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Accounts Receivable Overview

What is this page about: An overview of Accounts Receivable (AR) in Light, covering the modules involved, the sales invoice lifecycle, key concepts like customers, contracts, products, and customer credits, and how AR works across multiple entities and currencies.

On this page

  • Key Modules
  • Sales Invoice Lifecycle
  • Key Concepts
  • Multi-Entity and Multi-Currency
  • Key Features
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Related Articles

Accounts Receivable (AR) is the money customers owe a business for goods or services already delivered. In Light, AR covers the full customer-to-cash workflow: creating customers, drafting and sending sales invoices, tracking payments, and recognising revenue across multiple entities and currencies.

Key Modules

Light organises AR into five modules that work together end to end, from raising an invoice to clearing it against a payment or credit.

Module Path Description
Sales invoices /invoice-receivables Create, post, and send AR invoices
Customer credits /customer-credits Issue credit notes and apply them to invoices
Contracts /contracts Multi-period customer agreements with line items
Products /products Reusable product catalogue with default pricing and accounting
Customers /customers Customer records with billing details and history

All five appear under Revenue & Invoicing in the sidebar.

Sales Invoice Lifecycle

In Light, a sales invoice (AR document) progresses through these states:

UI Label Description
Draft Created but not yet posted
Open pending Posting in progress
Open Posted; awaiting payment
Payment pending Payment initiated but not yet cleared
Partially paid Some payments received
Paid Fully paid
Void Voided / archived
Reversed Reversed by a reversal credit note and reissued as a new invoice; shown as a distinct red badge, separate from Void

The Status filter on the invoice list covers 6 of these 8 states. Open pending and Payment pending are transient, so the filter leaves them out, though you'll still see them as badges on the invoice itself.

Each invoice also tracks a separate e-invoice status badge (Sent / Delivered / Failed), shown whenever e-invoicing has been submitted for that invoice.

Key Concepts

These are the core records Light uses to model your AR process.

Customers represent the parties you bill. Each customer record stores name, email, billing and shipping addresses, VAT, business registration number, e-invoice routing (network, EAS code, and e-invoice address), and customer type (Business / Consumer / Government).

Contracts define multi-period agreements with a contract period, entity, currency, and lines. They can drive recurring invoicing and revenue recognition over time. Each contract's invoice schedule can also show Scheduled (a future invoice not yet generated) and Cancelled (a scheduled period that was cancelled and won't be invoiced).

Products are reusable catalogue items with default pricing (multi-currency), default tax code, default ledger account, and a recurrence (One time / Monthly / Quarterly / Half yearly / Yearly).

Customer credits are credit notes issued to customers. They progress through Draft → Pending approval → Approved → Posted → Partially cleared → Cleared, with Void as a possible end state, and can be applied to one or more open invoices.

Multi-Entity and Multi-Currency

Light supports multi-entity AR:

  • You select an entity on each invoice and contract
  • Currency on the document defaults from the entity's functional currency
  • The Sales invoices list filters by entity
  • Customers can be used across entities

Key Features

Beyond the core lifecycle, Light includes a set of features built to reduce manual AR work:

  • Sales invoice creation with line items, products, taxes, discounts, and document templates
  • Document templates (Settings → Templates) for invoice layout and email defaults
  • Posting and sending: post-only or post & send by email, with optional e-invoicing
  • Bulk actions for posting and sending multiple invoices at once
  • Customer credits to issue refunds and apply to invoices
  • Customer aging widget on each customer's record showing Current / 1-30 / 31-60 / 61-90 / 90+ days
  • Activity log on each invoice
  • Bank reconciliation for matching incoming payments to invoices, bills, journal entries, and other posted documents across AR and AP

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Accounts Receivable (AR) in Light?

AR in Light is the set of modules and workflows for billing customers and collecting payment: customers, sales invoices, contracts, products, and customer credits.

What states can a sales invoice have in Light?

Draft, Open pending, Open, Payment pending, Partially paid, Paid, Void, and Reversed.

Where do I find AR modules in Light?

Sales invoices, customer credits, contracts, products, and customers all appear under Revenue & Invoicing in the sidebar.

Can I use one customer across multiple entities in Light?

Yes. Customers can be used across entities, while currency on each document defaults from that entity's functional currency.

What happens to a customer credit after it's created?

It moves through Draft → Pending approval → Approved → Posted → Partially cleared → Cleared, with Void as a possible end state, and can be applied to one or more open invoices.

Keep exploring how AR fits into the rest of Light:

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