Ability to change the Period of a Payable even with payment applied

We strongly request the ability to unpost, push forward or backward the period of, and then repost a Payable - even if a Cash Disbursement has been applied.

We understand the objective of making sure that the cash disbursement's period does not end up being prior to the payable's period, due to the impact on the Accounts Payable control account. (Having said that, many other accounting systems allow this, and are able to present the prepaid amount as a credit in their AP detail listings, so that the details and the control account still balance.)

But if that is the objective, then that should be the rule. In other words, users should be able to unpost the payable, roll forward or back the period, and attempt to repost. At that point a validation should trigger to ensure the period of the payable isn't getting pushed out beyond the period of the applied cash disbursement. If the validation is clear, then reposting should be allowed. If the validation fails, then an error message should generate, along the lines of "This payable has an applied cash disbursement. The period of the payable cannot be later than the period of the applied cash disbursement."

The inability to do this forces organizations like ours, at the Payables entry function, to always get the period right up front - which for many payables clerks who are not full-cycle accountants or bookkeepers, is just too much to ask. This needs to be an editable attribute of the Payable, unless the period has been closed.

Since we have 2/10 terms on major supplies and other reasons for quickly liquidating payables, there is frequently a cash disbursement applied, in the first few days of a new period, to payables with a date early within that period, or late within the prior period. We then sometimes discover that the payables should be pulled back a period, or pushed forward a period, due to the Matching principle or other accounting reasons. Being unable to do so means we must keep notable lists of journal entry reclassifications, pushing and pulling expenses into the right periods, and then reversing those journal entries the following month.

We appreciate your attention to this feature request.

Official comment

Preasha Hussain

August 01, 2022 14:50

Hello Mateo,

Thank you for submitting this request and taking the time to outline specific details. I will send this request to the product development team for further review.

JoannaG

August 08, 2022 23:21

Thank you for the request, Matteo - this is a big pain point for me, too. To piggy-back on one of your points - is there a reason that a pre-payment cannot be applied to a payable? A reason this would make sense is if a company is closed for a couple weeks and wants to directly send rents/other payments out early rather than setting up scheduled payments. (I'm not opposed to making GJ entries, but they are so time consuming in this software).

Rebecca Ralls

November 05, 2022 21:28

Hi Mateo - I like your idea. I also hope AS will consider implementing it.

JoannaG - you also make a good point. This would also make sense if a payment was made against a payable that was then credited. The payment should be able to be aplied to a future invoice.

Ability to change the Period of a Payable even with payment applied

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