Knowing that a payment happened is one thing. Knowing which payment it was — that’s what makes the books balance at the end of the month.
When you sit down to reconcile against your bank statement, “paid by check” isn’t much help on its own. There were four checks that week. Which one cleared? Which milestone did check 1044 cover? Eano lets you record the answer right on the payment, so the detail lives with the record instead of in your head or on a sticky note.
Every place in Eano where you record a payment gives you the same three fields: Payment Method, Reference, and Payment Memo.
The Three Fields
Payment Method is what it sounds like — how the money moved. You’ll pick from the standard methods (Check, Cash, Zelle, Bank transfers, Credit cards) plus any payment accounts your team has saved under Payment Settings. Saved accounts show up with their last four digits, so “Company Amex (**** 5678)” reads clearly in a list.
Reference is the identifying number that goes with the method. It appears next to the Payment Method as soon as you pick a method that has one, and the field tells you what it’s looking for:
Check → the check number
Zelle → the confirmation number
Credit card → the last four digits of the card
Bank transfer → the trace or confirmation number
Pick Cash and the Reference field simply doesn’t appear — there’s nothing to reference. And if you change your mind and switch from Check to Cash, anything you’d typed in Reference clears out with it, so a stale check number can’t get stranded on a cash payment.
Payment Memo is free text, and it’s optional. This is where the context goes: “final draw,” “reimbursed Miguel for the Home Depot run,” “client paid two milestones with one check.” It shows up once you’ve chosen a payment method, and it’s a full note field, not a single line — write as much as you need.
Where You’ll Find Them
The same block shows up everywhere money gets recorded, so you don’t have to remember different habits for different screens:
Logging an expense. Finance tab → Expenses → + Add Expense, and again when you edit an expense later. This is where the check number for a material purchase or a sub’s payout belongs.
Paying a subcontract or work order. Open the subcontract and use + Add Payment to record a payout.
Marking an invoice paid. Open the invoice and use Mark as Paid.
Recording a milestone payment. Finance tab → Income → Update, or from the Payment Milestones tab. This includes partial progress payments against a milestone.
Wherever you enter them, they save with the record and come back when you reopen it — so if you need to correct a check number three weeks later, open the payment again and change it.
Where the Details Show Up
Once recorded, the reference travels with the payment. On your Finance tab, both the Income and Expenses lists show the method with the reference right underneath — a line reading Paid via Check (1044) under the payment method column. That’s usually enough to reconcile a row against a statement without opening anything.
On a milestone’s detail view, the reference gets its own Reference line in the Payment Information block, alongside the method, amount, and date.
The memo is a bit different. It’s stored on the payment record rather than printed in the list rows, so you’ll see it when you open the payment itself. Think of the reference as the number your bank knows and the memo as the note your future self will thank you for.
A Few Things Worth Knowing
Online payments fill in the reference for you. When a client pays through Eano by card or bank transfer, the processor’s transaction ID is recorded as the reference automatically. There’s nothing for you to type.
Everything here is optional except the method. Eano won’t block you from saving a payment without a reference or memo. It’s there when the detail matters to you and out of the way when it doesn’t.
The Reference field is free text. We don’t validate check numbers or card digits against anything, so whatever convention your bookkeeper prefers will work. Consistency across your team is worth more than any particular format.
Cash is the exception. No reference field, because there’s no number to record. The memo is still available if you want to note who handed you what.
These are your records, not the client’s. Reference and memo are internal — they don’t appear on the invoice or in the client portal.
Frequently Asked Questions
I recorded a payment as cash but it was actually a check. Can I fix it?
Yes, and you should edit rather than delete. Find the payment — Finance tab under Income or Expenses, or on the Payment Milestones tab — and click Update. Change the Payment Method to Check, and the Reference field appears so you can add the check number. Save, and the correction takes hold. Zeroing out an amount is not how you fix a payment; it just leaves an empty entry behind.
Why don’t I see a Reference field?
Either you haven’t picked a payment method yet, or the method you picked is Cash. The Reference field is tied to the method and only appears for methods that carry an identifying number — check, Zelle, credit card, and bank transfer.
Can I search or filter my expenses by check number?
Not today. The reference is stored on the payment and displayed on the row, but it isn’t a filter or search field. If that would help your workflow, tell us — it’s the kind of thing we prioritize based on how many people ask.
Do these fields sync to QuickBooks?
The payment method itself flows through the existing QuickBooks sync. The reference and memo are recorded in Eano for your own tracking and aren’t pushed as separate QuickBooks fields.
Is this available on the mobile app?
Not yet. Reference and Payment Memo are on the web app for now.
We use a payment method that isn’t in the list. What now?
Your team can add payment accounts under the Payment Settings page, and they’ll appear in the picker alongside the standard methods. For a one-off method that doesn’t fit anywhere, pick the closest match and describe it in the Payment Memo — that’s exactly what the memo is for.
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