Maintain Invoices

From the DockMaster menu, select Accounts Payable > Invoicing > Maintain Invoices

Purpose: The Maintain Invoices menu item allows you to enter invoices and debit memos for your vendors. It is integrated with Inventory Management for receivers and Accounts Receivable for warranty and manufacturer receivables. When ready the entries be posted to the subsidiary ledger in the General Ledger.

Some features available in this menu:

Add a vendor on the fly via Vendor Maint link.
Change the G/L account distribution
Schedule multiple payments
Apply a debit memo to an invoice
Change the default payee information
Document contested information
Adjust the WAV cost of inventory received
Compare received amount with invoiced amount
Apply a debit memo to Accounts Receivable Invoices (Warranty, Manufacturer, etc.)

Note: If you are entering a vendor credit for a receivable owed to your company skip down to the A/R Invoices Tab section below.

Vendor ID - Enter the Vendor ID who this invoice is for or type in the vendor's name preceded by a backslash "\" to access a cross-reference list. Or;
- Click on the Vendor Maint link in the links bar to view or add a new vendor to Vendor Maintenance File.
Invoice No. - Enter the invoice number you are processing. Or;
- Type the letter N to get the next reference number for this vendor. Each vendor has its own counter which starts at 000001 and increments by one each time you press N at the Invoice Number prompt. This can be useful if you do not have an invoice number for the vendor or if you pay by statement.
- Rules of Numbering Invoices;
- Asterisks (*) are not allowed in an invoice number
- Do not use OA as an invoice id; this designation is used to put monies on account for a vendor that you paid a deposit to via manual check entry.
- If you need to re-use an invoice number for the same vendor it should be suffixed with a -1, or -2, etc.
Receiver ID - Enter a Receiver ID or press the enter key to bypass this field. Once a receiver is selected, the receiver amount will appear to the right or the receiver id. Note: The receiver id can only be selected if the invoice is for inventory received. The Receiver ID is also used to reverse any estimated accounting entries when using the Estimated Liability logic in Accounts Payable.
Description - Enter a Description for the invoice or press the enter key to bypass this field. The description will print on: invoice registers, transaction and G/L account reports. If no description is entered the vendor id and invoice number will print instead.
Tax Schema- The Tax Schema will default based off of what has been entered in the AP Parameters. If the tax schema is left blank in the AP Parameters, then "notax" will be the default. The schema can be changed however if a schema other than "notax" is entered a tax amount is required to be entered in the tax field before saving the invoice.
Amount Due - Enter the total Amount Due for this invoice. If a Receiver ID was entered, the program will compare the Amount Due to the Receiver Amount. If the Amount Due doesn't equal the Receiver Amount, the message "Receiver does not equal Merchandise amount." will appear in red above the receiver id. Receiver correction is discussed below.
Invoice Date - Enter the Invoice Date or press the enter key to default to the current date.
Accounting Date - The Accounting Date is the date this transaction will post to the General Ledger. This date will default to the same date as the Invoice Date if not changed.
Due Date - The Due Date is the date this invoice is due. This date is important for payment scheduling and discount calculations.
- If this vendor had a Payment Term Code entered on his file, the date was calculated using the information from that code (see the File Maintenance section for information on Payment Terms Codes).
- If the vendor did not have a payment term code on file, then the date was calculated using the default Payment Term Code entered in the Accounts Payable Parameters.
- If the Payment Term Code was not entered in either place, then the invoice date is used as the due date.
Finance Charge - The Finance Charge field should be used to enter any portion of this invoice that is attributable to late fees or finance charges. You will be able to report on this information on a year-to-date basis for each vendor.
- The amount entered in this field will be charged to the Finance Charge account maintained in the Accounts Payable Parameters.
Freight - The Freight field should be used to enter any portion of this invoice that is attributable to freight charges. The amount entered in this field will be charged to the Freight Expense account maintained in the Accounts Payable Parameters.
Sales Tax - The Sales Tax field should be used to enter any portion of this invoice that is attributable to sales tax. The amount entered in this field will be charged to the primary tax liability account defined in the tax schema.
- When there is multiple tax accounts defined in the tax schema the grid to the right can be maintained to record the amounts by liability.
Merch/Service - The Merchandise/Service field will default to the total amount of the invoice. If you enter an amount in the Finance Charge, Freight, or Sales Tax fields, then the Merch/Service amount will be reduced by the total amount of the entries made.
1099 Amount - The 1099 Amount would default to the total amount of the invoice only if you flagged this vendor as a 1099 type in the Vendor File. You may change this amount. This information is tracked on a year-to-date basis for each vendor.

