Key constraints to be aware of, plus recommended ways of working with SwiftFox Finance.
Limitations & notes
- Enablement — Finance must be enabled by SwiftFox; contact your account manager or SwiftFox Support. Once enabled, users with Manage financial plans configure plans, categories and fees themselves — see Subscription plans — categories & fees (Document ID: 392).
- Money flow — SwiftFox does not take or hold money; your payment gateway moves the funds. Placeholder methods — Cash and Cheque payment methods — record information only and trigger no automated payment. A Cash method can be given any display name, so your account may show placeholders such as BPay or Bank transfer; these are configured, not built in. See Payment methods (payment providers & gateways) (Document ID: 417) for the payment types.
- Backdating — start dates before today must be typed, not chosen via the calendar.
- Refunds — auto-refund works only for supported gateway payments; otherwise the receipt is marked refunded and you return funds manually.
- Receipt editing — any receipt, including one generated by a gateway payment, can have its receipt number, effective date and description edited; the gateway's transaction reference cannot be changed. See Receipts & manual payments (Document ID: 359).
- Voiding — Write Off & Void (and Write Off as Paid) are offered only on an invoice with no payments; once any payment exists, use Write Off Remaining Balance instead.
- Adjustments — can't be edited after creation; reverse with a new adjustment.
- Direct debit — a Pending status is normal for about 2–3 business days; longer than that, contact Support. Where your gateway supports it, the collection request is sent as soon as a direct debit form is submitted, so that Pending period starts from the submission rather than from a later batch run. See Payment methods (payment providers & gateways) (Document ID: 417).
- Schedules — rolling generation shows only a limited number of future items; use Extend schedule for longer payment plans.
- Reallocation locks — pre-migration (Version 1) subscription receipts cannot be unallocated, reallocated or have their owner changed; receipts created after go-live can.
- Xero auto-send — depends on settings configured in Xero via the Xero Integration.
Best practice
- Invoice a subscription via Receipts → Make payment (Payment type = Subscription) so the invoice is linked to the subscription and carries the correct membership fee, rather than creating a standalone invoice.
- Pay the earliest invoice first. Because Paid To Date is derived from the first unpaid invoice, allocate (or reallocate) payments to the oldest unpaid invoice to keep members showing as financial.
- Verify pro rata by opening the first invoice from the Subscription view before confirming any manual payment.
- Set the Email invoices setting at the right level — set the global default under Settings → Finance & usage → Invoice settings, leave categories, plans, fees and subscriptions on Inherit for the common case, and override only the exceptions (e.g. suppress emails for payroll-deduction members).
- Enter next year's fees before any early-generation date. Early invoices use the fee valid for the period being generated; missing future fees produce wrong amounts. Add a recurring reminder a few weeks before your earliest generation date.
- Re-email after changes. The emailed PDF is a snapshot; re-send Email Invoice for an updated copy. The Pay Now link always reflects the live balance.
- Use adjustments with clear comments so every balance change is auditable; correct mistakes with reversing adjustments.
- Use Action Centres for reconciliation — filter, use Export (row per item) for line-level detail, and View summary for filtered totals.