How to record cash, check and other payments
Card payments through Stripe or Authorize.Net log themselves. Cash handed to a driver, a check in the mail or a Zelle transfer do not, so record each one on its order with the amount, method, date, and a note saying who collected it and where the money was deposited. Party Rental Studio adds the name of whoever entered it.
Before you start
- You need the Admin or Operations role. Users with Staff (No Financials) or Driver do not see Payment Information on an order.
- Give every employee who records payments their own login. The order's history shows the name of the login that entered each payment, so a shared login records everyone as the same person.
- Card payments through your Stripe or Authorize.Net integration are recorded automatically. Do not enter them again by hand or the order will show them twice.
Open the order's Payment Information
Every payment is recorded against the order it pays for. In this example Maria Alvarez paid a $150.00 deposit online when she booked order #10482, and paid the remaining $357.50 in cash to the driver on delivery day.
- Log in to io.partyrentalstudio.com and click Orders in the top navigation.
- Open the order the payment is for.
- Find Payment Information on the right of the order. It shows Total Invoiced, the Remaining Balance, and every payment already recorded. The online deposit is already there.
- Click Add.
Payment Information Add
Total Invoiced $507.50
Remaining Balance $357.50 Partial
Payments
Stripe (Order Review) 09/10/26 +$150.00
Note: On a phone the order page is split into tabs. Tap Payment to reach the same panel and the same button.
Enter the payment details
The Update Balance window opens. The left half sums up the order so far, and the right half is the payment you are adding.
- Leave Type on Payment. Refund and Credit are for money going back to the customer or taken off what they owe.
- Choose the Method: Cash, Check, Credit Card (Manual), Zelle, Venmo, Cash App or ACH.
- Fill in the extra boxes the method adds. Check asks for the Check # and Check Date. Credit Card (Manual) and ACH ask for a Transaction ID, the reference from your terminal or bank.
- Set Transaction Date to the day the money was received. It starts on today, so change it when you are entering a payment from an earlier day. Here the cash was collected on Saturday 09/19.
- Type the Amount.
Update Balance Cancel
Grand Total:$507.50
Payment:$150.00
Refunds:$0.00
Credits:$0.00
Remaining Balance$357.50
Type
Payment
Method
Cash
Transaction Date
09/19/26
Amount
$
357.50
Notes
e.g. Collected by driver at delivery, deposited to Chase checking
Submit
Tip: Use the Transaction Date for when the money changed hands, not when you got round to entering it. The order's history records the entry time separately (Step 04), so you keep both.
Note who collected it and where it was deposited
The person entering a payment is not always the person who took the money. A driver collects cash at the door and an office manager records it two days later. Notes is where you close that gap.
- In Notes, write who collected the money, if it was not you.
- Add where it went: the bank account it was deposited into, the deposit date, or the cash drawer it is waiting in.
- Click Submit. The window closes, the payment appears under Payments, and the Remaining Balance goes down by the amount.
Agree one way of wording it with your team, for example Collected by [name]. Deposited to [account] on [date]. Notes written the same way every time are much quicker to check against a bank statement.
Amount
$
357.50
Notes
Collected by Marcus Reed at delivery. Deposited to Chase business checking on 09/21.
Submit
Note: Notes can be up to 1,000 characters. They are for your own records and do not print on the invoice or appear anywhere the customer can see.
Check the payment and who recorded it
Each payment now has a complete record across two places on the order.
- Payment Information lists every payment with its method, the Transaction Date, the amount and your note. Check payments show the check number and date, and card and ACH payments show the transaction ID.
- Invoice History, further down the order, adds a line such as Manual Payment of $357.50 Added - Method: Cash, with the name of the user who entered it and the date and time they did.
Together that answers what the customer asked for in one place: the amount, the method, the day it was received, who collected it and where it went (from the note), and who recorded it (from the history).
Payment Information Add
Total Invoiced $507.50
Remaining Balance $0.00 Paid
Payments
Stripe (Order Review) 09/10/26 +$150.00
Cash 09/19/26 Collected by Marcus Reed at delivery. Deposited to Chase business checking on 09/21. +$357.50
Invoice History
Manual Payment of $357.50 Added - Method: Cash Jordan Lee 09/21/26 9:14 am
Heads up: The name in Invoice History comes from the login, not from the note. If two people share a login, every payment they enter carries the same name, and the history can no longer tell you who recorded it.
Find orders that still owe money
At the end of the day, check which orders are still waiting on a payment that should have been recorded.
- Click Orders in the top navigation.
- Click the Payment filter. It appears when you are viewing Pending or Completed orders.
- Choose Partially paid for orders with a deposit but a balance still owed, Unpaid for orders with no payment yet, or Paid in full for orders with nothing left to collect.
- Open any order on the list to see its individual payments and notes.
Dates Method Payment: Partially paid
Tip: Match the cash your drivers hand in against the Partially paid list before it goes to the bank. Any order still on it either has not paid or has a payment that has not been entered.
Payment recording questions
What people ask once they start recording payments by hand.
Do I need to record card payments my customers make online?
No. Card payments that go through your Stripe or Authorize.Net integration, whether the customer pays online or you charge their saved card from the order, are added to the order's Payment Information automatically. Record by hand only money that reaches you some other way.
Can my drivers record the cash they collect?
No. Users with the Driver or Staff (No Financials) role do not see Payment Information at all. Have drivers hand the cash to the office, and have an Admin or Operations user record it with a note saying which driver collected it.
The customer paid by card on our own terminal. How do I record that?
Choose Credit Card (Manual) as the Method and type the terminal's reference in Transaction ID. It is recorded like any other payment, and no card is charged by Party Rental Studio.
Can I record a payment that came in on an earlier day?
Yes. Set Transaction Date to the day the money was actually received. The order's history still shows the day and time it was entered, so you can see both.
Why won't it let me enter the full amount?
A payment cannot be larger than the remaining balance on the order. If the amount is rejected, check the Remaining Balance in the left half of the Update Balance window, and whether part of the money was already recorded.
Does the note print on the invoice?
No. Payment notes are for your own records. They show under the payment on the order in your back office, not on anything the customer receives.
I recorded a payment by mistake. How do I fix it?
Click the three dots at the end of the payment's line and choose Delete, then record it again correctly. Only payments entered by hand can be deleted this way. A card payment taken through Stripe or Authorize.Net is reversed with a refund instead.
Is there a report of every payment?
The Payment History report under Reports is marked Coming Soon. Until it arrives, use the Payment filter on the Orders page to find paid, partly paid and unpaid orders, and open an order to see its individual payments.