Under and Over Payments

See POS Registry entries for details of how to set Maximum Over and Maximum Under amounts.

An under payment is a payment for a transaction that is below the total required payment for the transaction. An under payment can only be received when you are signed on to a Mailroom Till. All payments received at the Counter must be at least the total value of the transaction.

Vitalware allows a limit to be set that specifies at which point an under payment can be ignored and when a second payment must be received before the transaction can be finalised. If the under amount is only a few dollars, it may not be cost effective to invest time and effort in requesting a second payment.

For example, an organisation has decided to set a $3 limit for an under payment. In this case, if a payment of $27 is received for a $29 transaction, no request will be made for more money, even though the payment is $2 under the required amount. However, if the customer sends in $24 for a $29 transaction, a second payment is required before the transaction can be finalised because this amount is outside the $3 limit set. In this case, a letter will be sent to the customer requesting more funds before the transaction can be completed.

When an under payment occurs, Vitalware creates a balancing item of the type Under in the Balances Given field on the Payments tab for the amount of the under payment.

Note: You can only receive an under payment if you are signed on to a Mailroom Till:

To process an under payment:

  1. Log a new sales transaction, completing product code, event and delivery details.
  2. Select a payment type.

    3. Note: You cannot select an Invoice payment type for an under payment as customers are always invoiced for the total amount.

  3. Overwrite the amount in the Amount field with the actual amount received.
  4. Save the record.
  5. The under amount will be added as an Under to the Balances Given table:

    6. Note: If your system has been set up for Batch mode, the transaction will retain an Incomplete status until the batch is finished and you sign off the Till. Only after the linking process and the printing of certificates is completed will the status of the transaction change to Complete.

  6. If the amount received is less than the limit set to ignore an under, the transaction will be saved as status Pending Payment and a request letter for the outstanding amount will automatically be generated. No certificates will be printed until a second payment is received to complete the transaction:

When the customer sends in the outstanding amount for a transaction:

  1. Search the POS module to find the required transaction.

    The record should have a Pending Payment status:

  2. Select the Payments tab.
  3. Select the asterisk in the Payments Taken table to add another row.
  4. Select a payment type and complete the payment details for the second payment.

    The amount pending will automatically be copied into the Amount field:

  5. Save the record.

An over payment is a payment for a transaction that is over the total required payment for the transaction. An over payment is only created when you are signed on to a Mailroom Till. If a payment over the total required amount is made at a Counter, the change is immediately given.

Vitalware allows a limit to be set which defines when an over payment must automatically be refunded and when an over payment can be ignored. This is because it is not cost-effective for a Vital Records Office to refund small over payments.

For example, if an organisation has decided to set a $5 limit for an over payment and a payment of $33 is received for a $29 transaction, no refund is made. However, if a payment of $35 is received for a $29 transaction, a refund check of $6 will be sent as the excess amount is greater than the $5 ignore limit.

When an over payment falls within the ignore limit set by the organisation, Vitalware creates a balancing item of type Over in the Balances Given field for the amount of the over payments or a refund entry is created.

You must be signed onto a mailroom counter:

  1. Log a new sales transaction, completing product code, event and delivery details.
  2. Select a payment type.

    3. Note: You cannot select an Invoice payment type for an over payment.

  3. Overwrite the amount in the Amount field with the actual amount received.
  4. Save the record.

    If the amount is within the ignore limit set in the system for an over payment, the amount will be added as an Over to the Balances Given field.

    5. Note: If a customer requests a refund for the over payment, you can manually produce a refund cheque for them (see Manually create a refund check for an over payment below).

    Note: If your system has been set up for Batch mode, the transaction will retain an Incomplete status until the batch is finished and you sign off the Till. Only after the linking process and the printing of certificates is completed will the status of the transaction change to Complete.

    If the amount is outside the ignore limit set for an over, the transaction will be saved with status Incomplete, and the refund amount will be added to the Balances Given field and to the Pending Refund field on the Sales tab:

When you next run the Print Refund Cheque process a refund cheque will be issued for this customer (see Manually create a refund check for an over payment below).

Occasionally a customer may inquire about an over payment for a transaction which fell within the ignore limit set in Vitalware. In this case, a refund cheque can be manually generated for the transaction:

  1. Search the POS module to find the required transaction..

    The transaction will have an over listed in the Balances Given table:

  2. Select POS>Refund Over from the Menu bar.

    The over now becomes a Pending Refund:

This cheque will be printed when the Refund Cheque process is next run (see How to run the refund checks process).

Staff in the Financial Management department run this process.

  1. In the POS module select POS>Pending Refunds from the Menu bar.

    All transactions that have a pending refund will be returned.

  2. Select all transactions that are pending a refund.
  3. Select Print>Cheque Run>Selected from the Menu bar.

    The Cheque Run box displays.

  4. Enter the number of the first cheque and click OK.

    The cheques print.