Inn-Flow allows you to make partial payments on invoices that are still in the approval queue – meaning the invoice has been entered but has not yet received all required approvals. This is useful when you need to pay a portion of an invoice quickly (for example, to capture an early payment discount or maintain a vendor relationship) without waiting for the full approval process to complete.
When you create a partial payment, Inn-Flow splits the original invoice into two separate invoices: one for the partial payment amount and one for the remaining balance. Both invoices stay in the approval workflow and must go through the standard approval process. The partial payment invoice can be approved and paid immediately, while the remaining balance invoice stays in the queue until it is ready to be paid.
Prerequisites
You must have the Invoice Approvals permission enabled in Administration > Roles and Permissions.
Creating a Partial Payment from Invoice Approval
Navigate to Accounting > Accounts Payable > Invoice Approval.
Locate the invoice you want to partially pay.
Click the triple-dot menu next to the invoice.
Select Partial Payment from the dropdown menu.
In the dialog box that appears, enter the partial payment amount. This must be less than the total invoice amount.
The Confirm button turns green when a valid amount is entered. If the amount is invalid (zero, negative, or greater than the invoice total), the field highlights red and the Confirm button is inactive.
Click Confirm to process the partial payment.
What Happens After Confirming
After you confirm the partial payment, the approval page refreshes and you will see two invoices where the original one was:
Partial payment invoice – This invoice carries the amount you entered. Its invoice number includes a suffix like -P1 (and -P2, -P3 for subsequent partial payments on the same original invoice).
Remaining balance invoice – This invoice shows the original amount minus the partial payment. It retains the original invoice number.
Both invoices go through the standard approval workflow independently. Once approved, each can be paid separately on the Payment page.
Accounting Treatment
The partial payment does not create a new accounting entry at the time of the split. It simply divides the original invoice's line items proportionally across the two new invoices. The GL coding from the original invoice is preserved on both the partial and remaining balance invoices. The actual AP entries post when each invoice is approved and paid through the normal payment process.
IF PRO TIP: You can create multiple partial payments on the same invoice. Each split generates a new -P suffix (e.g., -P1, -P2). The remaining balance invoice always reflects the amount still owed after all partial payments.