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Spend Money invoice date and payment date are different

leihu

Dear Experts,

When I record an expense through Spend Money, the invoice date and pay date are different. This is because I'm using Direct Debit card, which always has 2-3 days delay. This means the charge in the bank statement is 2-3 days later than the real purchase date. So I have two dates, invoice date and pay date. When I record the Spend Money, which date should I use? If I use invoice date, then bank statement dates mismatch when I do bank reconcilation. If I use pay date, then invoice date is wrong, which makes a bit harder to find the invoice later.

Thanks in advance!!

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Accepted answers

Tracey_H

Hi @leihu

When manually reconciling it's ok to tick a transaction if the date is different to the date on the bank statement as long as it was withdrawn from your account in the period you are reconciling.

For example, you record a Spend Money transaction on the 30 March and it's withdrawn from your bank account on the 31st March. When you reconcile March tick the Spend Money transaction because it is on your March bank statement. However, if it wasn't withdrawn from your account until the 1st April you wouldn't tick it until you did the April reconcilation.

It's normal to leave some transactions unticked or to have different dates. Back in the days when I first started bookkeeping this was common because we wrote cheques to pay bills and sometimes it would be a couple of weeks before that cheque was presented.

When it comes to which date is best that will depend on whether your accounting basis is Cash or Accrual and your financial reporting. Personally I always went by invoice date because that gives you an accurate idea of your cash flow. However, I do recommend that if you're not sure how to record transactions to check with your accountant to ensure you're reporting correctly for your business.

If you are interested in using bank feeds please let me and I'll be happy to guide you through it. I loved it when I started using it.

If my response has answered your enquiry please click "Accept as Solution" to assist other users find this information.

All comments

leihu

Hi Tracey,

Thank you very much for your answer. But I don't use bank feeds, and honestly I don't know how to use it. I only do bank reconciliation manually. Some people tell me to use pay date, but in your post it looks like you use receipt date. Does this mean either way is OK?

Lei

Tracey_H

Hi @leihu

Thanks for your post. It's possible to match a bank transaction and AccountRight transaction if they have different dates in bank feeds. If you click on Find and extend the date range, you can select the Spend Money transaction and click on Match & Approve.

Another option would be to record the invoice through Enter Purchases with the actual invoice date. You would then record a Pay Bills transaction on the date payment is withdrawn from your bank.

Please let me know if you need further help.

If my response has answered your enquiry please click "Accept as Solution" to assist other users find this information.