Overview

When you record a prepayment against a purchase order, Luminous checks whether the prepayment amount would exceed the total value of the linked PO. If it would, a warning dialog appears before saving. You can still record the prepayment — it is never blocked — but you must confirm the overpayment before it is saved.

What the warning shows

The confirmation dialog displays:

  • Purchase order total — the cost plus shipping cost on the linked PO
  • Already paid — what has already been recorded as paid against the PO
  • Remaining balance — purchase order total minus already paid
  • This prepayment — the amount you are trying to record
  • Over by — how much the prepayment exceeds the remaining balance

A prepayment that exactly settles the remaining balance (neither more nor less) does not trigger the warning.

When does the check run?

The check applies when:

  1. The prepayment is linked to at least one purchase order, and
  2. That purchase order has a cost entered (a PO with no cost entered yet is not treated as a ceiling — recording a prepayment before costs are filled in will not trigger the warning).

If a prepayment is recorded at the vendor level with no purchase order linked, there is no PO total to measure against and the warning does not appear.

What should I do?

If the overpayment is a data-entry mistake — for example, you typed 10,000 instead of 1,000 — click Cancel, correct the amount, and resubmit.

If the overpayment is intentional — for example, a deposit structure where you are paying more than the current PO total — click Record anyway. The prepayment will be saved with the exact amount you entered.

Does this affect API integrations?

No. The warning is a screen-level affordance for the manual entry dialogs. Prepayments recorded through the External API are not subject to this check and continue to be recorded exactly as submitted.

Multiple linked purchase orders

If a prepayment is linked to more than one purchase order, the check sums the total value and already-paid amounts across all linked POs. The dialog describes the combined position (e.g. "the 3 linked purchase orders are worth...") so you can judge the entry correctly.