When tagging your bank transactions, occasionally you may encounter lump payments that need to be attributed to multiple customers. This is often the case when you bank multiple cheques on one paying-in slip.
A bank transaction can only be tagged to one customer, so you need to split the lump first. There are two methods you can use.
How do I split the original deposit?
In this case you delete the original lump deposit on the account and replace it with the split payments. The end of day balance totals are unaffected, so from an accounting point of view this is fine, and it is also the quickest method.
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Go to Banking > All bank accounts and click View next to the account.
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Click New Transaction.
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Enter the date and a Reference for the first cheque, choose Money In as the Type, enter the Amount and click Save. The row stays open, so repeat for each cheque on the paying-in slip.
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Delete the original lump deposit from the statement.
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Tag each split payment separately. See How do I tag each split payment to a customer?.
Tip: If the account receives a bank feed, Method 2 may suit you better because it leaves the bank’s own line in place.
How do I use a holding account?
The other option is to create a new bank account called ‘combined cheques’ or ‘cheque holding account’, then move the lump sum into it.
Create the holding account
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Go to Banking > All bank accounts, click Create and choose Current / Savings Account.
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Set Bank Name to Other and Account Type to Current Account. Enter an Account Name such as Cheque holding account, then click Save Details.
Tag the lump as a transfer
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Go to Banking > All bank accounts and click View next to your current account.
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Click Tag Me on the lump deposit, then choose Bank transfer between accounts.
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In Transfer from account, choose the holding account, then click Continue. The line is tagged straight away.
Enter the split payments
Open the holding account. QuickFile has already added a line for the full amount, “Transfer from (holding account) to (current account)”, as Money Out. This is the line that balances the lump sum on your current account, so you do not need to enter it yourself. Until you add the split payments, the balance on the holding account is negative.
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Click New Transaction.
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Enter each cheque as Money In with its own date, Reference and Amount, and click Save. When the cheques add up to the lump, the balance returns to 0.00.
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Tag each split payment separately. See How do I tag each split payment to a customer?.
This option is preferable if you regularly process multiple cheques together and you wish to preserve information on the current account of the lump sum totals.
How do I tag each split payment to a customer?
Do this for each split payment, whichever method you used.
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Click Tag Me on the payment and choose Payment from a customer. QuickFile first tries to match the payment against your unpaid invoices for the same amount.
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If there is no match, the Client Payment Options dialog says No Matching Sales Invoices. Click Create a new invoice for this receipt.
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Choose the customer in Allocate to Client, or click Create New Client to add them.
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In the Create New Invoice dialog, check the description and category, then click Save. Leave the description blank to use the one from the bank entry.
QuickFile creates the invoice, marks it as paid and tags the line, and creates the client as well if you added a new one. When every cheque is tagged, the holding account balance is 0.00.
To see where a payment went, click Tagged on its line. The pop-up shows the customer and the invoice. Click Detag Transaction if you need to undo the tag.
| Option in Client Payment Options | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Create a new invoice for this receipt | The customer has no unpaid invoice for this amount. |
| Pay down multiple invoices or assign to a client account | One customer is paying several invoices with a single payment. |
Please note: If a single customer paid several invoices in one payment, you do not need to split it: tag it once and choose Pay down multiple invoices or assign to a client account.
What about payments from merchant accounts like Stripe, GoCardless or PayPal?
Payments from merchant accounts such as Stripe, GoCardless and PayPal work a little bit differently, because there’s often a fee element involved, too, although the concept is very similar.
We have a dedicated guide on accounting for income from a payment service provider in our knowledge base.
Related topics
New to bank tagging? Start with Tagging your bank transactions for an overview of every Tag Me option.
- Tagging your bank transactions: How to tag bank statement lines to invoices, transfers, tax payments and more.
- Accounting for income from a payment service provider: Record payouts and fees from providers such as Stripe, GoCardless and PayPal.
- Managing credit cards in QuickFile: Set up a card account and record the transfer that pays the card bill.
- Bank Tagging - Split across multiple nominal codes: Split one transaction across several nominal codes rather than several customers.
- Splitting a bank deposit (community discussion): A staff answer on paying several invoices from one deposit.