This chapter explains how customer invoices are transferred as voucher style invoices to your financial accounting system for AR processing.
Invoices are generated from shipments
Customer invoices are generated from shipments within the Shipping & Invoicing tab in the Sales Orders screen. Invoices are sent to the customer via Email or can be printed and mailed. The detailed invoice remains in DBA and the values tie down to the single line AR voucher (tax inclusive).
Invoice details and Taxes are handled exclusively in DBA
Your sales order invoices and purchase order invoices will include item transactions with detailed tax information. The AR and AP voucher value will be a single value that includes tax. You do not enter tax codes or tax detail in your financial accounting system.
Financial credit memos are entered in your accounting system
If you issue a financial credit memo to a customer, you can enter it directly in your financial accounting system. A financial credit memo is one that does not include any inventory items. An example of a financial credit memo is one used to adjust a customer account balance for an over or under-payment.
Inventory credit memos are generated in DBA
When a credit memo includes an inventory item, such as a returned item, the credit memo must be generated in DBA. The returned item is entered with a negative order quantity, which results in a negative price and enables the item to be returned to stock. The order is picked, shipped, and invoiced in the normal fashion to generate the credit memo.
Transfer AR vouchers in real time
Transfer AR vouchers in real time immediately after each set of invoices is generated so that invoice entry and voucher transfer is treated as a single process. At a minimum, transfer AR vouchers once per day so that a complete and timely AP aging profile is maintained in your financial accounting system.
AR Voucher Transfer
Overview
You will create invoices using a special AR Invoice Transfer Item that you set up in advance in your outside accounting system.. This item ID will book a credit to the AR Invoice Transfer clearing account, instead of a sales account. The balancing debit to the AR invoice Transfer account was created in the DBA Invoice process and will be transferred to your outside accounting system in the GL Summary transfer. The net effect is that the AR Invoice Transfer account zeroes out and you are left with Accounts Receivable in your financial accounting system.
The AR Voucher Transfer screen is used to transfer customer invoices and credit memos in a one-line voucher format to your accounting system for AR processing. Each invoice or credit memo that has not yet been transferred is listed in the grid.
The voucher style format limits the transfer to just the fields needed for receivables processing – the Invoice Date, Invoice No, Customer, PO No, Total Amt, Due Date, Terms, Line Item ID (which is the AR Invoice Line Item ID specified in Financial Transfer Defaults), and Qty (which is always ‘1’).
NOTE: Only a total invoice amount is needed for AR processing. Line item detail has no functional purpose in the financial accounting system and is not transferred to avoid unnecessary data synchronization and double-posting issues. Do not attempt to itemize your invoice or tax details in your financial accounting program.
If you wish to include billing address details in your transfer file, however, select the Include Addresses checkbox.
If your accounting system can import invoices and credit memos in the same process with negative total amounts displayed against credit memos, select the Display – All option. If invoices and credit memos must be imported separately, select the Display – Invoices or Display – Credit Memos option as needed. When credit memos are displayed separately, they are listed with positive total amounts.
Transferring by data import
To transfer the voucher invoices listed in the grid by data import, click the Output button and select the Output to CSV or Output to excel option. The program will present the Output File Location specified in Financial Transfer Defaults, which you can accept or change as desired. After the output file is successfully saved, answer yes to the Do you wish to flag the AR Vouchers as Transferred? prompt.
The final step is to go to the data import utility in your accounting system and select and import the output file. Typically, the fields in the output file will be mapped on a one-time basis to corresponding fields in the import utility.
QuickBooks
QuickBooks does not include an invoice import utility. Several third party import tools are available and are easily found by web search. Many of our customers use the Transaction Pro Importer.
Financial Transfer using Transaction Pro Importer
Transferring by manual entry
To transfer the vouchers listed in the grid by manual entry, click the Output button and select the Output to printer option. After the report is successfully printed, answer yes to the Do you wish to flag the AR Vouchers as Transferred? prompt. Use the report to manually enter one-line invoices in your financial accounting system.
AR Processing
Once voucher invoices have been transferred, all accounts receivable processes are performed in standard fashion within your financial accounting system, including customer deposits, payments, statements, refunds, and open aging reports.
Never reverse invoices in your financial accounting system
If an invoice needs to be reversed and corrected, never reverse the invoice in your financial accounting system because the reversal will not flow back to the DBA accounting system. Instead, always reverse an invoice in DBA, which creates a credit memo that offsets the original invoice. You can then make any corrections and generate a new invoice. The credit memo and the corrected invoice will get transferred as AR vouchers to properly update accounts receivable in your financial accounting system.
