What Is a Remittance Advice?

A remittance advice is a note a customer sends with or after a payment to tell you which invoices it covers. It usually lists the invoice numbers, the amount paid against each, any deductions, and the payment date and method. It can be a letter, an email, a PDF from the client's accounting system or the reference on a bank transfer.

It matters most when a client pays several invoices in one transfer, pays a different amount than you billed, or pays by bank transfer and the only clue in your bank feed is a company name. Without it, you have to guess which invoices to mark as paid.

The client sends the remittance advice. You send the invoice, and you may send a receipt to confirm the money arrived. If a client pays without one, ask for it, or ask them to use the invoice number as the payment reference next time.

In SolidInvoice, you can record a manual payment, such as a check or ACH transfer, against the right invoice once you know what it covers. Payments made through an invoice's pay link are recorded against that invoice.