ACCOUNTS PAYABLE AND DISBURSEMENTS

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Now that your order has been received and an Accounts Payable voucher created, we can examine The Application’s accounts payable inquiries and reports and disbursement procedures. We will also look at how to create A/P vouchers for non-inventory goods and services and any other purchasing transactions in which a purchase order was not used.

To proceed you will need to have created at least one A/P voucher for at least one vendor. You can view current outstanding invoices for a given vendor using the A/P Inquiry (Figure 64). This inquiry can by found under Accounting Accounts Payable A/P Inquiry.

When you enter a Vendor Number (use F3 if you like) the inquiry is populated with the vendor name and address and all unpaid invoices for that vendor. Note there is a checkbox in the lower left-hand corner which would allow you to display both unpaid and paid invoices for the vendor (only when this option is selected would you see anything in the Date Paid and Check # columns on the grid). You will also see there is a Print button which allows you to print a hardcopy of what you see in the grid. When you are done viewing the inquiry, click Done to clear the form.

Under Reports A/P Reports you will find a total of six reports providing you with information concerning your payables and purchases (and two further options dealing with 1099s, which will be discussed later). The first of these reports, the Accounts Payable Aging report, allows you to choose a range of vendors and a closing date to print an aging report (Figure 65).

This report can be run in either Summary (Figure 66) or Detail (Figure 67).

Running the Accounts Payable Aging report in Detail gives you not only the totals of each vendor by month, but individual invoice numbers, dates and totals as well.

The second report found at Reports A/P Reports is the Accounts Payable Due Register (Figure 68). This report gives you a list of all invoices due, by vendor, as of a selected date.

The third report on the A/P Reports menu is the Purchase/Expense Journal (Figure 69). This report displays all invoices from all vendors within a specified date range. If the Include G/L Distribution checkbox is selected, the Purchase/Expense Journal G/L Distribution report (Figure 70) is also printed.

The fourth report is the Purchase Order Report. The Purchase Order Report is a versatile report which allows you to list POs based on several user-defined parameters (Figure 71). The report can be run for POs falling within a specified date range based on four different dates (Date Received Into Inventory, Date Posted To A/P, Order Date, or Scheduled Arrival Date), it can be run for a specific vendor, it can display its results in order by PO Number or by Vendor, and it can be run in Summary (Figure 72) or in Detail (Figure 73).

Note that both of the sample reports displayed in Figure 72 and 73 were run based on the Date Received Into Inventory, and that date is highlighted on the report.

The fifth report listed on the A/P Reports menu is the Disbursements Journal (Figures 79, 80 and 81). This report lists all checks disbursed within a specified date range. We will look at that report after we examine the procedures for paying our vendors.

The sixth and final report on the A/P Reports menu is the Accounts Payable Batch Report (Figure 74). You may have noticed when we looked at the Accounts Payable form in Subsection B (Figure 58) that the Accounts Payable form has a field for you to enter a Batch number. You can specify a Batch number for purposes of verifying A/P totals in the system against invoices from vendors using the Accounts Payable Batch Report.

In the Batch field on the Accounts Payable form you can enter any 10-character-or-less value to identify a batch of A/P invoices you intend to enter into the system. The Application will remember the batch number you last entered and automatically populate the field with that value as long as you do not close The Application (you can, of course, overwrite the batch number The Application provides if you want to start a new batch). It is suggested you use a value that references the complete date of the batch input. For example, if you were entering an A/P batch on March 12, 2004, you might want to use a batch number like “031204” or, if you were expecting to do more than one batch on that day, something like “031204A.” This will insure that two batches do not get included when you run a batch report (at least until the 22nd Century - if you want to use four digits for the year, you can).

Having entered a number of invoices identified with a Batch number, you can then run the Accounts Payable Batch Report (Figure 74) to check the batch total in the system against a tape you run on the invoice hardcopies. You can Print the report, which gives you a list of all invoices in the batch with each invoice total, or you can click the Get Total button and the batch total will appear below the Enter Batch Number field (Figure 75). You might want to click the Get Total button first and then, if the total displayed does not match your tape total, print the report to check each invoice hardcopy against the invoices entered into the system.

Now that we know how to create payables and review the status of payables using queries and reports, we can look at how to actually pay some payables. The first step in this process is to open the Schedule A/P Payments form (Figure 76) found under Accounting Disbursements Schedule Payments.

When you open the Schedule A/P Payments form and enter a vendor number, the grid displays all open invoices for that vendor. As you can see in Figure 76, the grid also indicates any overdue invoices. Moreover, the form displays an aging summary at the top right.

