DAY-TO-DAY MONEY
How to keep part-payments and job expenses clear
A £120 job, a £30 first payment and £18 of supplies: a simple example of keeping received money separate from money still owed.
Keep the job price and received money separate
Imagine a customer agrees to a £120 service and pays £30 before the visit. The job is worth £120, but only £30 has arrived. The remaining £90 still needs collecting. Recording £120 as received at this point makes the day look better than it is and hides the action you need to take next.
Keep the agreed total, amount received and amount still owed visible together. Mark the booking completed when the work is done, and update the payment separately when money arrives. A completed job does not automatically mean a settled balance.
- Agreed service price: £120.
- First payment actually received: £30.
- Remaining amount to collect: £90.
- Payment state before the balance arrives: part-paid, not fully paid.
Add the cost when you record it
Suppose you buy £18 of supplies for the job. Your simple recorded money position at this point is £30 received minus £18 spent, which equals £12. When the remaining £90 arrives, total received becomes £120 and that same recorded income-minus-expenses figure becomes £102.
This example is deliberately narrow. It does not include any other costs, taxes, fees or adjustments. An operational income-minus-expenses view is useful for running the day, but it is not a substitute for formal accounts or a statement of taxable profit. Use the records and professional advice appropriate to your business for those purposes.
Record the balance without duplicating the first payment
Before adding money, open the existing job or payment record and check what is already there. If your system lets you update a received amount, change the total from £30 to £120 after the final £90 arrives. If it records individual receipts instead, add only the new £90 receipt. Do not add another full £120 payment on top of the original £30.
The right method depends on your record system. The check is always the same: the received total should match what actually arrived. Add a short reference that lets you trace it later, such as the booking, receipt reference or payment method. Never put full card details into a note.
Handle refunds and changes explicitly
If you later refund £10 from the £120 received, the net received amount is £110. Keep the refund distinguishable from a new expense so that you can understand what happened. With the £18 supply cost unchanged, the simple recorded income-minus-expenses figure would be £92.
A cancelled booking, a promised refund and a completed refund are different events. Record the actual money movement only after checking its status. For card payments, check the payment provider’s final result rather than treating a request or a confirmation screen as proof the funds have arrived.
- Check the original record before entering an adjustment.
- Keep the amount and the date of the movement clear.
- Do not count a processing payment as received unless it has completed.
- Use a task for a balance or refund that still needs your attention.
A short money check at the end of the day
Look at received income, expenses and outstanding balances separately. Search for a customer or description when an entry looks unfamiliar. If a figure seems wrong, trace it back to the underlying records instead of changing the target or adding a balancing entry without a reason.
Workloop’s Money workspace brings income and expenses into a searchable Payments timeline and shows recorded income minus recorded expenses under Net profit. It also keeps money still owed separate. Workloop is available on Google Play in the UK during free early access.