Record check and cash payments against Yardbook invoices

1. In Yardbook, open the Quick Add menu, choose Payment and click Record Multiple Payments to see all pending invoices on one page.
2. Yardbook fills each payment amount with the remaining balance of the invoice, so every check has to be compared and the amount changed when it differs.
3. When one customer has several open invoices, the Yardbook help center advises applying the payment to the most recent invoice and marking older covered ones paid, not entering a duplicate payment.
4. Matching a stack of checks is done by eye, one customer at a time, and an unrecorded check leaves Yardbook treating that invoice as unpaid.

Here are this week's checks from the deposit slip: Johnson $240 #3318, Parker Property $550 #1207, Lee $85 cash, Ortiz $300 #882. Record each against the right invoice, then tell me who still owes from more than 30 days ago.

1. 01

   Read the stack first

   The agent turns your list, deposit slip or photo transcript into lines of payer, amount, method and check number. A line without a recognizable name is set aside at once and shown at the end.

2. 02

   Match amount to invoice, not just name

   For each payer the agent pulls their unpaid invoices and looks for one whose amount due equals the check. When a check covers two invoices exactly, it proposes two payments, one per invoice, so nothing is counted twice in the Billing History.

3. 03

   Flag what Yardbook would do silently

   A check larger than everything owed would become a customer credit in Yardbook, and a smaller one leaves the invoice in Pending Payment. The agent names both cases before recording, so you can decide whether the extra is a tip, a prepayment or a mistake.

4. 04

   Catch double entry

   get_invoice shows the payments already on an invoice. If the same check number or the same amount on the same day is there, the agent skips that line and reports it as probably entered already.

5. 05

   Record after one approval of the list

   You see the whole matched list once. Each record_payment call carries the method and check number as the reference and waits for your OK, unless you switched confirmation off for that tool.

6. 06

   Finish with who still owes

   With the payments in, the agent lists unpaid invoices older than 30 days, grouped by customer with the amount due. Sending reminders from there is a separate request you make.

Matched 4 of 4 payments
Johnson: 240.00 check #3318 to invoice 73194, now paid
Parker Property: 550.00 check #1207 to invoice 73350, now paid
Lee: 85.00 cash to invoice 73298, now paid
Ortiz: 300.00 check #882, owes 280.00 on invoice 73122. 20.00 would become a credit, asked you first
Still owing over 30 days: Dunn 160.00 (invoice 72980), Becker 85.00 (invoice 73011)

• A partial payment in Yardbook sets the invoice to Pending Payment; the list view keeps the original invoice amount, and the new balance due appears inside the invoice and on the printed or emailed copy.
• A payment larger than the invoice in Yardbook is applied to that invoice and the excess becomes a customer credit that can go toward a future invoice.
• The Yardbook Auto-Payment Reminder is part of the Premium Package, stops once the invoice is paid, can be switched off per customer with "Disable payment reminders", and Yardbook emails you a preview of the next week of reminders.
• Yardbook payment reminder rules are set as a number of days before or after the due date, and the due date comes from the invoice date plus the payment terms.

record_payment asks for your OK by default. To run it weekly without you, switch confirmation off for that tool in your dashboard.

Sources: Yardbook: Record multiple payments in a batch · Yardbook: Record a partial payment · Yardbook: Payment best practices · Yardbook: Auto payment reminder

curl https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/yardbook/record_payment \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"invoice_id":"73194","amount":"240.00","method":"Check","date":"2026-10-16","reference":"Check 3318"}'

{
  "invoice_id": "73194",
  "payment": {
    "amount": "240.00",
    "method": "Check",
    "date": "2026-10-11",
    "reference": "Check 3318"
  },
  "amount_due": "0.00",
  "status": "paid"
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the tool is yardbook_record_payment. Example data.

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