Take a payment
Collect at the counter through POS checkout, record a payment on the order, split tenders, and hand over the receipt.
The job's done and someone's standing at the counter with a card — or calling in with a check number. Meridian gives you two front doors to the same money: the Point of Sale checkout for counter transactions, and Record Payment on the order for everything else.
Counter checkout needs Parts & Service or Enterprise
Recording a payment on an order works on every edition. It is the counter sale side — POS checkout and cash drawers — that belongs to the parts pack, so on a Shop or Mobile edition those are refused. See your edition and what's included.
At the counter — POS checkout
Open the checkout. From the order, click Take Payment at the top (on a phone it's the payment bar pinned to the bottom). Or go to Sales → Point of Sale, search the order number or customer, and click the order. Either way you land on the tender pad with the balance loaded.
Set the amount and method. The Amount defaults to the full remaining balance — leave it, or type less for a partial payment. Pick the Method: Cash, Check, ACH, Account credit, Credit card, Debit card, or Card (cash price + surcharge) if your shop passes the card fee through (the surcharge preview shows exactly what the customer pays).
Take cash or check. Click Add Cash (or Add Check). Hand the customer money? Type what they gave you — Meridian caps the applied amount at the balance and shows Change due for the rest. Cash needs an open drawer if your shop uses cash management; the screen will tell you.
Take a card. Click Enter card, and a secure card form appears — enter the card and confirm. The card is processed on the spot; the card number never touches your shop's systems.
Split it if needed. Every tender you add appears in the list and shrinks Remaining. $200 cash plus the rest on a card is just two tenders in a row. A mistaken tender can be voided with the ✕ next to it (before the order is invoiced).
Close & Invoice. When Remaining hits zero, click Close & Invoice. Meridian finalizes the order as an invoice and returns you to it. Click View / print receipt (PDF) for the customer's copy.
From the order — Record Payment
Use the Payments card. On the order detail, click Record Payment. This is the right tool for a mailed check, an ACH that landed, or applying account credit — money you're logging rather than processing.
Fill the dialog. Amount (defaults to the balance), Method (Cash, Check, Credit Card, Debit Card, ACH / Bank Transfer, Account Credit, Financed, Other), the Check # or Auth / Reference # when it applies, an optional note — then Save Payment. The balance updates and the payment joins the table; at zero the card shows PAID IN FULL.
You can't record more than the balance here — Meridian refuses it rather than quietly booking the excess. Taking cash and giving change is different, and still works: only the amount actually applied counts.
Customer can't pay right now? Click Send pay link in the checkout rail and choose Text, Email, or Both. The customer gets a secure link and pays by card from their phone; the payment records itself against the order when they do. See Email and text documents.
What happens behind the scenes
Every tender — cash, check, or card — posts to your books the moment it's recorded: your cash (or card receivable) goes up and the customer's balance goes down, so Accounting → AR Aging is always current. Card payments settle to your shop's own merchant account, and the Reference column fills itself in from the card — brand, last four and the approval code — so the row is identifiable without you typing anything. The receipt is timestamped from the moment the card was actually authorized. If a surcharge applies, it's tracked as its own revenue line, never mixed into what the customer owed — and the disclosure wording your shop configured is printed on both the receipt and the emailed invoice, which is what makes it a valid card receipt. Cash tenders tie to the open drawer session for end-of-shift reconciliation. Recording a payment never changes the order's status by itself — Close & Invoice (or Actions → Finalize as Invoice and Close Order on the order) handles that. Voiding a tender reverses its posting exactly.
Troubleshooting
Your shop uses cash management, and no drawer session is open at this location. Click Open a drawer in the message (or go to Sales → Cash drawers), open the till with its starting float, then take the cash.
The POS launcher only lists orders with a balance due — and never estimates, which can't take payment until converted. If it's an estimate, convert it first; if it shows zero balance, it's already paid.
Type the full amount they handed you. Meridian applies only the balance and shows Change due for the difference — give the change; the books stay exact.
Void it — the ✕ on the payment row (order detail) or next to the tender (checkout). The posting reverses cleanly, then record it on the right order. Card payments that already processed need a refund instead; flag your manager.
Related
On-the-fly parts — cost in, price out
Key the cost of a part you bought for the job and let the customer's pricing matrix set the sell price. No mental math, margin captured.
Add a customer on the fly
Quick-create a customer (and their vehicle) from inside the order form — without losing the write-up you've started.