Money is coming in. This should be the fun part. A customer paid, and all you have to do is record the check, match it to the right invoices, and move on. We’ve covered how invoices get created (Round 18) and how credits get applied (Round 19). Today: the payment itself.
In GP, receiving cash is one well-worn path. In Business Central, it’s three lanes — and one of them practically drives itself.
How You Do It in Dynamics GP
Step 1: Open Cash Receipts Entry. Sales > Transactions > Cash Receipts. Pick or create a batch, select the customer, enter the amount, choose the payment type — cash, check, or credit card — and the checkbook it lands in. Familiar GP rhythm: a dedicated window, a batch, a checkbook ID.
Step 2: Apply the payment. Here’s the step that separates tidy AR from messy AR. Choose Apply to open the Apply Sales Documents window. Per Microsoft’s Receivables Management documentation, you have three methods: Auto Apply (GP works through open documents in the order your setup specifies), apply to specific documents (mark each invoice), or apply a specific amount (split one check across invoices). It works well — but it’s a separate, deliberate step. Skip it and you’ve created the AR classic: the unapplied payment, first cousin of Round 19’s floating credit memo.
Step 3: Post the batch. Print the edit list, review, post. If you’re careful — and GP trains you to be — you also made a backup first, like the documentation suggests.
Step 4: Deposit it. One more stop many GP users forget to mention: the receipt isn’t in your checkbook register until it’s included in a bank deposit in Bank Reconciliation. Then, come month-end, you reconcile it — the checkmark ritual we covered in Round 4.
How You Do It in Business Central
BC gives you three lanes depending on how the money arrives, all described in Microsoft’s receivables overview.
Lane 1: The Cash Receipt Journal — the manual lane. Search for Cash Receipt Journals, pick your batch, and enter a payment line: posting date, document type Payment, customer, amount, and the balancing bank account. Then choose Apply Entries and check off the invoices it pays — or apply later from the customer’s ledger entries. Per Microsoft’s payment application guide, partial payments are fine: you set the amount to apply on each entry.
Lane 2: Payment Registration — the checklist lane. This one feels like it was designed by someone who watched an AR clerk work. The Payment Registration page shows a generated list of unpaid sales documents. Checks arrived in the mail? Go down the list, tick Payment Made on each invoice that got paid, adjust amounts for partial payments, and post. No journal lines to build — the list is the journal.
Lane 3: The Payment Reconciliation Journal — the automatic lane. Import your bank statement file or connect a bank feed, and BC matches deposits to open customer entries based on the payment text. You review the matches, fix the odd one, and post — payments applied and the bank account reconciled in the same motion. The apply step and the month-end checkmark ritual collapse into one review.
And in every lane, the payment posts straight through to the bank account in one flow — no separate deposit-entry stop on the way to the register.
Side by Side
| Dynamics GP | Business Central | |
|---|---|---|
| Ways to record a customer payment | Cash Receipts Entry | Cash Receipt Journal, Payment Registration, Payment Reconciliation Journal |
| Applying to invoices | Separate Apply Sales Documents window | Apply while entering, from a list, or auto-matched |
| Working from a list of unpaid invoices | No — you bring the invoice numbers | Payment Registration generates the list |
| Bank statement matching | Manual, at reconciliation time | Auto-match in Payment Reconciliation Journal |
| Getting money into the checkbook/bank | Post, then Bank Deposit Entry | Posts to the bank account in one flow |
| Partial payments | Apply a specific amount | Amount to Apply per entry |
| Unapplied payment risk | Real — applying is its own step | Low — applying is built into every lane |
Why BC Comes Out Ahead
GP’s cash receipts process is dependable, and Auto Apply plus the three apply methods give a trained clerk real control. But it’s one lane, with applying as a separate step, and a deposit stop after posting — three places where a busy day leaves loose ends.
Business Central matches the tool to the situation. One check? Cash Receipt Journal. A stack of mail? Payment Registration’s checklist. A bank feed full of deposits? The Payment Reconciliation Journal applies and reconciles in one pass. The system generates the lists and proposes the matches, and your team’s judgment goes where it’s actually needed — the exceptions, not the retyping. It’s the same shift we saw with Suggest Vendor Payments in Round 14, just pointed at money coming in instead of going out.
Thinking About the Switch?
Aisling Dynamics helps GP teams keep receipts applied and deposits tidy, and helps companies move to Business Central when getting paid should take one pass, not three. If unapplied payments keep showing up on your aging report, meet our team, browse the GP vs. BC hub, or contact us at (251) 293-0555.
Come back tomorrow for Round 23: item setup — GP’s Item Maintenance windows vs. BC’s Item Card with templates.