Use the customer payment date to explain when the invoice was settled in accounts receivable, and the bank deposit date to explain when cash became available. They are different events. A four-week forecast review should preserve both instead of replacing one with the other.
Intuit’s invoice-payment guidance requires a payment date when recording a receipt and explains that applying it reduces the customer’s outstanding balance. Intuit’s deposit-and-fee guidance separates processed payments, Undeposited Funds, later batch deposits, and fee withdrawals.
Two clocks answer two questions
The payment clock answers: when did evidence show that the customer paid this invoice? The deposit clock answers: when did the processor or bank make the cash visible in the operating account?
Those clocks can diverge because payments are batched, held, processed across non-banking days, or recorded manually before deposit. Treating the deposit date as the invoice collection date can make customer behavior appear slower than it was. Treating the payment date as available bank cash can make a liquidity view appear earlier than the settlement evidence supports.
Keep these fields in the review record:
- invoice number, original balance, and remaining balance;
- customer payment date, method, amount, and reference;
- deposit date, deposited amount, and batch reference;
- any processing fee or hold recorded separately.
Forecast and variance treatment
Before payment, place the supported remaining invoice balance in the expected collection week. When the payment is recorded and correctly applied, remove that amount from open expected collections and record the payment as observed invoice cash. If settlement has not yet appeared, keep a separate payment-in-transit line in the cash bridge rather than reopening the invoice without evidence.
When the deposit appears, move the amount from in-transit to observed bank cash. This bridge prevents double counting: the payment should not appear simultaneously as an open invoice, an expected receipt, and a deposited receipt.
The due-date versus expected-collection-date guide separates contract timing from forecast timing. The Undeposited Funds guide explains the accounting-to-bank boundary.
Review exceptions rather than forcing one date
Escalate a mismatch when the paid status has no traceable payment, the bank deposit cannot be matched to the recorded payment, the deposited amount differs without a documented fee or grouping, or a settled payment later reverses. Give each exception an owner and next evidence check.
When both records exist, use the payment-to-deposit linkage guide to confirm they represent one collection rather than duplicate cash.
For forecast evaluation, report both dates. Customer collection performance belongs to the supported payment event; bank-liquidity performance belongs to settlement. The forecast variance review provides a structure for comparing assumptions with later evidence. Finance teams can view the AR Pulse example to see how source-row traceability supports that separation.