Hi Myron,
You're right. But until my clients decide to write off the partially paid invoice
(sometimes many months) I have to something with it. And over payments
are intentional ("Just apply it to my next bill").
But from Albert's and other input I think I'll leave things as they are and have
my clients adjust things out at year end to something like pre-paids and over-
under payments (if they just can't let go of the invoice <g>).
Thanks,
Ben Petersen
On 19 Aug 2003, at 20:28, Myron wrote:
> Ben,
> Any over payment in theory should be returned to the customer. Any
> underpayment, maybe a discount taken, either gets written off or goes on
> the next statement for payment.
>
> I guess I misunderstood your question based on my last response.
>
> Myron
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ben
> Petersen
> Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 2:40 PM
> To: RBASE-L Mailing List
> Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Question for you accounting pros
>
>
> Hi Bill,
>
> My question really relates more as to how partial/over payments against
> invoices are treated in the general ledger for cash based systems,
> rather
> than billing. (What do you do with the cash?) But Thanks!
>
> Ben Petersen
>
>
> On 19 Aug 2003, at 9:57, William Stacy wrote:
>
> > I use a transaction view that includes a transaction table and a
> > transaction detail table. In the detail table, all chargable items
> have
> > an item number (that links them to other, item tables), a quantity, a
>
> > regular price/fee/amount per unit, a computed column that is the
> product
> > of the quantity and the price, and a final price (discounted/agreed
> amt,
> > etc). All payments and other credits receive negative signs and go in
> > the final price column, so the "balance" of a transaction is simply
> the
> > sum of the price column, which will be positive if a balance remains,
> > negative if a credit balance is created, and zero if the
> payment/credit
> > totals equal the charged amounts. This way I can create statements,
> > bills, insurance claims etc from this one view.
> >
> > bill
> >
> > Ben Petersen wrote:
> >
> > >Hi all,
> > >
> > >I'm down to the nitty gritty of an accounting package and wanted to
> > >make
> > >sure my take on accounts receivable for cash based customers was
> > >accurate.
> > >
> > >For straight up transactions where there is an invoice and a payment
> > >for that invoice nothing hits the GL until payment is made. But in
> > >the instance where someone _partially_ pays an invoice, or, over-pays
>
> > >an invoice, this is what I've been doing in past systems:
> > >
> > >Debit cash for the payment amount.
> > >Credit A/R for the payment amount.
> > >Debit A/R for the invoice total.
> > >Credit income accounts for the items on the invoice.
> > >
> > >In the case of under-payment this leaves an A/R balance. In the case
> > >of over- payment there is a negative A/R balance.
> > >
> > >In my re-write everything is driven by views, so it is possible to
> > >have a circumstance where new invoices work directly against the
> > >customer account to reduce the credit and not be posted through A/R.
> > >My concern is that while it makes the A/R portion of the GL cleaner,
> > >it is possible, for example, to have an invoice detailed in A/R at
> > >one moment, and not the next, if a new invoice brought the customer
> > >account to zero. While the transactions would explain "what happened"
>
> > >I don't know that this is acceptable.
> > >
> > >I'm looking for some outside confirmation and/or alternatives.
> > >
> > >Thanks
> > >
> > >Ben Petersen
> > >
> > >.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>
