Recording payments taken another way: checks, wires and financing companies

Say a $3,100 check sits in Friday's deposit bag. On Saturday the order still shows $3,100 due, and another colleague sends a payment request. The customer has done their part. The record hasn't caught up.

Record payments taken outside checkout against the order as part of the same day's work. Match the receipt, resolve unused payable requests, and verify the new balance. That keeps the showroom, back office, and delivery team from asking the customer to pay the same sale twice.

Record received money, not a promise to send it

Checks, wires, ACH, cash, and financing-company payments can all arrive outside the customer's online checkout. Identify the order and establish what the store actually received before changing its paid state.

For a check, follow the store's policy for receipt and clearance. For a wire, reconcile the bank entry, amount, currency, and sender. A lender's approval letter is not the same as the lender's payment to the store.

A payment note should help someone else reconcile the receipt without calling the associate. “Check received for final balance” with the store's reference is useful. “All sorted” is a small mystery wearing a confident hat.

Use the recording route your order supports

On a placed order with Shopify Plus, Record payment accepts an amount or percentage and a note. Put the payment method and useful reconciliation reference in the note. Without Plus, the placed-order flow marks the whole balance paid; it does not record an arbitrary partial amount.

Before placement, deposit orders offer a separate route on any Shopify plan when enabled. For the right starting point, use the plan-by-plan deposit guide.

A partial wire can be recorded through a supported partial-payment route after it arrives. If the customer has sent only part of a placed order's balance on a non-Plus store, leave the remaining amount accurate and have the back office resolve the supported process. Marking the whole order paid would misstate the sale.

Resolve the old request, then verify Paid and Balance

An unpaid request may still be payable even after the customer chooses another method. Resolve it before recording money that would conflict with that request.

For the illustrative $3,100 final payment, the completed recording should bring the remaining balance to zero. Review the history and amount after saving; don't rely on the fact that the dialog closed.

OrderPilot caps recorded amounts around money already requested. The balance-tracking guide explains that protection. Review scheduled or manually prepared customer messages too: a recorded payment should not be followed by a stale request someone queued earlier.

Put the right wire instructions on the document

OrderPilot can print the location's bank details and an order note on quotes and invoices. Use the selling location's approved instructions, and tell the payer which order reference to include.

For a new payer or changed instructions, confirm details through a trusted phone number already known to the parties. Keep the full transfer receipt in the store's controlled financial records and only the useful reconciliation detail on the order.

Treat lender receipts as payments against the sale

OrderPilot records money received from a financing company against the order; the financing agreement itself is handled with the provider. Match the settlement to the sale and distinguish any lender fee from the customer's payment obligation through the store's accounting process.

The deposit bookkeeping guide explains why a paid amount on an order and revenue recognition are different jobs. Recording a lender payment should not invent an extra discount merely to make a net bank deposit look tidy.

Resolve a bounced check without inventing a refund

If a check is returned, pause any release based on that payment and give the back office the bank's notice and the affected order. Establish the correct correction with the Shopify payment record and OrderPilot support as needed; there is no dedicated bounced-check reversal described in the app workflow.

Do not issue a cash refund to simulate money that never cleared, or erase the history with an unexplained order adjustment. Keep the returned-payment explanation and the eventual replacement payment connected to the sale.

Recording a payment also isn't a promise that a customer receipt was emailed. Review the order's configured notifications and sent history, then send a clear acknowledgment or updated invoice if needed.

Give recording access to trained staff who reconcile receipts, with manager review for corrections. Finish each day by comparing the deposit bag and bank receipts with the order history. For the next sale, choose a balance-collection route with a clear handoff, and keep card numbers out of order notes.