Pending collection

The Pending collection screen answers a question every freelancer asks every month: who owes me money, and since when? It gathers in one place all your income invoices that are not yet fully paid, sorted and with their status, so you can see at a glance how much is outstanding, which invoices are already overdue, and which clients you need to chase.

This is not another ledger or a tax return: it is a cash-flow and collection tool. It draws on the same tax documents you manage in the Tax books (specifically, the issued invoices in the income book), but it looks at them from the collection angle: how much has already been collected, how much is left, when it was due, and what collection actions you have taken. Recording your invoices properly in the income book is all you need for this screen to fill itself in.

It is part of the Self-employed module: it is only available with Cuéntamo Más or during the module trial. If you do not have access, Cuéntamo sends you to the Self-employed screen.

What counts as "pending collection"

Every income invoice whose collected amount is lower than its tax amount appears here. That is, invoices you have issued or recorded that your client has not yet paid, or has paid only in part.

Each invoice's outstanding amount is the difference between its tax amount (the invoice total) and what has already been collected through the real transactions linked to that document. As soon as the linked payments match (or exceed) the invoice total, it stops being considered pending and drops off the list. That is why "marking an invoice paid" is not a magic button: it means linking the payment transaction that landed in your account (more on this below).

The link between an invoice and its payment works just like on any document in the book: an invoice can be collected in a single transaction or in several (partial payments or instalments). All of that is explained in detail in the Tax books.

The three summary cards

At the very top, three cards give you the overall picture in a second:

• Total pending: the sum of everything you are owed, counting only the unpaid part of each invoice. It is your receivables balance, in your currency.
• Overdue invoices: how many of the pending ones are already past their due date. Shown in red when there is at least one, so it stands out.
• Average days to payment: how long, on average, your clients take to pay you, computed over your history. It only appears when Cuéntamo has enough data, and on wide screens.

Filtering by status

Below the cards there is a row of buttons to narrow the list by collection status:

• All: every invoice with anything outstanding.
• Overdue: only the ones already past their due date without being fully collected. These are the urgent ones.
• Partial: invoices you have partly collected, but not in full.
• Unpaid: invoices you have not collected anything on yet.

The filter is a single toggle (they do not combine): tapping one recomputes the list and the summary cards for that set.

The invoice list

Each pending invoice is a card with three lines of information:

• Client and status. On the left, the client's name (with a small reliability dot in front of it, if that client has history); on the right, a status badge: Pending (blue), Partial payment (amber) or Overdue (red). When overdue, the badge adds the days late in parentheses.
• Invoice details. The invoice number (if any), the invoice date and the due date. If overdue, the due date is highlighted in red. If the invoice has no due date, it shows "No due date".
• Amounts and actions. On the left, the outstanding amount in bold and, if you have collected something already, how much in parentheses. On the right, the mark of your last follow-up (if any) and the action buttons.

The due date is what determines whether an invoice is overdue and by how many days. It is set in the document editor (in the income book, the due date is one of the identification fields). Without a due date, the invoice still counts as pending, but is never flagged as "overdue".

The buttons on each invoice

On each card, on the right, you have three actions:

• View in tax book (book icon) : takes you straight to that invoice inside the income book, in its year, with the editor open. Handy to see all the tax detail or to link the payment.
• Edit invoice (pencil icon) : opens the document editor in a side panel, without leaving this screen. It is the same editor as in the Tax books: its "Linked transactions" area is where you link the payment (you mark the invoice as collected by linking the incoming money transaction) or adjust the due date. On save, the list refreshes itself and the invoice disappears if it has become fully collected.
• Record follow-up: unfolds a small form below to log your collection actions (covered in the next section).

In short: to mark an invoice as collected, open the editor (via "Edit invoice" or "View in tax book") and link the payment transaction to it. A follow-up, on the other hand, collects nothing: it just records the reminders you send.

Recording a collection follow-up

Chasing a payment is usually a series of steps: a phone call, a reminder email, a promise to pay… The Record follow-up button opens a form beneath the invoice to log each one:

• Follow-up description: free text to note what you did (for example, "Called, they will pay next week" or "Sent second reminder by email"). It is required in order to save.
• Next follow-up: an optional date to remind yourself when to chase again.

On save, the note is added to that invoice's follow-up history, shown right below the form (one line per action). On the card, you will also see the last follow-up mark with its date, so you can tell at a glance when you last chased. That way each invoice carries its own collection log and you never forget who you have already reminded and who you have not.

Your clients and their reliability

At the bottom of the screen, a collapsible "Client reliability" block summarises each client's payment behaviour from your invoice history. For each one it shows:

• Paid: how many of the invoices you have issued them have been paid (for example "7 / 9").
• Overdue: how many of their invoices you currently have overdue and uncollected. Highlighted in red if there is any.
• Average days to payment: how long they take, on average, to pay you.

Next to each client (and also in front of their name in the invoice list) there is a coloured dot that captures their reliability at a glance:

• Green — good payer: pays the vast majority of their invoices, and pays soon.
• Yellow — irregular payer: pays, but less consistently.
• Red — late payer: piles up unpaid or overdue invoices, or pays little.
• Grey: not enough history with that client to rate them yet (more than one invoice is needed).

The traffic light is a guide: it helps you decide who to ask for a deposit, who to be more flexible with, or who to chase first. Clients come from your third-party directory, so the better you identify your clients on your invoices, the more reliable this summary is.

What all this is for

The point of this screen is to make sure no payment slips through the cracks. In practice it helps you:

• Know at any moment how much money you have to collect and how much of it is already overdue.
• Prioritise your chasing: overdue invoices first, and clients with the worst track record.
• Keep a log of every reminder so you neither repeat notices nor forget anyone.
• Tell your good payers from the problem ones at a glance, with data rather than memory.

This all feeds off your income invoices alone: if you record them properly in the Tax books (or issue them straight from the invoicing module) and link the payments as they come in, this panel is always a faithful mirror of your cash flow. And because Cuéntamo's tax module adapts to your regime and country, the concepts you see here —income invoice, amount, collection— work the same whatever your jurisdiction.