Countertop Deposit Reconciliation Checklist

Reconcile a countertop deposit by tracing the payment receipt to the correct customer and job, then checking how much has been applied to an invoice. Compare the project record with the underlying payment reference and bank or processor evidence. Investigate differences before changing records or sending a balance reminder. Money received, money deposited at the bank, and money applied to an invoice are related but different amounts.

A customer says they paid the deposit last week. The invoice still shows the full balance. The payment may be missing, waiting to be applied, attached to another job, or recorded twice. Asking the customer to pay again before checking can create a second problem.

Review the Job and the Payment Separately

Start with the approved order and any changes. Confirm the customer, project number, expected deposit under the agreed terms, and invoices issued. A customer can have several active jobs, especially when the account belongs to a builder.

Next, locate the receipt using its payment method, date, amount, and reference. Do not match on customer name alone. A payment from a shared business account may relate to a different property.

Keep the operational reconciliation separate from decisions about revenue recognition, refunds, tax, or contract obligations. Have your bookkeeper apply the shop’s approved accounting policies. This article provides a review workflow, not accounting or legal advice.

Original Deposit Review Checklist

Use this checklist before issuing a balance reminder or closing a job’s payment review:

• Confirm the customer, project, and approved order revision.

• Identify the deposit requirement and the document that established it.

• Find each receipt with date, method, amount, and payment reference.

• Confirm which job each receipt belongs to using supporting evidence.

• Check whether the money is received, pending, reversed, refunded, or disputed.

• Compare invoice applications with the actual receipts.

• Identify available unapplied funds and the reason they remain unapplied.

• Check credits and refunds separately so they do not conceal another error.

• Compare the payment record with the relevant bank or processor evidence.

• Record every difference, its owner, next action, and resolution reference.

• Recalculate the invoice balance after authorized corrections.

• Save the reviewer and review date before communicating the result.

A difference is not automatically a missing payment. Record the reason first. Settlement timing, fees, or several payments grouped into one bank deposit may explain why the bank line differs from a customer receipt.

Keep These Amounts Distinct

The order total states the approved commercial scope. The invoiced amount states what you have billed so far. The payment total states what has been received, subject to its current status. The applied amount states what has been allocated to particular invoices.

An open order balance is therefore not the same as unpaid receivables. If only part of a job has been invoiced, the remaining order value may include work that has not yet been billed. Avoid presenting it as an overdue invoice.

Similarly, a bank settlement can combine several customer payments or deduct processing fees. Reconcile the underlying transactions according to your bookkeeping process rather than change a customer’s receipt to force agreement with one bank line.

Original Example: A Deposit Is Only Partly Applied

This hypothetical example uses US dollars and excludes tax, fees, credits, refunds, and reversals.

A kitchen order totals $8,000. The customer pays a $3,000 deposit, with a receipt correctly linked to the kitchen. The office issues a $5,000 invoice, but only $2,500 of the deposit has been applied to it.

At that moment, the invoice shows $2,500 unpaid, and $500 remains unapplied. After the authorized reviewer applies the remaining $500 to that invoice, the invoice balance becomes $2,000. The remaining uninvoiced order value is still $3,000.

The customer has not paid twice, and no new money arrived during the correction. The office changed the application of an existing receipt. Keeping those movements separate explains why the balance changed and prevents treating the $3,000 uninvoiced amount as overdue.

Investigate Common Exceptions

For a payment on the wrong job, establish the intended project from reliable evidence before asking the authorized employee to correct it. Preserve the reference and correction history. Do not move money between a builder’s properties because one happens to have an open balance.

For a suspected duplicate, compare payment references and external transaction records. Two similar entries may be separate installments. One receipt may also appear in several views without representing multiple payments.

For a canceled job, retain the original receipt and follow the approved cancellation, credit, and refund process. A note saying “refund due” is not evidence that the refund occurred. Keep the exception assigned until the responsible reviewer checks the actual outcome.

Set a regular review rhythm appropriate to your volume. Prioritize cases before balance reminders and final billing, and review older unapplied receipts that no longer have a clear next action.

Use Connected Job Finances in Stonify

Stonify’s finance and job-costing tools show order, invoiced, and paid-and-applied amounts on the project. The public product page describes deposit requests, available deposits and payments that can be applied when creating an invoice, and remaining unapplied funds.

It also describes payment references, bank deposits that group received payments, and bank and credit card reconciliation. These capabilities help the office trace a payment across the job and financial records. They do not remove the need to investigate an incorrect assignment.

Choose Stonify when the recurring problem is the connection between the job, its approved value, invoices, and payments. A spreadsheet can hold a deposit amount, but your office still needs to establish which receipt reduced which invoice. For broader context, see the contracts, deposits, and payments guide.

Follow One Deposit Through the Job

Book a Stonify demo with a sample job that has a deposit and partial invoice. Ask to trace the receipt, invoice application, unapplied balance, and project totals so your office can evaluate its reconciliation workflow.