Trade financials

The Financials tab on a trade is where the money for one deal lives: every invoice issued or received, what has been paid against each, and the trade’s overall AR and AP. AR (accounts receivable) is money owed to you. AP (accounts payable) is money you owe. This page helps you settle a trade’s invoices and read its margin as they come in. Before you start: invoices reach this tab once they’re approved in the Inbox and matched to the trade. See Reviewing documents in the Inbox.

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Invoice Summary

The summary at the top is a small ledger of the trade, converted into your workspace’s reporting currency: Outstanding is what’s left after payments, adjustments and linked earlier invoices are taken off each invoice. A closed or superseded invoice has nothing outstanding. For example, on the sugar trade VCS-S-2026-0714 before any payment is recorded, the summary reads $29,511.00 outstanding: Under the ledger, Contract value shows the trade’s total value in the trade currency, here $15,255.00 (the sale value). The line under the ledger tells you what isn’t counted yet:

• invoices still processing;
• invoices not in the totals · pick its type: Mercora couldn’t tell whether the document is a credit note or a charge, so it waits for you to choose (see Invoice type);
• invoices skipped, no FX rate, when an amount couldn’t be converted.

If exchange rates can’t be loaded at all, the summary says so and the table shows each invoice in its own currency instead of a misleading total. See Currencies and exchange rates for how amounts are converted.

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The invoice table

Invoices lists every invoice on the trade. The colored edge on each row shows which side it counts on: sales (AR) or purchases (AP). Statuses: Click a row to open the invoice panel.

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Work an invoice

The invoice panel has everything you need to settle one invoice.

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Type, direction and category

• Type: pick Proforma, Commercial, Provisional, Final or Credit note. Each option tells you what it will do to AR/AP before you save, for example “Moves to AP · you owe Kanchana Siam Sugar Co., Ltd.”. A credit note counts negative against the side it reverses.
• Direction: the AR/AP toggle. Mercora sets it from the document. If it’s wrong, pin AR or AP yourself, or reset it to automatic. An invoice with no direction shows as Unclassified and isn’t counted on either side.
• Category: change it from your workspace’s list.

You can also correct the invoice number, counterparty, currency, amount, issue date and due date in place.

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Record payments and adjustments

Payments and adjustments are listed together, in date order, under Settlement. To add one:

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Link an earlier invoice

When a later invoice replaces an earlier one, for example a final invoice after a proforma, link them so the amounts aren’t counted twice.

1. Open the later invoice.
2. Under Linked invoices, click Link earlier invoice.
3. Pick the earlier invoice and click Link.

The earlier invoice becomes Superseded and drops out of the open view and the invoiced totals. Whatever was paid against it is carried onto the later invoice as Applied, so the later invoice shows only the remainder as open, or Overpaid by if the earlier payments exceed it. There’s no amount to type: the applied figure follows the earlier invoice’s payments as they change. You can only link an invoice on the same side, in the same currency and, when both have one, the same category. An earlier invoice can be linked to one later invoice only.

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Payment schedules

Some invoices are paid in installments, for example 80% against shipping documents and 20% after final outturn. Click Add payment schedule to split the invoice into installments, each with its own due date and amount.

• If the invoice’s payment terms describe a split whose percentages add up to 100, Mercora offers it. Click Apply split to use it. It’s never applied for you.
• The installments must add up to the invoice amount before you can save.
• Settled amounts are allocated to installments oldest due date first. Only the unpaid part of installments already past due counts as overdue.
• On an invoice that’s already part-settled, the schedule starts with a Settled to date row so you only schedule what’s still open.

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Close an invoice

Click Close invoice when an invoice is done. Closing locks it against edits.

• If nothing is outstanding, confirm and it’s closed.
• If a balance remains, give a reason. Quick picks are Superseded by final invoice, Write-off (bad debt) and Returned payment, or type your own. If a later invoice replaced this one, link them instead (see above) so the amounts stay connected.

Reopen unlocks a closed invoice. Some messages call a closed invoice “booked” and ask you to unbook it first. That means reopen it. A closed invoice counts at what actually settled it (cash, adjustments and linked invoices), not at its face. The written-off remainder never becomes revenue or cost. Delete removes the invoice from the trade, the Documents tab and all reports. Reopen a closed invoice, and undo any netting it’s part of, before you delete it.

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Net AR against AP

Netting offsets what a counterparty owes you against what you owe them, so only the difference changes hands. For example, a credit note you issued a supplier against their cargo invoice. The smaller side is fully used up, and the larger side absorbs the offset as a payment. Each invoice the offset reaches gets a payment row marked Netting, and the netted group is shown together in the table with its net to receive or pay. Collect records the payments straight away. Undo on the group removes the netting payments from every invoice in it and their balances return to where they were. While an invoice is part of a netting, its amount and currency can’t be changed.

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Cost & income plan

Mid-flight, a trade’s invoices can make it look like it’s losing money: inspection and freight get billed long before the sale invoice. The cost and income plan fixes that. You list the costs and income you expect, and the plan gives you a provisional margin from day one. As invoices arrive, they replace the planned amounts. Nothing is planned for you. A trade with no plan keeps its usual contracted and invoiced P&L, and the section reads “nothing planned — this trade’s P&L runs on contracts and invoices”. For example, the sugar trade’s gross margin is USD 999 before freight and insurance. Planning the freight and insurance as costs gives you the margin you actually expect to keep, before those invoices arrive.

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Build the plan

• Click Suggest from contract to add the cargo lines at the contract values: the cargo sale as income, the cargo purchase as a cost. Categories that are already planned are skipped.
• Click Plan a cost or income (or Add line) to add a line yourself. Pick a category, choose Cost — we pay or Income — we charge, and enter the counterparty, planned amount and currency.

Lines are grouped under Income and Costs. Edit any cell in place.

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Settle lines against invoices

Each line’s Actual comes only from invoices you link to it. In the Actual cell, pick the invoices that settle the line. Invoices whose category and direction match the line are recommended at the top, closest to the planned amount first, but nothing is linked until you click. An invoice can settle one line only. A credit note linked to a line reduces it. Invoices you don’t link don’t touch the plan.

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Line statuses

A line closes by itself when its linked invoices land within 1% of the planned amount, and reopens by itself if a later link change takes it out of that range. A line isn’t closed automatically when any linked invoice is in a different currency from the line’s planned amount. To accept a variance, use Close line — accept variance from the line’s menu. A line you closed yourself stays closed until you choose Reopen line.

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Provisional

Provisional at the bottom is planned income minus planned costs, each line at the value in the table above, in your reporting currency. Next to it you’ll see how many lines are unbilled or not booked yet, and whether any couldn’t be converted. Provisional shows nothing until the plan has both an income and a cost side, so a plan with only costs never reads as a large loss. When every line is closed, it says all settled — final.

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How the plan feeds the P&L

While a trade has a plan with both sides and at least one line still open, the plan is the deal’s margin on the P&L, with its basis shown as Cost plan. Once every line is closed, or the trade is marked complete, the plan steps aside and the invoices stand on their own.

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Currencies and exchange rates

Every converted figure on this tab says which rate it used.

• Rows show each invoice and payment in its own currency.
• Received in the Invoice Summary converts each payment at the rate captured on it when it was recorded (into the trade currency), then into your reporting currency.
• Outstanding, and the plan’s figures, convert at the trade’s FX override for that currency if there is one, otherwise at the live ECB rate. There’s no payment yet, so there’s no captured rate.
• Total is Received plus Outstanding.

The rates applied are listed under the summary. The reporting currency is set by your admin. See Workspace settings. For how the P&L page converts invoices, see P&L.

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Next steps