RAMCO includes functionality to enable our clients to see their customer's purchase and payment history in the system as well as functionality to facilitate those transactions:
The Difference Between Orders and Invoices
For more details on the Orders entity including field descriptions, click here.
For more details on the Invoice entity including field descriptions, click here.
The main difference between an order and invoice is an order does not show up on a customer's books (general ledger) while an invoice does. An order can be thought of as an offer to a customer ("We can give you this product for this cost, are you interested?") while an invoice is like a promise of payment from the customer ("I agree to buy your product for that amount").
Accounting is a structured practice which means certain guidelines must be followed. One of these guidelines states that offers can not be shown in one's books, only actual promises of payment.
A typical example for this is Dues. Within member-based organizations (such as REALTOR Associations) membership is voluntary; no one has to belong to any organization. The organization sends out renewal notices (which should be orders) because it has not been agreed that membership will be renewed. Once that agreement has been made, the organization can convert the order into an invoice and seek payment.
Payments
For more details on Payment entity including field descriptions, click here.
The Payment entity in RAMCO is used to store information regarding funds a particular customer has given the organization. There are many ways payment records can be created: manually by the User, through the Web Portal, through the Process Payment button on the Contact or Account. Payment records do create GL Account Entries and Batch Items.