Within TutorCruncher, a Client balance is an account of all monies a Client has paid in or owes on their account - these could be from Lessons, Credit Requests, Ad Hoc Charges, refunds or more.
Client balances can be found by navigating to the Client’s profile listed in Clients and selecting the Accounting tab:
The panels shown on the accounting tab.
Here you can find the Client’s accounting history under Balance Details, their saved Payment Details, and a list of all their Invoices and Credit Requests. From here, you can view their full accounting history, add new payment details, issue new Credit Requests and adjust their balance by taking a Manual Adjustment or Quick Payment.
How do I save my Client’s card details?
Administrators can save Client card details by navigating to their profile, opening the ‘Accounting’ tab and selecting the Add new card button to open the ‘Save a new card’ menu. Input the card’s details and click Save new card to save those card details to the Client’s profile.
Clients themselves can also opt to save card details if they wish via the ‘Save card information for easier future payments’ checkbox when viewing an unpaid Invoice.
If you are using card payments with Stripe, then you also have the option to automatically save a Client’s card details whenever they pay an Invoice - read more about that here.
What is the difference between ‘Invoice Balance’ and ‘Available Balance’?
The simplest way to understand Client balances:
Invoice balance = the sum of all payments and positive balance adjustments minus the sum of all Invoices.
Available balance = the sum of all payments minus the sum of all complete Lessons and Ad Hoc Charges.
Therefore, if Client A pre-pays £1500, and receives £1000 worth of Lessons, their Available Balance will be £500 - their Invoice Balance would remain at £1500, until they are actually Invoiced. Say Accountant B Invoices them for £500 worth of Lessons, their Invoice balance would go down to £1000.
What is ‘Unallocated Credit’?
Unallocated credit refers to money paid into the Client’s account that hasn’t been linked to any payment orders - it can be used to pay Invoices, Credit Requests and Ad Hoc Charges.
The Pay from Credit button is highlighted on this unpaid Invoice.
How do I manually adjust a Client’s account balance?
There are two main methods by which you can adjust a Client's account balance:
Credit Requests
Read about Credit Requests here.
Manual Adjustments
A method of adjusting a Client’s balance without submitting a Credit Request is via a Manual Adjustment. Selecting this will open the Client Balance Adjustment menu, where the Amount can be chosen for how much the balance will be adjusted by. There are also optional forms where the Description (usually outlining the reason for the adjustment) can be filled in and the payment Method for the adjustment can be specified.
The Client Balance Adjustment panel.
Note: You can also perform a manual adjustment for a negative amount - simply input a negative value for the adjustment, (i.e. -50) and select ‘Balance Correction’ in the dropdown menu under Method.
Can I generate a statement for my Client’s balance history?
Yes - select the View Full History button on the accounting tab in the Client’s profile - this will open the Client’s full Balance History. Here, you can view, and generate statements for both the Client’s Available Balance History and Invoice Balance History. Selecting either of these will generate a statement for them in PDF format. Statements are particularly useful in any cases where a Client has requested a full breakdown of their accounting history with an organisation.
An example balance history, with Generate Statement for Available Balance History & Generate Statement for Invoice Balance History buttons highlighted.
Where can I view all Client balances in one place?
A view of all Client balances can be found in Accounting > Client Balances - here there is a list of all Client’s and their respective Invoice and available balances. There is a Filter panel which allows for Clients to be filtered by their minimum or maximum balance, with an Export List button to export a CSV list of Clients who fall within that range - useful for accounting purposes.
The Client Balances page, with the Filter panel highlighted.
How can I prevent my Clients from accruing a negative balance?
You can do this by navigating to System > Settings > Accounting Settings > Client Balances and then toggling the checkbox for Prevent negative balances - this prevents Lessons being marked as ‘completed’ that would bring the Client’s balance below zero.
Another way of preventing low or negative balances without enabling this option is to automatically notify the Client when their balance is low. In System > Settings > Accounting Settings > Client Balances, there is a toggle checkbox for Low Balance Notification and an option to set a Low Balance threshold - enabling and setting these options respectively will notify a Client via email that they have a low balance whenever their account balance falls below the specified threshold.
The Client Balances menu.
Can I trigger a Client payment from my end?
Yes you can - simply navigate to a Client’s profile and select the ‘Accounting’ tab. Within the ‘Balance Details’ panel, you can select the Quick Payment button to open the ‘Take Quick Payment’ panel.
Topping a Client’s account balance up using Quick Payments.
Within this panel you will be able to choose between the following options:
Top the Client’s account up: This will simply add balance to the Client’s account. This option is well suited to topping up a Client’s balance or processing prepayment for a series of Lessons taking place in the future. Selecting this option will create a paid Credit Request once the quick payment has been submitted.
Take a payment and generate an Invoice: This will create an Ad Hoc Charge which will be immediately paid for, therefore having no effect on the Client’s overall balance. This is particularly useful for transactions such as registration/sign up fees, or other one-off Client expenses that might be unrelated to their Lessons. Selecting this option will create a paid Invoice once the quick payment has been submitted.
You will also be prompted to input the Invoice’s amount and add a description for it. If you are choosing to take a card payment, you will also be prompted to specify an Ad Hoc Charge Category. You can also opt to send a confirmation email with an attached PDF as receipt of the payment.
Once the quick payment has been submitted, you will then be prompted to either make the payment with a saved card on file or use a new card to process the payment. Once the transaction has been processed, the relevant Invoice/Credit Request will be stored on their Client balance (depending on which of the above options were chosen when creating the quick payment).