GL Distribution Tab

Reasons to change the G/L Distribution:

AP Parameters and Vendor File did not have any default accounts entered.
The distribution accounts were entered incorrectly.
This invoice has a different distribution than usual for this vendor.

Data entry and maintenance rules for the GL distribution grid:

The default accounts payable account cannot be maintained.
The sales tax account rows cannot be deleted. If a change is needed the proper tax schema should be used to distribute the sales tax.
The freight account row cannot be deleted, however the default account on it can be maintained as needed. Note to change the freight amount maintain it in the invoice header.
The finance charge account row cannot be deleted, however the default account on it can be maintained as needed. Note to change the finance charge amount maintain it in the invoice header.
The merch / service distribution will default to the vendor's distribution if it was defined, otherwise if it was not then the balance of the invoice will need to be maintained on one or more GL accounts.
Displayed at the top right of the tab is the Balance of the debits and credits made in the distribution; this balance must equal zero before you can save and clear the entry.

Maintain the distribution as needed following the rules above. Once the balance field displays 0.00 proceed to the other tabs to complete the entry.
If no other maintenance is required, click the save icon and then the clear icon to enter another invoice for this vendor, or click the clear icon to start a new for a different vendor.

Discount Info tab

Discount Acct – The Discount Account will default from the Accounts Payable Parameters if an account exists. Enter or override this account if desired.
If the vendor's terms code has a discount calculation, then the default date, discount rate, and amount will appear in the grid. The discount information can be overridden as desired if the terms for it are different or there is no default discount.
The discount row can be deleted if a discount does not apply to the invoice being maintained.

Pay Schedule Tab

Reasons to change the payment schedule:

To schedule the invoice for more than one payment (system default is one)
Increase or decrease the number of payments for an existing invoice
Change the amount of a payment
Change the due date of a payment

Click on the Payment Schedule Tab to change the invoice payment schedule. Each invoice will default to one payment with the due date calculated based on the payment terms on the vendor or parameters.
Click in the Number of Payments field to change the payment schedule. Once you change the number of payments, the program will automatically divide the invoice amount by the number of payments and reschedule the invoice accordingly.
The payment dates and amounts can be maintained if needed, however the balance filed must be 0.00 before leaving the tab.

Note: If you are increasing the number of payments for an existing invoice, only the open payments (not paid) will be affected. The due dates are derived by duplicating the first payment due date for each succeeding month. At this point, you can manually change the scheduled due dates and amounts by clicking on the column of the data you want to change. However, if a check has been written for a payment, you cannot change the information for that payment.

Receiver Tab

If a Receiver ID was entered, the program will compare the Amount Due to the Receiver Amount. If the amount due doesn't equal the receiver amount, the message Receiver does not equal Merchandise amount will appear at the top of the window.

If the message appears verify that the Merch/Service amount is correct for the invoice.
Then in the Receiver tab, compare the costs and extensions of the parts on the receiver tab to the detail line items on the invoice.
Then click on the Cost column of the part you want to change the cost on and correct it to match the invoice. If needed the extension can be edited to match instead.
Once the Receiver and Merch / Service amounts match the message will disappear. Note there may be times when the receiver cannot be completely corrected to match the invoice. This usually happens when the clerk marked all of the parts received and then closed the receiver for the one invoice instead of multiple invoices. This cannot be undone, simply save and post the invoice, the additional invoices will be entered without a receiver.

Invoices Tab

This option can only be used to apply debit memos to open invoices.

Enter the debit memo and its GL distribution.
Then click on the invoice tab to apply the debit memo to one or more open invoices.
Enter or select the invoice number in the grid.
Once you choose an invoice, the invoice balance will appear, and the cursor will move to the Amount Applied field. The amount applied will default to the lessor of the invoice amount or the balance of the debit memo. You can accept the default or change the amount to apply to this debit memo.
You can apply this debit memo to any number of invoices. The only limitation is that the amount applied cannot exceed the debit memo amount.

AR Invoices Tab

This option can only be used if you are maintaining a Debit Memo that has a corresponding AR invoice in receivables. For instance, a vendor such as a boat, motor, or trailer manufacturer can be both a customer (you bill them for warranty work orders) and a vendor (they bill you for inventory purchased). When the Vendor and Customer Files are linked, you can apply credits from AP to invoices in AR, and apply payments in AR to credits that exist in AP.

