Record a Client Advance

Sometimes a client pays you before you raise the invoice — a deposit, a 50% upfront, or a full prepayment for a service project. Kuvi lets you record that money the moment it lands, and set it against the invoice later.

Why advances are handled separately

An advance is money you have received but not yet earned. In accounting terms it's a liability, not income. So Kuvi deliberately keeps it out of your revenue and profit until you apply it to an invoice. Until then it shows only as cash you're holding for that client. This keeps your P&L honest and stops the same money being counted twice.

Record an advance

1. Go to Accounting and find the Client advances section.
2. Click Record advance.
3. Choose the client (and optionally the specific project it's for).
4. Enter the amount, currency, and the date received. For a foreign currency, Kuvi auto-fills a live reference exchange rate — edit it if you have a booked rate.
5. Optionally add the method (Bank / UPI / Cheque) and a reference.
6. Save. The advance now appears under the client, marked Unapplied, and the amount is shown in Held (unapplied) at the top of the section.

Apply an advance to an invoice

When you've done the work and raised the invoice:

1. In Client advances, find the advance and click Apply.
2. Pick the invoice to settle — Kuvi lists that client's sent or overdue invoices with their balance due.
3. Enter how much to apply. It defaults to the smaller of the advance's remaining balance and the invoice's balance due.
4. Apply. If it covers the whole invoice, the invoice is marked Paid. If it covers part (like a 50% deposit), the invoice shows a Balance due for the rest.

You can apply one advance across several invoices, or several advances to one invoice — Kuvi tracks each application.

Undo, refund, or delete

• Unapply — made a mistake? Under the advance, each application has an Unapply action that returns the money to the advance and restores the invoice's balance (reopening it if it had been marked paid).
• Refund — if a deal falls through, refund the advance's unapplied balance back to the client.
• Delete — you can delete an advance only while none of it has been applied.

What shows in reports

• Held (unapplied) — advance cash you're holding, shown separately and never counted as revenue.
• Once applied, the amount settles the invoice, so it flows into your collected figure through that invoice — no double counting.
• Your billed revenue and P&L only ever move when you raise an invoice.