Your bank statement shows one incoming payment, but the customer says it covers three invoices. Recording that deposit as new income and then recording another receipt against each invoice can represent the same money twice. The task is to connect a real bank entry to the documents it settles, while preserving the amount allocated to each document.
Ask for remittance details before choosing invoices. A reference such as August payment does not identify every document involved. Confirm the payer, receiving account, currency, and intended balances. If another person paid on the customer's behalf, retain the explanation of that relationship. The sender's name is a useful clue, but it does not tell you how to allocate the receipt.
Hypothetical example: three invoices, one bank entry
Consider a service business in Costa Rica with three unpaid invoices for one customer: F-210 for CRC 180,000, F-218 for CRC 95,000, and F-223 for CRC 75,000. The customer transfers CRC 350,000 and emails those invoice numbers. The amounts add up: 180,000 plus 95,000 plus 75,000 equals 350,000. This illustration excludes bank fees, currency conversion, and fiscal adjustments.
The allocation assigns CRC 180,000 to F-210, CRC 95,000 to F-218, and CRC 75,000 to F-223. The bank amount is used once even though several payment links explain it. Keep the email or remittance advice with the supporting records so someone else can reconstruct why those invoices were selected rather than other documents with similar amounts.
Change one fact: F-210 already received a CRC 30,000 payment. Its open balance is now CRC 150,000, making the combined balance CRC 320,000. The deposit remains CRC 350,000. The extra CRC 30,000 needs an explanation. Selecting the original invoice total does not solve it. Ask whether the difference covers another document or an advance before confirming the final allocation.
Compare outstanding balances, not original totals
Earlier receipts or corrections may have changed an invoice's outstanding amount. Compare the deposit with the balance available when you apply it. If sales and treasury work concurrently, check again just before confirmation. A screenshot sent that morning may no longer reflect the balance after another team member records a payment. Use the current record as your starting point.
- Compare the receipt with the current open balances of the selected invoices.
- Look for existing payments and their bank references.
- Identify any unallocated amount and the evidence needed to resolve it.
- Review the complete distribution rather than checking only the first invoice.
Two sets of invoices can add up to the same amount. If F-230 and F-231 also total CRC 350,000, arithmetic cannot choose on the customer's behalf. The remittance advice must resolve that ambiguity. A short reply listing invoice numbers and amounts is usually more useful than asking the customer to understand your account codes or accounting screens.
Keep unexplained differences visible
A CRC 345,000 receipt against CRC 350,000 of balances leaves CRC 5,000 to explain. It could be a fee, an incomplete payment, or a mistaken allocation. The shortage alone does not establish which explanation is correct. Inspect the payment advice and any settlement statement. Do not call every difference rounding or close documents merely to clear a queue.
A combined payment can also leave an invoice partly unpaid. In a second hypothetical example, the customer specifies CRC 180,000 for F-210 and CRC 50,000 for F-218, paying CRC 230,000 in total. F-218 still has CRC 45,000 outstanding. That balance should remain visible on the customer statement. Mentioning a document in a transfer does not necessarily mean paying it in full.
Where Tario fits
Tario's reconciliation flow supports allocating bank movements across invoices and bills. For a customer receipt, review the incoming movement and the relevant open invoices. The flow checks that allocations do not exceed the selected money or allowed document balances. Choose documents using their identity and evidence, not merely because a proposed match carries a high confidence score.
If the receipt was already recorded from the invoice, find that existing payment and link it to the bank movement where the flow permits. Recording it again could duplicate its effect. Tario distinguishes linking an existing payment from creating new payments. When several records appear plausible, compare the date, bank account, reference, and amount before deciding which represents the actual receipt.
A suggestion is also different from a confirmed operation. Reading a statement or reviewing a proposal does not mean every receipt has been posted. Check the outcome of the flow you used and inspect document balances after confirmation. If the proposal includes a difference, resolve it with supporting evidence instead of assuming that the tool identified the right cause.
Finish by checking the documents
After confirmation, inspect the bank entry and each invoice balance. In the first example, all three invoices have no amount outstanding, while the bank represents a single CRC 350,000 receipt. Any advance or unresolved difference needs its own explanation. Share the allocation with the customer so a disagreement can be found before the next collection request is sent.
The Xero documentation below recognizes a single customer payment covering several invoices. It is cited for that operational scenario, not as a guide to Tario's buttons. The calculations here are illustrative. Ask the person responsible for your company's accounting to review the treatment of any specific difference before using an account simply to make the totals agree.