Debit Memo entry for AR Invoices

Starting from the Vendor Id field, enter the vendor that the debit memo is from. This vendor must be linked to the receivable's customer in file maintenance.
Enter the debit memo number in the Invoice No. field.
Enter the amount in the Amount Due field, ignore all other fields.
Click the AR Invoices tab and click in the grid. Enter or select the AR invoices to apply the debit memo to. The full amount of the debit memo must be applied. If the debit memo amount cannot be applied, then cancel the entry. The AR invoice balance may need to be adjusted in AR or the appropriate invoice posted first before continuing.
Once the invoices have been applied, click save then clear to begin the next entry for the vendor, or click clear again to select a new vendor.

Some common interface scenarios are described below for AR Invoices.

Scenario 1

You bill Mercury Marine $500.00 for warranty work you performed on a motor. You also buy $800.00 worth of parts for resale in your parts department.

Mercury Marine sends you an invoice for the $800.00 for parts purchased, and a credit memo for $500.00 for the warranty work performed. You would follow the steps below to complete this scenario:

Enter the invoice for $800.00.
Enter the credit memo for $500.00; AR Invoices and press F6 to list the A/R invoices. Pick the $500.00 invoice that the credit memo is paying off.
Post as usual.

Scenario 2

You have $1,000.00 worth of credit memos sitting on Mercury Marine’s vendor file. You decide to have Mercury Marine send you a check for $1,000.00 to cover the credits.

Enter the $1,000.00 check through Accounts Receivable.
Press F9 - Select A/P Debits and press F6 to list the A/P credit memos. Pick the $1,000.00 worth of credits.
Post as usual.

Debit Memos Tab

This option can only be used to apply invoices to open debit memos.

Enter the invoice and its GL distribution.
Then click on the Debit Memos tab to apply the invoice to one or more open debit memos.
Enter or select the debit invoice number in the grid.
Once you choose a debit invoice, the invoice balance will appear, and the cursor will move to the Amount Applied field. The amount applied will default to the lessor of the debit memo amount or the balance of the invoice. You can accept the default or change the amount to apply to this invoice.
You can apply this invoice to any number of debit invoices. The only limitation is that the amount applied cannot exceed the invoice amount.

Payee Info Tab

This tab should only be maintained to update name, address and account number information that will print on this vendor's check. You should only maintain the information on this tab if the invoice has a different remit to address for the invoice. Or you are maintaining saved and posted invoices to update the vendor's remit to address.

Note: When processing payables if the vendor remit to address is not the same on all of the invoices and debit memos selected for payment then a separate check will be printed for each address that is different. This usually occurs when the vendor file was maintained with a new remit to address, and the previously posted invoices were not maintained before processing for payment.

Contested Info Tab

Click on the Contested Info tab to enter a contested amount and reason on this invoice. If contested, check processing will only allow you to pay this invoice up to the amount contested. A common reason to contest an invoice would be a price discrepancy between your purchase order and a vendor's invoice.

Contested Amount - Enter a Contested Amount for this invoice. The contested amount cannot be more than the invoice amount.
Contested Reason - Enter the Reason you are contesting the invoice. Any combination of up to 35 letters and/or numbers can be used. The contested amount and reason can be viewed on the AP Contested Invoice List report.
Save and post the invoice as normal.
Once the disputed amount is resolved, you can clear the Contested amount and Contested reason fields by recalling the invoice and then clearing the amount and description and then saving the changes.

Adjusting Posted AP Invoices

Posted invoices can be adjusted to increase or decrease the amount of the invoice as long as the invoice has not been paid or previously adjusted.

Starting from Maintain Invoices select the vendor.
In the invoice Number field enter the invoice number or right click and select the non-zero posted sF7 link.
Click the Invoice Adj link in the links bar to access the adjustment form.
Enter the amount in the adjustment field.
Accept the adjustment date or change it.
Accept the accounting date or change it.
In the GL grid accept the default offset accounts or maintain them as needed. Note the default accounts in the grid are populated from the original invoice.
Once the adjustment is complete click the save icon to exit the form.
Clear the AP invoice from the main window and proceed with the next entry or close

Invoice Posting Process

Once the invoices and debit memos have been entered you are now ready to review your entries and post them to the subsidiary ledgers for posting to the GL

It's recommended that the Edit Listing report be printed to review and verify the accuracy of the invoices entered.
After reviewing the edit list, return the maintain invoices menu and modify or delete any invoice if needed.
Reprint the Edit Listing to review any changes or proceed to the next step if no changes were made.
Select Post Invoices to post the invoices to the individual vendor accounts.

Note: The invoice posting routine will update your vendor accounts and subsidiary ledger when you click the Post button; however, you must post Subsidiary Ledgers to the G/L to complete the process. Posting the subsidiary ledgers can be performed as part of your daily routine.