Accounts Payable - Vendor Invoices

Overview

The Vendor Invoices screen is used by the accounting department to enter vendor invoices received for processing.  This screen can also be used to enter vendor invoice adjustments (ie positive or negative values).  Transactions entered here can be charged to all accounts that are valid for data entry in the specified Legal Entity including accounts that require project information. 

After posting a vendor invoice, the document can be voided which will create a new document that is the negative of the original document.  The voiding document should be treated the same as if it had been applied to the original document.

Using the Vendor Invoices search / list screen, you can search for and view existing entries.  From this screen, users can also create, edit, post (previously submitted) and void Vendor Invoices.  Vendor Invoices can have one of the following statuses:  INUSE, SUBMITTED or POSTED.  

Roles

This screen is available to users having any of the following roles: Administrator, AP User, or AP Poster.  

• Users having the AP User role are authorized to create and view Vendor Invoices (limited by Organization Access restrictions).
• Users having the AP Poster role are authorization to post Vendor Invoices (limited by Organization Access restrictions).  Vendor Invoices can be posted directly from the Vendor Invoices List for those entries having a status of SUBMITTED, or individual Vendor Invoices can be posted directly from the Vendor Invoice screen using the Post/Next button.

License

This screen is available with the Project Financials family of Unanet licenses.

Topics covered on this help page include:

• Search                          (to refine the list of Vendor Invoices )

• List                                (to view, edit, delete, void or post Vendor Invoices)

• Add                                (to add Vendor Invoices)

• Edit                        

• • Summary        (to edit Vendor Invoice summary information)

  • Details             (to edit Vendor Invoice details)

  • Attachments    (to add attachments to a Vendor Invoice)

• View                               (to see a view only copy of a Vendor Invoice)

• • Copy                 (to copy Vendor Invoices)

• Post                               (to post Vendor Invoices)

• Void                               (to void Vendor Invoices)

• Closed Fiscal Year    (adjusting entries when posting/voiding to a closed fiscal year)

You may also be interested in:

• Import Vendor Invoice

• Export Vendor Invoice

• Create Vendor Invoices from Expense Reports

• Vendor Payments

• Bulk Vendor Payment Creation

• Check Print History

Search

Using the Vendor Invoice Search screen, you can refine the list of Vendor Invoices with which you have interest, by supplying search criteria and clicking on the List tab.

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

List

The resulting list will resemble the following example.    From this screen, you can use the available options to view, edit, delete, post, or void a particular Vendor Invoice.  

Drill Down Note: You can click on the value in the Balance column to view the Vendor Invoice Balance Details popup report.  The value in the Balance column is calculated as follows:

• For INUSE documents, this will reflect the Vendor Invoice amount.
• For all others -
• • Document's Invoice Amount
  • Minus voiding document's Invoice Amount
  • Minus sum of Applied amounts and Discount amounts from Vendor Payment Paid Document details that include this document.
• Note that there would be no Balance on Voiding Documents

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

Vendor Invoice - Balance Details Popup

The Vendor Invoice - Balance Details Popup report will resemble the following:

Add Vendor Invoice

Clicking on the link (available on the Vendor Invoice - Search/List screens), will present you with the Vendor Invoice - Summary screen where you will supply the summary information for a Vendor Invoice.  Subsequent to providing the summary level information, you will then need to navigate to the Details option, and supply Vendor Invoice detail line items.  On this Summary screen, you will enter information regarding the Vendor that sent the invoice, payment options, accounts payable information, the document and post dates, whether this is a recurring entry, whether there should be a payment hold, and any comments you'd like to associate with the entry.

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

Edit Vendor Invoice - Summary

The Edit Vendor Invoice screen (which you can get to by navigating to the Summary left menu option after clicking the pencil icon from the Vendor Invoice list screen), is nearly identical to the Vendor Invoice Add screen.  On this screen you can modify most fields with the exception of Legal Entity (which can no longer be modified once any Detail line items have been added to this Vendor Invoice).  This screen also displays the Vendor Invoice Document # assigned to this Vendor Invoice and also includes a Totals section, which recaps the amounts currently entered for any Detail line items.

