Auto-distribute, and the general (on-account) supplier payment

Ten open bills for one supplier and a single transfer covering most of them. Allocating by hand ten times is a waste; one button does it.

Auto-distribute

1. Open create supplier payment and pick the supplier.
2. Enter the total amount you transferred.
3. Press Auto-distribute across open bills — image 1.
4. The system fills the lines in order of the open bills until the amount runs out.
5. Review the split and adjust before saving.

If part of it finds no bill to sit against, the screen tells you plainly: "Distributed across all open bills. The remaining amount could not be allocated to any bill and will be recorded as a general (on-account) amount when saved."

The on-account payment

Choose general payment (on account) as the payment type when you pay a supplier before their invoice arrives: an advance, an order deposit, or settling a long-running relationship.

The amount is recorded as an advance balance for that supplier. Cash really leaves your till, but it is not tied to any bill. It later shows in the suppliers screen under the advance balance column.

Paying from the advance balance

When a bill arrives and the supplier has an advance, a pay from advance balance option appears on the payment screen. Choosing it settles the bills straight out of that credit — with no payment method and no new money, because the cash went out earlier.

Notes

• The system protects the advance against double spending: two simultaneous requests cannot consume the same credit twice.
• The payment type is named automatically: invoice when fully allocated, on account when nothing is, and mixed when it is partly allocated.
• Review advance balances periodically; an old advance is your money sitting with a supplier that both sides forgot.
• Auto-distribute proposes, it does not decide — review it, especially when you want a specific overdue bill settled first.