Invoice PAID -> UNPAID -> PAID causes money imbalance

[artifacts]

Suppose an invoice has been paid. We accidentally click on "Mark Unpaid". Now the invoice is marked unpaid, but the money the customer used to pay the invoice is not credited back to the customer. The money originally used to pay the invoice is simply gone, from the customer's point of view. His credit balance hasn't gone up after we accidentally marked the invoice unpaid.

 

To mark the invoice paid again, we have to go to the global display of

Transactions -> List Unpaid Invoices. Now we have to remember which invoice we need to fix, and check the box, and then click on Mark Paid. If we misremember the invoice, we may mark the wrong invoice as Paid.

 

When we mark the invoice paid, WHMCS treats this as a new payment, and sends mail to the customer telling him he has paid his invoice. So what we intended as a correction becomes a new transaction. The Transaction list now shows a second payment of the invoice.

 

The Transactions -> View Transactions List will give us the wrong

totals, because it's counting the duplicate invoice payments. The incoming money amounts no longer add up. It becomes difficult or impossible to compare the incoming cash flow, as listed by WHMCS, with the amount actually in the bank.

 

Rahul

[MACscr]

its easy to fix, delete the duplicate transaction.

[eugenevdm]

I agree with artifacts that there is imbalances when invoices are canceled / marked unpaid and quote the following real life scenario.

 

An invoice is issued against a client's name for work done.

This invoice is sent to the customer.

It is captured by the client.

 

The client pays for the invoice.

This is marked as paid in WHMCS.

 

Later the client turns around and says he wants a refund for the work done and a credit note issued. The client also demands a statement.

 

At this point the following issue arise

 

1. There is no way to issue a credit note to the customer, only credits.

2. If you mark the invoice as unpaid the client's account isn't credited.

3. If you cancel the invoice the transactions table isn't updated.

4. There is no real way of showing the client an accurate statement based on the actions taken.

5. If you delete the invoice you have a major auditing problem on your hands.

 

I realize WHMCS is not an accounting system but issuing credit notes and statements are routine tasks in larger organizations and should not require too much manual intervention.