To schedule a payment, you need to enter the amount of each invoice you intend to pay with the next check run in the Schedule Amt column on each line. You can pay any combination of displayed invoices, and you can make partial payments. Note if you enter an amount on a line that is more than the total due for that invoice, The Application quietly reduces the amount to match the invoice total. Also, if you hit the Enter key while in the Schedule Amt column, the total amount of the invoice is automatically entered into the current field. The Check Total field at the bottom right of the form keeps a running total of all amounts you enter. Once you have indicated the payments to be made, click the Save button and you have essentially created a check request within The Application that will be available when you are ready to actually cut the check.

Once you are ready to run checks, you will want to open the Process Disbursements form (Figure 77) found under Accounting Disbursements Print Checks.

When you bring up the Process Disbursements form, it will display a line for each vendor for which you have scheduled a payment. The Check Amount column will display the total of all scheduled payments to that vendor you indicated on the Schedule A/P Payments form. You will need to identify a Checking Account number, specify a Check Date, and inform The Application of the Beginning Check Number printed on the first check you will be feeding into the printer.

Near the top right of the form are two checkboxes that allow you options with regard to printing and posting the checks. You might need this flexibility in certain unusual circumstances. For instance, if you wrote a check by hand to pay an invoice, you would want to post that check to the system, but not print it.

Clicking the Continue button will (unless you have de-selected one or both of the checkboxes) post the payments and print the checks. Be sure you have check stock in the selected printer and that the printed check number on the first check matches what you entered in the Beginning Check Number field. Once the checks have been posted and the print job spooled, a dialog box will pop up in the center of the screen to inform you the check processing is complete.

Once you have processed payments, you can view the Check Register form (Figure 78) found under Accounting Disbursements Check Register.

The Check Register form shows you all checks drawn against the specified Bank Account and gives you a running balance of that account. By checking the Include Closed Transactions checkbox, you can also view those checks that have already been marked as paid during past bank reconciliations.

You can also use this form to void checks. If you select a check in the grid (by clicking on the Check Number or the gray tab to the left of the Check Number) and click the -Void Check - button, a dialog box will pop up asking you if you want to void that check. If you answer Yes, you will see the vendor name in the Description column replaced by “Void” and the dollar amount disappears from the Debit column. If you go back into the A/P Inquiry (Figure 64) after voiding a check, you will see that all invoices paid on that check display as open and unpaid again.

The final report on the A/P Reports menu, as mentioned above, is the Disbursements Journal, which can be run in either Summary (Figure 79) or Detail (Figure 80). This report displays all checks cut during a specified date range. By selecting the Include G/L Dist checkbox, you can also print the Disbursements Journal G/L Distribution report (Figure 81).

The final step in the purchasing and disbursements process is to reconcile your checkbook. This is done using the Checkbook Reconciliation form (Figure 82) found under Accounting Disbursements Reconcile Checkbook.

After selecting the appropriate Bank Account, you enter the Statement Date and the Current Statement total. Then, selecting checks and deposits in the grid by checking the boxes in column C, you can clear those transactions that appear on the bank statement and reconcile your account. When the Balance figure equals the Current Statement figure, click on the Reconcile button to reconcile the account and flag transactions as having cleared the bank. You can use the Save button if you begin the process of selecting transactions as cleared, but are interrupted before the reconciliation process is complete.

At this point we have followed, from beginning to end, one scenario for ordering, receiving and paying for goods purchased from your company’s vendors. This scenario began with the Purchase Order Detail form (Figure 54). However, not every purchase will begin with a purchase order, and not every purchase will involve the purchase of inventory items. You may remember, when we set up vendors using the Vendor File Maintenance form back in Section II F, there were three fields to enter Expense G/L codes if we so desired. As we discussed at that time, The Application will post purchases in one of two ways depending on the type of vendor. In the scenario we just went through above, the purchases were posted as inventory increases based on the G/L code assigned to each individual inventory item purchased. The second way The Application posts a purchase is to use the Expense G/L codes you entered in the Vendor File Maintenance form. This second method is used when the non-inventory goods are purchased or services are paid for. When using the second method, you skip the Purchase Order Detail form and the Process Purchase Order form and go directly to the Accounts Payable form (Figure 58). Remember you pulled up the Accounts Payable form before by clicking the Update Pricing button on the Process Purchase Order form (Figure 57). You can go directly to the Accounts Payable form by selecting it under Accounting Accounts Payable A/P Entry. When you pull up the form and enter the Vendor, the grid below will display a line for each Expense G/L code you entered in the Vendor File Maintenance form. You can add additional G/L codes to the Ledger Code column if you like and can use the F3 key to search for G/L codes in that field. You then Save the data and you have created an A/P entry without using a purchase order.

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Inventory Transfers

TOC

Order Entry