How do I keep track of who hasn't paid me?

Anyone who sells in person or over chat eventually lets something go without being paid on the spot. A regular who will come by tomorrow, a delivery settled halfway, a big order paid in two instalments. It is not a problem while it is three names: it becomes one when it is thirty, and the answer to «who owes me money?» is scattered across a notebook, a conversation and your memory.

What is worth writing down, at a minimum

Writing «Mark 200» is not enough, and you only find that out later. Four things are needed, and they are always the same:

• who, with a way to reach them again — a number, not just a first name;
• how much, and for which purchase: a total with no document behind it is a figure neither of you can check;
• since when, because a week-old debt and a three-month-old debt are not handled the same way;
• what has already been paid, when the money comes in instalments.

Without the last point the worst thing happens: asking for money again from someone who has already paid. You get the amount, you lose the customer.

Why the notebook stops working

The notebook is not wrong, it is slow in the wrong place. Writing costs little; the real cost is reading back. To find out who is behind you have to scroll through pages of lines in date order, when what you need is the list in order of person.

The spreadsheet solves the reading back and opens another problem: it lives on a computer that is not at the counter, so it gets updated in the evening — which means sometimes it does not get updated.

The right question is not «how do I write it down», but «how do I get to see it without going looking for it».

The reminder almost nobody sends

A debt only reminds itself to the person who is out of pocket. Whoever has to pay has often simply forgotten — and the more time passes, the more awkward asking becomes for both of you. A short message after a few days is easier to send and easier to receive than a phone call after two months.

That is also the practical reason for keeping the tally in an app that lives in your phone: the phone is already in your hand, and sending the message is the next gesture, not another work session.

How Yataio handles it

In Yataio there is no separate debt register: the tally comes out of the documents. You issue a receipt, you mark whether it was paid, and the customer's record shows by itself how much is left to collect. Whoever is behind is highlighted as soon as you open the app, with the amount due, and from their record the message or the call starts without copying the number from anywhere.

When a payment arrives outside the app — cash at the counter, a bank transfer — you mark it by hand and the tally closes. It is a feature of the free version, with no limit on how many customers or documents you have.

If you want to see how it works in detail, the screens are explained in the guide. If you would rather have the whole picture, there is how it works.