Tutorial 4 — Sell on credit and track debts

Time: about 10 minutes. You will sell on credit, watch NairaFlow create the debt for you, and take a payment against it.

Selling on credit is normal in Nigerian business. What is not normal is losing track of who owes you. That is what this tutorial is for.

The one thing to understand first

NairaFlow creates debts for you. You never create one by hand.

A debt appears when — and only when — you record something on credit:

Both are called debts. A receivable is money coming to you; a payable is money going out. The difference is which side of the business it sits on.

Part 1 — Sell on credit

It is the same as recording any other sale, with one change: the payment method is Credit.

Go to Sales → Record sale:

What happens automatically

A receivable is created for ₦1,200,000, linked to Chidi, and it appears in your Debts screen as Open.

Three details worth knowing:

1. The customer must be identifiable. If you are selling on credit, you need at least a name. Link a contact if you have one — otherwise type the name. NairaFlow records the name either way, but a contact gives you a running balance and a history.
2. The debt is the net amount. If you gave a discount, the receivable is the amount after the discount — because that is what they actually owe you.
3. A credit sale does not add to your money-in. The cash has not arrived. It is money you are owed, and it shows up in your receivables, not in your cash book. It lands in your cash book the moment the customer pays — see Part 3.

If they paid a deposit

If the customer paid something now and owes the rest, record the amount you received when you save the sale. The debt will be created already part-paid, and the remaining balance is what is left.

Part 2 — See who owes you

Go to Debts.

The list

Each row shows:

The summary

Above the list:

A positive net position means more people owe you than you owe. A negative one means you are the one carrying the debt.

What the list does and does not show

The Debts screen shows what is still outstanding. Once a debt is settled in full it drops off the list — that is the screen's job, and it is why the screen stays short enough to be useful.

If you need the history of debts you have already settled, export the list to CSV, which includes closed debts as well. CSV export is on the Growth plan.

Part 3 — Take a payment

Open the debt and tap Record payment.

What happens automatically

1. The debt's paid amount goes up by ₦500,000.
2. Its balance comes down.
3. If that was the last of it, the status flips to Closed and it leaves the list.
4. A repayment appears in your cash book as money in. The money has arrived, so it belongs in the cash book — and now your reports include it.

A repayment is capped at what is outstanding. You cannot overpay a debt, and you cannot pay a debt that is already closed. If you have been given more than was owed, that difference is a different transaction, not part of this debt.

Partial payments are normal

You do not have to wait for the whole amount. Take ₦200,000 now and the rest in three weeks — the debt stays Open with a smaller balance, and each payment posts to the cash book on its own date.

Part 4 — Debts and invoices are two different things

This catches people out, so it is worth being clear.

A credit sale creates a debt. It does not create an invoice. If a customer needs a formal bill, issue them an invoice as well — see Issue a proper invoice →.

They are tracked separately, on purpose. A walk-in who buys on credit and pays in three weeks is a debt. A company you invoice monthly is an invoice. Keeping them apart means neither gets in the other's way.

Do not do both for the same sale unless you mean it — you will have the same money tracked in two places, and your receivables will look doubled.

Part 5 — What you owe suppliers

If you buy on credit, NairaFlow records a payable against that supplier, in the same way.

Go to Debts and filter to payables to see the other side: what your business owes.

The fuller version: supplier invoices

Retail and Food businesses also have Supplier Invoices — a formal record of a bill you received, with an invoice number from the supplier, an order reference, line items and a due date.

Use one when you have the supplier's actual paperwork and want it tracked properly. Use a credit purchase when you just need the stock and the amount.

A supplier invoice does not move your stock. If you need the stock up, record a purchase as well.

Owner only. Staff cannot see or create supplier invoices.

Locking and voiding

A supplier invoice can be locked — frozen so it cannot be edited — and then voided if it was wrong. Voiding keeps the record and marks it, rather than deleting it.

A supplier invoice with payments on it cannot simply be deleted. Lock it and void it, and the history stays intact.

Part 6 — Chasing what is owed

A practical routine, using what you already have:

Every week:

1. Open Debts. Sort by balance and look at the biggest ones.
2. For anything overdue, check the contact — the contact screen shows their full history, so you can see whether they have been good about paying before.
3. Message them on WhatsApp. NairaFlow's sales channel on each sale tells you where they came from, so you know which channel to reach them on.

At month end, as part of your close, work through every open debt. See Close the month →.

One habit worth building: record the sale on credit with the contact linked, not just a name. The debt is created either way, but only a linked contact gives you the balance and the history that tells you whether to chase this one first.

What you have now

You can sell on credit without losing track of it, and you can take payment against a debt and have it land in your books.

Next, the formal version — a numbered bill your business customer can pay.

→ Issue a proper invoice →

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