Payment date is earlier than bill date

leihu

Dear Experts,

 

I received a bill from a supplier, but the date on the bill is later than the date I paid.

 

I initially just used pay bill to pay the bill as normal regardless of the early payment. But then a friend told me this is not the right way, because Payables Reconciliation report will display Out of Balance Amount. She let me create a bank account (begin with 1) called prepayment, transfer the amount from the bank account to it on the payment date, and then pay the bill from the prepayment account on the bill date. I think this is very clear, logically.

 

But later, I read an article on MYOB help (https://help.myob.com/wiki/display/ar/Supplier+prepayments), which solves exactly the same problem. It first creates a purchase with 0 dollar, and then pay it with the real bill amount, which results in a debit memo. Finally it applies the debit to the real bill from the supplier. It looks ok, but from the screenshots I found it uses the same date, which doesn't make sense to me. I think the first dummy bill (with 0 amount) should be on the payment date. Is that right?

 

Can anyone explain this to me? Which way should I use to enter such bills. Or you guys have a better, official way?

 

Thanks in advance!!

Tracey_H

Hi @leihu 

 

Thanks for your post. Your friends suggestion uses a clearing account (the prepayment account) which is one way to handle prepayments. We recommend using the method in that help article as it links the prepayment to the supplier so there is payment history. 

 

The dates in the screenshots of the help article are just because the examples were recorded on the same day. When recording the bill and payment in step 1 you would enter the date as the date you made the prepayment. Then enter the actual bill with the invoice date and apply the debit note.

 

Please let me know if you need further help.

 

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