The Summary menu option will become unavailable once the Vendor Invoice reaches the POSTED status.

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

Edit Vendor Invoice - Details

This screen is available to enter the detail line items making up a Vendor Invoice (which you can get to by navigating to the Details left menu option after clicking the pencil icon from the Vendor Invoice list screen).

The Detail menu option will become unavailable once the Vendor Invoice reaches the POSTED status.  

Header

The information in the 'header' section of the screen will recap the information provided on the document Summary.

Details Grid

This section of the Vendor Invoice Details screen is where you will be entering the individual line items that make up the Vendor Invoice.  Note that in order to submit or post a Vendor Invoice, the total of the Details lines must equal the Invoice Amount provided on the Summary screen.  This screen will include the display of informational error messages to help point out any issues with the current document that would prevent submittal.

For those Accounts that have been designated as requiring Project information (configured on the Admin >> Setup >> Accounts screen with the Require Project indicator checked), you can also provide additional 'reference' information (such as the project, task, project type, expense type, and possibly person).

If you delete a Detail line item on a Vendor Invoice that was originally created by the Create Vendor Invoice from Expense Report function, then that Expense Report will once again be eligible to be include in a future Create Vendor Invoice process.

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

Buttons (click on a link below for additional information):

Vendor Invoice Attachments

This screen is available to attach one or more documents to a Vendor Invoice (which you can get to by navigating to the Attachments left menu option after clicking the pencil icon from the Vendor Invoice list screen).

The Attachments menu option will become unavailable once the Vendor Invoice reaches the POSTED status.  

Note: The Unanet Administrator may want to suggest guidelines with regards to what types of files may be acceptable to be used as Vendor Invoice attachments, particularly in the case where any documents are being scanned and saved as a graphics file. Certain graphics file formats are known to result in much larger files sizes than others and you may want to consider suggesting a specific file type to help control the amount of data being stored in your database.  Generally speaking, jpg and gif files tend to be much smaller than tif and png file formats.

To assist with the management of allowable attachment types and size, the administrator can use the following three properties: Maximum Size Allowed for each attachment  (unanet.attachment.max_size), File Extensions that are Not Allowed  (unanet.attachment.invalid_file_extensions) and File Extensions that are allowed  (unanet.attachment.valid_file_extensions).

Using this screen, the user can add, remove or view an attachment.  The Save button will save the changes to the attachment screen and return the user to the Vendor Invoice Details screen.  The Cancel button will also navigate the user to the Vendor Invoice Details screen but without saving any changes.  Clicking on the paper clip icon will launch a new window and attempt to display the attachment (assuming your local PC knows what application to execute to view the specific file type).

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

Where can attachments be seen?

The Vendor Invoice >> List screen will contain a paperclip () icon to indicate attachments exist on a particular Vendor Invoice.  Clicking on the icon will navigate the user to the Vendor Invoice >> View screen with the Attachment section expanded.

When viewing a Vendor Invoice that has attachments, the list of attachments will appear in an expandable table under the displayed Vendor Invoice details as in the example below.  You can click on the paper clip icon () and view the attached document (assuming you have the necessary local software installed to view the particular file type).  This section will only appear if attachments exist.

View Vendor Invoice

This screen is available to view a read-only version of the Vendor Invoice document (which you can get to by navigating to the View left menu option after clicking the pencil icon from the Vendor Invoice list screen or by clicking on the eye glasses icon on the Vendor Invoice >> List).  

Once the Vendor Invoice reaches the POSTED status, this will be the only available menu option.

If the user viewing the Vendor Invoice has access to this Vendor Invoice's Legal Entity, a Copy button will be available (regardless of the Vendor Invoice status).  If the status is anything other than Posted, an Edit button will also be available as will a Place on Hold or Take Off Hold button.

