Trade financials

Settle a trade’s invoices, record payments, net AR against AP, and plan its costs.

The Financials tab on a trade holds the money for one deal: its invoices, the payments against them, and its AR (money owed to you) and AP (money you owe). Use it to settle invoices and follow the margin as they arrive.

Needs the Trade financials module (on by default) and Financials access in your role. The cost and income plan also needs the Cost & income plan module. Ask your workspace admin.

Invoices appear here once they’re approved in the Inbox and matched to the trade.

Read the summary

The Invoice Summary shows AR, AP and Net (AR − AP) in your reporting currency, each split into Received (cash so far), Outstanding (left after payments, adjustments and linked earlier invoices) and Total (everything invoiced).

On the sugar trade VCS-S-2026-0714 before any payment, AR outstanding is $15,255.00 (the sale to Meridian Foodstuffs), AP outstanding is $14,256.00 (Kanchana Siam Sugar’s invoice), and Net is +$999.00.

A line underneath lists what isn’t counted yet: invoices still processing, invoices whose type you need to pick, and invoices with no exchange rate.

Received converts each payment at the rate captured when it was recorded. Outstanding converts at the trade’s FX override, otherwise today’s ECB (European Central Bank) rate. The rates used are listed under the summary.

Invoice statuses

Invoices lists every invoice on the trade, with its type, category, due date, amounts and status. The colored edge shows its side, AR or AP.

Status	Meaning
Processing	Still being read.
Awaiting review / Rejected	Not yet approved, or rejected, in the Inbox.
Unpaid / Partial	Nothing or part settled, not past due.
Overdue	An unpaid amount is past due. With a payment schedule, only installments already due count.
Paid	Fully settled (within one cent), including when overpaid.
Closed	Closed by your team. Hover for the reason.
Superseded	Replaced by a later invoice it’s linked to.

Work an invoice

Click a row to open the invoice panel. Set the Type (each option says what it will do to AR/AP; a credit note counts negative), the Direction (AR or AP, if Mercora got it wrong) and the Category, and correct any other field in place. An invoice with no direction shows as Unclassified and isn’t counted.

Record payments and adjustments

1. Open Add a line.
2. Choose Payment, or an adjustment such as Bank charge, FX difference, Withholding tax or Deduction.
3. Enter the amount and date, or click Remaining to fill in the open balance. A negative payment is a refund.
4. If the invoice and trade currencies differ, check the FX rate. Mercora suggests today’s ECB rate; type your bank’s rate to override it.
5. Click Add payment (or the adjustment’s add button).

Only payments count as cash. Adjustments reduce what’s outstanding and can close an invoice, but never count as money received or paid.

Link an earlier invoice

When a final invoice replaces a proforma, open the final, click Link earlier invoice under Linked invoices, and pick the proforma. The proforma becomes Superseded and drops out of the totals, and its payments carry over to the final as Applied. Both must be on the same side, in the same currency and, if both have one, the same category.

Payment schedules

For an invoice paid in installments, such as 80% against documents and 20% after outturn, click Add payment schedule and enter each installment’s due date and amount. They must add up to the invoice amount. If the payment terms describe the split, Mercora offers it: click Apply split to use it.

Settled amounts go to the oldest installment first, and only the unpaid part of installments already past due counts as overdue.

Close or delete an invoice

Click Close invoice to lock it. If a balance remains, give a reason, such as Write-off (bad debt). A closed invoice counts at what actually settled it, so a written-off remainder never becomes revenue or cost. Reopen unlocks it; messages that ask you to “unbook” an invoice mean the same.

Delete removes the invoice from the trade and all reports. Reopen it and undo any netting first.

Net AR against AP

Netting offsets what a counterparty owes you against what you owe them, so only the difference changes hands.

1. Tick at least one receivable and one payable in the same currency.
2. Click Collect → and check the preview.
3. Enter a Reference and click Collect.

Each invoice gets a payment marked Netting, and the group shows together in the table. Undo on the group removes those payments.

Cost & income plan

Mid-flight, a trade can look like a loss: freight and inspection are billed long before the sale. A plan lists the costs and income you expect, so you see a provisional margin from day one. Nothing is planned for you; a trade with no plan uses its contracts and invoices.

1. Click Suggest from contract to add the cargo sale as income and the cargo purchase as a cost, or Plan a cost or income to add a line yourself.
2. As invoices arrive, link them in each line’s Actual cell. Matching invoices are suggested first, but nothing is linked until you click.

Line status	Meaning	Value used
Planned	No amount yet.	Nothing
Booked	Planned amount, no invoices linked.	Planned amount
Partial	Invoices linked, up to 1% over plan.	The larger of planned and invoiced
Over plan	More than 1% over plan.	Invoiced total
Closed	Settled.	Invoiced total

A line closes by itself when its invoices land within 1% of plan in the same currency. To accept a bigger variance, use Close line — accept variance.

Provisional at the bottom is planned income minus planned costs. It stays blank until the plan has both sides. While it does and at least one line is open, it’s the deal’s margin on the P&L. Once every line is closed, or the trade is complete, the invoices take over.

Next steps

• P&L: see each deal’s margin across the book.
• Overdue payments: chase what’s late, oldest first.