applying payments to multiple?

[Frank Calandro]

When my customers send in a check, I put it in a table with cust id, date , amount. I have it posting to another table for running balance. How would I make it apply to , for example... 2 invoices for $50 ea. Cust pays $75, which would apply $50 to first and $25 to second. Now when I do a browse by invoice and balance (not running total), I want to see the first invoice with balance of 0 and second with balance of 25. Thanks. I'm new, so I only know how to work with action scripting. No knowlege of x basic. Thanks.
Frank

[Mike Wilson]

Re: applying payments to multiple?

Frank,
Is it a condition that the balance of the first invoice reach a balance of zero before the remainder of the payment be posted against the second invoice?

[Stan Mathews]

Re: applying payments to multiple?

Frank,
Is it a condition that the balance of the first invoice reach a balance of zero before the remainder of the payment be posted against the second invoice?

Wouldn't the normal accounting procedure be to record, in the table that has "cust id, date , amount", the invoice(s) that are being paid? Multiple invoice paments encompassed by a single check would be recorded as multiple payments (records). Given this information you could post based on cust id and invoice number, to be sure that multiple customers weren't credited if they had identical invoice numbers.

I'm not at all sure that action scripting could handle applying payment amounts to oldest invoices in date order. The xbasic might even be complex.

[Frank Calandro]

Re: applying payments to multiple?

Yes.

[Frank Calandro]

Re: applying payments to multiple?

I would have thought that that would be a common way to apply payments with any firm that has a running balance with their customers. Is there another approach I am overlooking?

[G Gabriel]

Re: applying payments to multiple?

responded to a simillar question few months back with an example in a zip file. Can't remember the thread, but you should be able to find it with a little research. If not, will do another one.

[Doug Page]

Re: applying payments to multiple?

I would have thought that that would be a common way to apply payments with any firm that has a running balance with their customers. Is there another approach I am overlooking?

Frank,

In our business, we send out several invoices to trade accounts each month. Their payments for the most part are in full. However, there are many times that things are not paid and it is best that you record them as such so that you are able to trace back to problem. eg) parcel did not arrive so customer won't pay; disputing total so only pays part;transposes numbers when totalling invoices and doesn't pay the correct amount;customer doesn't file invoice in their pile to pay so it is forgotten;etc.

All open item accounting systems that I now of ask for the user to make these decisions. Our current accounting package gives you a choice of: 1) pay off invoices by invoice number (which asks you to type each and every invoice number and how much to pay off), 2) do a review of invoices from oldest to newest asking you if you want to pay off this invoice (y/n), 3)apply to oldest forward.

The other option is a balance forward type of account. Here you just record all invoice and payments and the difference is what is owed. You have now way to track back to problem invoices but certainly reduces the problem of where to apply the payment.

Doug

[Mike Wilson]

Re: applying payments to multiple?

Doug,
Nice review. Your scenerio and description of invoice separations was the root of my original question. If invoice separation is present, and it allowed for customers to allocate payments, then the setup is different than a rolling distribution through invoices oldest-to-newest.

One example is my heating-airconditioning company. Invoice 1: I had installed a new system that I am making payments on (with interest). Invoice 2: I have a plan that covers certain services that I pay every month on. Invoice 3: I had to have some work done that wasn't under warranty, and needed certain parts that were not covered under the plan. That was three invoices, the system install, the monthly service plan, and the parts for the last service. This month I had to pay all of the monthly service plan amount, paid the monthly payment for the system install invoice, the remainder of my $250 to pay on the parts needed the last service call. None of the invoices are paid off at this point. The payment are kept separate, mostly because one is associated with interest charges.

How your accounting is handled will determine how you distribute the payments.

[Frank Calandro]

Re: applying payments to multiple?

I can get around my whole problem by just having a list of the customers and letting my secretary choose which ones to apply the payment to until the balance of payment is zero. What I was trying to do was skip that step and just always apply to oldest invoice. I can't figure out how to do it the later way. (Somehow put payment amount in variable?) Any help is/was appreciated.

Frank