Place On Hold / Take Off Hold

Once a vendor invoice has reached the SUBMITTED or POSTED status, the ability to further manipulate the "Hold Payment" option will remain.  Rather than editing the Vendor Invoice and checking or unchecking the Hold Payment check box on the Summary screen, you can use these buttons to continue to manipulate that option.  Only one button will appear at a time depending on whether the Vendor Invoice is current on hold.

Copy Vendor Invoice

The Copy button is available from the View screen (if the user viewing the Vendor Invoice has access to the Legal Entity of this Vendor Invoice).  Once you populate the values on this screen, click on Copy to invoke the copy or Cancel to abandon the copy.  Clicking on the Copy option will leave you on the current Vendor Invoice you were originally viewing (with a newly created Vendor Invoice having been created and left in the INUSE status).  To access the newly created duplicate Vendor Invoice, you would need to navigate back to the Search/List screen.

The copy function will create a duplicate of the current Vendor Invoice with the following differences:

• If the Keep Original Line Item Dates is not checked, the newly copied Vendor Invoice line item dates will all be populated with the supplied Document Date.
• The Post Date and Fiscal Period on the newly copied Vendor Invoice will reflect the supplied Post Date and Fiscal Period respectively.
• None of the Recurring attributes will be copied to the newly created Vendor Invoice.
• No attachments will be copied.
• Created and Last Updated attributes will not be copied.

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

Post Vendor Invoice

Roles

This screen is available to users having any of the following roles: Administrator or AP Poster.   Note that AP Posters are limited to posting Vendor Invoices for the Legal Entities they have access to via Financial Organization Access.

Vendor Invoices can be posted from two screens:

• Individual Vendor Invoice Post -- When editing the Details grid for a Vendor Invoice, the current Vendor Invoice can be posted by clicking the Post/Next button.  Vendor Invoices in the INUSE or SUBMITTED status may be posted from this screen.
• Bulk Vendor Invoice Post -- When listing one or many Vendor Invoices on the Vendor Invoice >> List screen, the user can check one or many Vendor Invoices and click on the Post button to invoke a post for many Vendor Invoices.  Only those Vendor Invoices in the SUBMITTED status can be included in a bulk post.

The posting process includes the following (not necessarily generated in this order):

1. Create General Ledger Entries --  GL entries are only generated when posting to the General Ledger (ie Post to General Ledger (unanet.financials.post_to_gl) property enabled and the Post to General Ledger Effective Date (unanet.financials.post_to_gl.eff_date) <= document post date).
   Attributes for the general ledger entry will include (for the individual entries, those attributes that are different than the general entry will be noted):    

1. • Feature - VENDOR INVOICE
   • Document Number - Current document's document number
   • Post Date - Current document's post date
   • Fiscal Month - Fiscal month containing post date of current document
   • Account - Described below
   • Organization - Described below
   • Project - Optional, relevant to Detail grid entries.
   • Description - Current document's description (exception - Detail entry uses detail documents description)
   • Transaction Date - Current document's document date (exception - Detail entry uses detail documents document date)
     
   • Summary -- Create general ledger record for the non-zero invoice amount from the Summary.  
   • • The Summary amount acts as an off-setting value to the Detail amounts.
     • The GL amount recorded will be the value of the Invoice Amount field on the Summary record.
     • The AP Org and AP Account used will be taken directly from the Summary record.
     • A positive amount will be recorded as a Credit amount.
     • A negative amount will be recorded as a Debit amount.
       
   • Detail -- Create general ledger records for the non-zero rows in the Detail grid.
   • • The GL amount recorded will be the value of the Amount field.
     • The Org and Account used will be taken directly from the Detail record.
     • A positive amount will be recorded as a Debit amount.
     • A negative amount will be recorded as a Credit amount.

2. Create Project Expense Entries -- Project expense entries are only generated when the document has non-zero Detail rows that include project info.  For each of those rows, we will create project expense records (to be available for subsequent Billing Post & Invoicing activities).
   • The expense amount recorded will be based on the Detail's Amount as follows:
   • • A positive amount will be recorded as a positive expense amount.
     • A negative amount will be recorded as a negative expense amount.
     • Alternatively explained, the project expense entry is based on the associated GL entry calculated as debit - credit.
       
