The balance of an open document can be the same or less than the total (if the document is paid in part). The balance of a closed document is always zero.
Documents must compensate each other. For example, if a customer paid $100 for a subscription, the system generates two documents:
- A payment document for $100. After the payment is accepted, it increases the customer balance.
- An invoice for $100 that corresponds to the subscription fee. It is generated after the services are provisioned. It decreases the customer balance.
In the above example, an invoice covers a payment completely, and a zero balance is reached. If a document or a part of it is not covered by other documents, its balance remains non-zero and affects the customer account's total balance.
Each customer account has its own balance calculated as total of all the respective AR document balances:
Balance = (Payment Balance + Credit Memo Balance)–(Invoice Balance + Debit Memo Balance + Refund Balance)
In the provider CP, a customer's balance is displayed with the reverse sign in order to show how it affects the provider's balance. For example, customer payments are presented with the negative sign (red colored) since they decrease the provider's balance.