Record a payment on a penalty notice
This article shows you how to record a payment against a Strafmandat (penalty notice) so its outstanding balance and payment status stay accurate. Recording payments requires the strafmandate:view permission, which typically applies to the FleetManager and SystemAdmin roles.
Before you start
Payments are always booked in EUR. The amount you are settling against is the fine amount stored on the notice's core detail (the Betrag/amount captured at intake). You can record several partial payments over time — the system keeps a running total and recomputes the status after each one.
Record a payment
Open the notice you want to settle from the Strafmandate list, then use the payment action on its financial area and complete the following fields.
- Amount — the value paid, in EUR. Must be greater than zero.
- Paid at — the date the payment was made (the Zahlungsdatum). This is stored separately from the moment you record it.
- Payment method — how it was paid (for example bank transfer or card). This field is required.
- Reference — the payment reference or booking number (Verwendungszweck). This field is required.
- Cost center code (optional) — the Kostenstelle (cost center) this payment belongs to. See the note below on how this is resolved.
When you save, the system creates a payment record, recalculates the total paid, and returns the new payment status together with the running total.
Note: If you leave the cost center code empty, the system falls back to the tenant's configured default Kostenstelle for penalty-notice payments (the FinancialCostCenterOption flagged as default). If neither a code nor a default is available, no cost allocation is written on the payment and you can still add one later from the cost-allocation screen.
How the payment status is calculated
After each payment, the notice's status is derived by comparing the total paid to the required fine amount.
| Status | When it applies |
|---|---|
| unpaid | Nothing has been paid (total is zero or less). |
| partially_paid | Some money has been paid, but less than the required amount. |
| paid | The total paid equals the required amount (or the notice has no required amount and a payment exists). |
| overpaid | More than the required amount has been paid. |
Warning: The "overpaid" status means more was booked than the fine required — it is not a refund. There is no refund transaction in the payment model, so an overpayment is surfaced as its own status rather than being returned automatically. Correct any over-booking by reviewing the individual payment entries.
What gets audited
Recording a payment is treated as a critical financial mutation. The system writes an audit entry capturing the amount, the paid-at date, the payment method, and the reference, along with who made the change. You can review these entries later in the notice's financial history.
Related
- Allocate a penalty notice to a cost center or driver
- Review a penalty notice's financial summary and history
- Dashboard overview and KPI widgets