3. Create Next Vendor Invoice Occurrence -- Only when this document is configured to be a Recurring document
   • Further, only when the max number of occurrences is blank or if the occurrence of the current document is less than the max number of occurrences.

• Additional Vendor Invoice specific validations:
• • A Vendor Invoice cannot be posted if the sum of Details does not equal the invoice amount (as recorded in the Vendor Invoice Summary Page > Invoice Amount field).
  • A Vendor Invoices cannot be posted if the Vendor is not valid for the document's Legal Entity.
  • AP Account must be active and allow entry on the post date of the document.
  • AP Organization must be valid for the AP Account, must be active, and allow entry on the post date of the document.

Void Vendor Invoice

Roles

This screen is available to users having any of the following roles: Administrator and AP Poster.  

Clicking on the Void icon () in the Vendor Invoice List will allow you to void a POSTED Vendor Invoice (generating a negating / voiding Vendor Invoice, reversing GL and Project Expense entries, etc).   This action does not delete any entries nor will it recalculate any values, but rather creates a set of reversing entries based on the original transactions.  This is true even if attributes referenced in the original documents have subsequently been made inactive, the voided transaction will continue to use those attributes to reflect the reversing values.

A voiding vendor invoice is treated as the equivalent of a payment application in regards to the originating vendor invoice (e.g. it would typically take the vendor invoice outstanding balance down to zero).  Note, however, that it can also take the amount of the vendor invoice below zero (or above zero if the voided document was originally a negative document) in those cases where the original document has already been included in one or more vendor payments.

The posting process includes the following:

1. Create a "Voiding" Vendor Invoice -- Clone the document being voided.  The voiding document will be identical to the original document with the following differences:

1. • All amounts (i.e. Summary invoice amount, and all Detail grid row amounts) are reversed (ie have opposite signs) on the clone.
   • Document Date will reflect the Void Date supplied on this screen (Detail line item dates will be the same as they were on the original document).
   • Description will reflect the value supplied on this screen.
   • Post Date and Fiscal Period will reflect the values supplied on this screen.
   • The Transaction Date for the reversing document's details should be the original line item date.
      

2. Create "Reversing" General Ledger Entries -- Reversing GL entries are only generated when posting to the General Ledger (ie Post to General Ledger (unanet.financials.post_to_gl) property enabled and the Post to General Ledger Effective Date (unanet.financials.post_to_gl.eff_date) <= document post date):
     
   • GL transactions will be generated regardless of whether the posting of the original document resulted in GL transactions.
     
   • Summary -- Create reversing general ledger record for the non-zero invoice amount from the Summary
   • • The Summary amount acts as an off-setting value to the Detail amounts.
     • The GL amount recorded will be the value of the Invoice Amount field on the Summary record negated.
     • The AP Org and AP Account from the original Summary will be used without any validations.
     • A positive amount will be recorded as a Credit amount.
     • A negative amount will be recorded as a Debit amount.
         
   • Detail -- Create reversing general ledger records for the non-zero rows in the Detail grid.
   • • The GL amount recorded will be the value of the Amount field negated.
     • The Org and Account from the original Detail will be used without any validations.
     • A positive amount will be recorded as a Debit amount.
     • A negative amount will be recorded as a Credit amount.  

3. Create "Reversing" Project Expense Entries -- Reversing project expense entries are only generated when the document being voided has non-zero Detail rows that include project info. The void process will create reversing project expense transactions that differ form the original transaction only in the sign of the amounts.
   

Validations

• Once you void a document, you cannot 'undo' the void.
• Only POSTED entries can be voided (ie INUSE and SUBMITTED items can be further modified, thus no need to void them).
• You can only void an 'original' document that has not previously been voided.  
• You cannot void a voiding document.  

To void a Vendor Invoice, you will need to supply values for the following fields and click on the Void button.

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

Closed Fiscal Years