Sometimes a recipient pays you directly — by check, cash, bank transfer, or another method outside of Althea's built-in ACH payments. Record payment lets you document that payment so the invoice reflects reality and is marked as Paid.
When to use this
Use Record payment when money has already changed hands outside Althea and you just need the invoice to show it. If you want the recipient to pay through Althea, send them the invoice instead (see Send or Resend an Invoice Email in Creating and Managing Invoices).
How to record a payment
Open the Invoices table (in a session's Invoices tab, or the global Payments page).
Find the invoice and click the three-dot menu (⋮) on its row.
Select Record payment.
The dialog shows the Responsible User and the Amount for context (these can't be changed here), followed by Payment Details:
Payment Method — choose how the payment was made (e.g., check, cash, or another manual method).
Payment Details — a free-text note. Use it to capture anything useful for your records, such as a check number or transaction ID.
Click Record payment.
The invoice immediately moves to Paid for the full invoice amount.
Good to know
Recording a payment does not email the recipient. It's an internal record only. (To notify someone, use Send/Resend.)
You can only record a payment while the invoice is unpaid. If a payment is already pending or completed, the option isn't available.
Recording a payment marks the full invoice amount as paid — it isn't used for partial payments.
This is separate from Althea's ACH flow: no processing fee is applied, and Althea doesn't move any money — you're documenting a payment you already received.
