Understanding Payment Allocations

When people are paying together in an invitation group or paying on payment plans, the payment made is "allocated" across the people in the group. This article explains how they are allocated to people and installments.

💫 The Magic of Installments on YouLi Invoices

YouLi automatically generates invoices for people, and these can be for multiple people (in an invitation group). MOST of the time, YouLi correctly prompts for the next installment even when people in the invitation group owe different amounts and have paid different amounts.

When TRAVELERS are making payments without manual intervention, everything is super smooth.

However, we give Planners power to make manual changes from Manage Payments at any time to record payments, to change allocations, and change who is in the invitation groups - and with great power comes great responsibility. 

Keep reading to learn more about your options as a Planner and the best way to make exceptions and recover from any mis-allocations.

Smart Manual Payments

When recording a manual payment, you can choose how that payment is "split" or allocated across the invitation group:

• Split across the invitation group installments dynamically

  • Chose this if you want the payment to be allocated across all the members of the group. 
  • If the payment matches the next due amount, then everyone will end up with their next installment showing as "Paid in Full"
  • Otherwise, YouLi will dynamically allocate the partial amount across installments for the group

• Apply only to this person across installments dynamically

  • Chose this option if you have received a payment that is just for one person or because you are correcting a previous misallocation
  • If the payment matches the next due amount, then the person will end up with their next installment showing as "Paid in Full"
  • Otherwise, YouLi will dynamically allocate the partial amount across installments for that person
    
    

Prior to Mar 5, 2025, the amount would have been allocated to one installment even if that was an overallocation, now it will be applied dynamically across installments to achieve "Paid in Full" for as many installments as possible.

See an example

📐Skipped Installments

When a payment is allocated to the balance, the invoice will mark any unpaid installments as "Skipped" and payments by the Traveler can only be made to the balance.

This avoids the issue of past due installments confusing people who simply owe the remaining balance.

Learn more about Skipped Installments

✅ Completed Installments Will Stay Marked as "Paid in Full"

Once someone has paid the full amount (or overallocated) an installment, it will be marked as "Paid in Full". This means that even if the pre-pay total for this person increases or decreases, the amount of this installment will be locked into the amount that was paid. 

Prior to Jan 30, 2025, if someone had paid in full on their installments, but then their pre-pay total price changed, the installment would have been marked as "Part Paid", because the increase was spread across all installments, not just the unpaid ones. 

Now:

• Installments will be marked as "Completed" once they have been paid in full
• So that: Even if the price goes up later
• If the payments that made it "Completed" are removed, then the installment will revert to "Part Paid" or "Due in Full" based on its due date

🔀 Diverged & Overallocated Installments

Sometimes manual changes can result in Over-allocated Installments or Diverged Payment Schedules which can lead to odd installment amounts.

If you have run into any of these cases, read on to learn how we have made it easier to identify and resolve these problems.

⌛Allocation of Partial Payment Amounts

This applies when the amount being paid is not the "Next Amount Due".

This applies to user-entered charge amounts when

• Chip Away payment made
• Make a Charge made by Planner
• and Manual Payments recorded by Planner

Example:

If two people are paying together: 

• "Traveler A" owes $50 on the deposit
• "Traveler B" owes $100 on the deposit

Previously, when making a Manual Payment or a Chip Away payment of $50, since both Travelers owe money on the Deposit:

• The $40 would have been split evenly across the installment for each
• And allocate $25 to "Traveler A" Deposit, and $25 to "Traveler B" Deposit 
• Resulting in: 
  • "Traveler A" now owing $25 on the deposit
  • "Traveler B" now owing $75 on the deposit

Now, when making a Manual Payment or a Chip Away payment of $50

• The $50 will be allocated to "Traveler A"
• Resulting in: 
  • "Traveler A" now owing $0 on the deposit
  • "Traveler B" still owing $100 on the deposit
    
    

Don't worry if this doesn't make complete sense, either way, the payment is applied to the whole group, and as long as they pay in full, don't change prices and and stay in the group, this change doesn't matter. 

This will help avoid diverged payment schedules by eventually getting the people back onto the same payment schedule (once enough payments are made).

👀 Advanced Payments Workshop

Watch this conversation on the advanced ways that payments can be managed and fixed from January 2025.

Here's an example of how "smart allocation" works:

• On a trip with a $500 deposit and an Installment of $1000
• Mary is added to a $3000 package and pays a $500 deposit
  • Her next amount due is $1,000
    
    
  • Then Yuval is added to her group with a price of $2000

• • So they now have a diverged payment schedule because Yuval owes the Deposit and the next amount due is $500 (if it is before June 2025)

Now consider these potential next steps which the Planner can take:

• If the Planner applies a manual payment of $500,
  • It will be allocated to Yuval's deposit.
  • Then the next amount owing will be $2000 ($1000 for Mary and $1000 for Yuval)
• If the Planner applies a manual payment of $1000,
  • Then $500 will be allocated to Yuval's deposit, and the remaining $500 will be allocated to Mary's next installment, leaving it "Part Paid".
  • So the next amount owing will be $1500 ($500 for Mary and $1000 for Yuval)
• If the Planner applies a manual payment of $2000,
  • Then $500 will be allocated to Yuval's deposit,
  • and $1000 will be allocated to Mary's next installment, making it  "Paid in Full",
  • So the remaining $500 will be allocated to Yuval's next installment, leaving it "Part Paid".
  • So the next amount owing will be $500 ($500 for Yuval on the Installment)
• If the Planner applies a manual payment of $2500,
  • Then $500 will be allocated to Yuval's deposit,
  • and $1000 will be allocated to Mary's next installment, making it  "Paid in Full",
  • and the remaining $1000 will be allocated to Yuval's next installment, maiking it "Paid in Full".
  • So the next amount owing will be the balance since everyone is paid in full on all the installments.

Remember that you can change allocations and return allocations if you need to correct something that the "smart allocation" has done wrong.

#9705

 

FAQ

Q: If someone is removed from the invitation group, does their allocation leave with them? 

A: Not automatically, we recommend you use the Return Allocation feature. This is how you could end up with an Overallocation, so be aware and check the Invoice after using the feature.