Invoices, payments, and credits

Money in this platform is append-only: you rarely “edit” a charge. You void, credit, or collect another payment. Browse or search all invoices from Admin › Invoices, open one from a household, or follow a deep link from a post-action redirect.

An invoice has a kind (Annual dues, Camp, Initiation, and so on), line items, a status (Due, Payment in progress, Paid, Voided, Written off, …), and a due date. Payment truth comes only from Stripe webhooks. Never from a browser redirect.

Admin › Invoices lists every invoice, newest first. Search matches the invoice number or household name; filter by status, kind, or a due-date range. Status and kind filters use the same plain labels the table shows. Each row opens the invoice detail page — the list itself has no bulk actions.

Use Due from and Due through for the date range, then select Search. Both dates are included. Leave either end blank for an open-ended range.

Status is not strictly one-directional. An ACH return or a lost dispute can reopen a settled invoice (Payment in progress or Paid back to Due), and a won dispute or re-settlement can move it to Paid again. These reversals are driven by Stripe webhook truth, not by anything staff or the member did, so a household's "Paid" invoice showing as "Due" again after a bank return is expected behavior, not a bug.

Who can act on an invoice: applying a credit, adding an adjustment, voiding, or issuing a Stripe refund all require the treasurer or admin role. A manager cannot do any of them from the invoice page. Recording a manual check or cash payment is wider: manager, treasurer, or admin. Viewing an invoice is open to all staff roles.

A manual payment must be for more than zero. The form refuses a zero or negative amount, because a reduction belongs on the invoice as a credit or adjustment where it is audited as one. When you record a check, the check number is required. It is what tells the system that two checks for the same amount on the same day are two different checks, and it is how a connected tool (Claude) can safely retry without recording a payment twice. Connected tools can record checks only up to a daily limit configured in Settings; anything over that limit has to be recorded here in the admin console.

Most money-moving actions. Creating an invoice, adding an adjustment, applying a credit, recording a manual payment, issuing a Stripe refund, and voiding an invoice. Are all blocked once the current month's accounting period is closed (see Reports and CSV exports. Accounting periods).

Partial payments are available by ACH only. Each partial payment must meet a minimum amount (configured in Settings). Except a final payment that pays off the entire remaining balance, which is always allowed no matter how small. A partial payment does not enroll the household in autopay, and the remainder is still due by the deadline unless staff grant an extension. Card payments must be for the full invoice total plus surcharge; card can't be used to pay part of an invoice.

• ACH: face value; may sit in processing for several days.

• Card: may include a processing fee line (configured in Settings) so the club nets the invoice total.

Failed ACH is normal (closed account, wrong Tuesday). Ask the household to update the bank account and retry. Do not invent a manual “mark paid.”

When an invoice is paid in full, the payment confirmation email includes a PDF receipt attachment (rare generation failures fall back to the portal download. The email still sends). Members can also download a receipt for each settled payment from the invoice page in the member portal.

Credits reduce what a household owes. With one exception (bank-transfer overpayments, below), applying one is a deliberate staff action against a specific draft or open invoice you choose. It doesn't automatically apply itself to whatever invoice comes next. Some credits are scoped (for example camp-only) or expire. Applying a credit is recorded; you cannot silently rewrite history.

Bank-transfer overpayments are the one credit that applies itself. When a member's bank transfer ("you send the money") settles for more than the invoice still owed — because the balance moved while the transfer was in transit, say a check was recorded or an adjustment posted — the full transfer is recorded as that invoice's payment, the invoice is marked paid, and the difference is issued as an unscoped household credit with the reason "Overpayment on invoice …". That credit is then applied automatically, oldest invoice first, to the household's other open invoices; an invoice it clears is marked paid with the usual effects (a dues year moves to paid). Whatever no open invoice can absorb stays on the household as ordinary credit for staff to apply later or return by check. Money a member sends over what the bank-transfer request asked for is different: it never reaches the invoice — Stripe holds it in the member's cash balance, the platform raises an ops alert, and staff apply or return it from the Stripe dashboard (see Troubleshooting member payment problems).

Camp cancellation often issues camp-scoped credit rather than cash. Stripe refunds are blocked in the UI for dues and initiation invoices. Dues corrections must go out as account credit, and initiation/bond money must go back by check (a refund payable), never a Stripe refund. If a camp or merchandise cancellation already refunded the household as account credit against an invoice, the invoice page shows a warning banner so you don't also issue a Stripe refund on top of it. See Relinquishment / Check run for bond checks.