Core Financial Modules

[AMcCaleb]

When entering invoices for the prior month, example January, but the payment/check is created in February, why does the software cause a credit in the checking account for January instead of February? What adjustments to the settings in the software will allow me to post invoices for one month with payment in the next without crediting the cash account on the invoice date?

[jnelsonut]

Look under Accounts Payable - Setup - AP Division Maintenance.  What GL Account do you have entered in the Accounts Payable Field?

Sounds like you have your cash account entered instead of Accounts Payable account.

Joe

[givingtr]

Are you posting into February when updating the Feb payments? Sounds like you're entering January invoices in Feb, updating the invoices to January, then entering payment info... but posting payments into January as well.

[TomTarget]

Would agree with last post, but it sounds like you are using manual check entry. Ain't going to happen that way.

Need to do invoice data entry and update the register in January, then print checks and update journal with a February date to accomplish what you want.

[RosieD]

If you're cutting a check, but the credit to your checking account is hitting in the prior period, either your check date or module date in the Accounts Payable module is incorrect. 

It's easy to change the date in the wrong module.  Make sure you're in the right module before you try to change the module date (click in the lower right hand corner on the visible date and you'll get a prompt to change the date).

I've had an entire check run this way right at the end of a quarter and had to look for it (and many, many other mistakes - been doing this for half a decade now).  I'm intimately familiar with what causes a posting into the wrong period.

[TomTarget]

Clarification:   This bears repeating as there are some common misconceptions about dates.    The posting/transaction date DEFAULTS from the module date.   It can be changed at the time you run the journal register.

Definitions:

Module date:   The default date for transactions entered in particular module.  On first entry to a module you will be prompted for a module date. 

Document date:   The actual date printed on a document (such as a check,  invoice,  etc.).   Will default to the module date but can be overridden.

Transaction/posting date:   The date that the item is posted to the general ledger.    Will default to the module date but can be overridden.

Current module period end/date:   Keeps you from posting back into prior periods and depending on settings into future periods.

The last two items are not necessarily the same,  although I would argue that in most cases they really should be the same with the exception of  a/p invoices (due to accrual accounting issues).  The ability to mismatch these dates unfortunately can lead to various reports not matching the general ledger.

I'm kind of picky in making sure that people understand this,  because I had a client panic one day while doing period end processing because they forgot to change the module date to be the end of the current month.   In their panic,  they shut down the computer in the middle of the processing which really made a mess out of things.   The module date meant nothing in the situation!

[RosieD]

Thomas:

I understand the concept of changing the date at the posting date.  However, 1) my company does not use batching, so posting to a prior period when there are several clerks who can use a data entry screen at any given time is a little tricky and requires more than a little coordination, and 2) when you change the module date, if you close and re-open the data entry screen, you won't have an issue with the transaction date resetting itself to the module date.

For those reasons, I always advocate changing the module date instead of just the posting date, as it seems to head many problems off at the pass, so to speak, and I use the terms 'module date' and 'posting date' interchangably.

I apologize for any confusion.

[TomTarget]

All good points. Your practices have to be defined by your situation.
Just want to make sure people don't get in trouble because they don't understand the distinction you clearly understand.