't counted twice.' That is your confirmation.
Fill in the rest of the entry as normal, then tap Log income.

💡Each invoice in the list shows the customer, the invoice number, the date, and either the amount still due or a Paid tick. That makes it easy to spot the right one.

Mark the invoice paid at the same time

If the payment covers the full outstanding balance, Worklog offers to close the invoice off for you. When you pick an invoice, this box is ticked for you already.

After you link the invoice, a tickbox appears saying 'This covers the full [amount] balance — mark [invoice number] as paid'.
Leave it ticked to mark the invoice paid when you save, or tap it to untick it and leave the invoice open.
Tap Log income. The payment is saved and, if you left the box ticked, the invoice is set to Paid.

⚠️If the payment is less than what is owed, Worklog treats it as a part payment. It does not offer the mark-paid tick. Instead it shows how much of the balance is still outstanding, and the invoice stays unpaid. The payment is still linked, so it is still kept out of Profit and Loss.

💡Picked the wrong invoice? Tap the box open again and choose 'Remove link' at the top of the list, or just tap a different invoice.

Linking payments from an imported bank statement

When you import a bank statement, Worklog reads every transaction and lets you link deposits to invoices before anything is saved. This is handy when several customers have paid and you want to match them all at once.

Open Banking, tap "Let Worklog read it", and follow the steps to upload and read your statement.
On the review screen you see every transaction Worklog found, each with a tick so you choose which ones to keep.
If you have invoices on file, a note shows: 'Was a payment settling an invoice or bill you already logged? Link it below so the same money isn't counted twice in Profit & Loss.'
Under a money-in row you keep ticked, tap the 'Is this payment for an invoice? - optional' box and pick the invoice it settles, just like in Log Income.
If the deposit covers the full balance, the same mark-as-paid tick appears for that row. Leave it ticked to close the invoice off.
When you are happy, tap the Import button at the bottom to save everything.

💡The same rules apply here: a full payment can mark the invoice paid, a part payment stays linked but leaves the invoice open, and every linked deposit is kept from being double-counted.

A note on VAT

If you are VAT registered, the cash you log is treated as VAT-inclusive and Worklog works the VAT out of it for you. When you log income, Worklog shows the amount split into the VAT portion and your income underneath. Linking to the invoice is what keeps both your income and your VAT from being counted twice.

What the match actually does

The invoice already carries the revenue — and, for a VAT-registered business, the VAT — from the moment it was issued. So the matched payment deliberately contributes neither: it settles the document without counting the same money twice, which is why a matched payment stores no category of its own.

A payment smaller than the balance leaves the invoice part paid; the full amount, with the tick left on, flips it to paid.

If the invoice isn't in the list

Only invoices still owing money are offered. An invoice already marked paid doesn't appear — Mark it unpaid first, then match the payment to it.
A fully credited invoice has nothing left to settle, so it isn't offered either.
The one exception: the invoice this payment is already matched to always stays visible, so an old link can be changed or cleared.

Still stuck? Open the in-app help assistant, or email us at hello@worklogsolutions.co.za.

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