On account sales are sales where a customer purchases products that they take at the time of sale and intend to pay off at a later date.

When it comes to paying off these balances, your store can set whatever policy it desires around timing and methods.

In order to apply a payment to a customer's on account balance, you can either apply a payment on the Customers page or apply a payment during a sale. Refer to the relevant section below for further steps.

Apply a payment on the Customers page

You can apply a payment to a customer's on account balance via the customers page and manually accept cash or process an integrated payment type* outside of Retail POS. 

*Not all integrated payment terminals allow for manually processed payments. Merchants using Lightspeed Payments will need to apply a payment during a sale to pay off an on-account balance.

To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Customers > Customers.
   
2. Locate the customer, using filters to sort if necessary.
3. Click on the customer's name to expand the customer details.
   
4. Click Pay account balance 
   
   
5. In the Amount field, enter the amount you wish to pay off.
6. Select the Payment type from the drop-down menu.
   

   If you are paying off the on account balance with an integrated payment method, the amount will not automatically trigger your payment terminal. You need to manually process the payment using the terminal.

7. Select the register you wish to attach the payment to from the Register drop-down menu.
   
8. Click Pay balance to finish.
   

The payment will now be applied (starting with the oldest invoices first) and the customer's total balance will be updated.

After you refresh the page, you will see the new balance, adjusted accordingly.

Xero integrated retailers may take a few seconds to update all of the invoices and sync them with Xero.

Apply a payment during a sale

If the customer is making a new purchase and wants to make a payment towards an on account balance, this can be done at the same time. This also allows you to use an integrated payment type without having to manually process and apply the payment later.

To apply a payment during a sale, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Sell > Sell.
   
2. Add the Customer to the sale.
3. Add the products to the sale.
4. Click Pay.
   
5. On the This customer has an unpaid account balance banner, click Add a payment.
   
   
6. Enter the value that the customer wishes to pay off the On Account balance in the Amount to pay field.
   
   
7. Click Add payment to add the on account payment to the sale total.
8. Process the sale using the customer's desired payment method.
   
9. Click Complete sale.