The Multiple Month Invoice Posting feature in The Business Edge allows you to spread an Expense Invoice over multiple months. This will enable you to avoid large monthly fluctuations on your Income Statement.
An example would be real estate taxes or insurance where you receive an annual invoice that would cause a spike in expenses if applied to a single month.
In the example below we are going enter an Invoice for real estate taxes and expense the amount over a 12 month time period. First, enter the full Invoice amount in the Approved Amount and Actual Invoice Amount field. If you would like to enter Invoice comments they can be entered in the Vendor Invoice Comments field. Then under Additional Information on the right select F4, Multiple Distributions.
You are now in Enter & Edit Vendor Invoices – Distribution Detail screen, enter or click on New Line.
The Distribution account 1400 is a pre-paid expense account. The distribution amount will be the full amount of the real estate taxes entered in the approved amount field. The Multi-Month GL Account field will be the account the monthly portion will be expensed to. In this instance we used 7280 Taxes – Real Estate.The Distribution account 1400 is a pre-paid expense account. The distribution amount will be the full amount of the real estate taxes entered in the approved amount field. The Multi-Month GL Account field will be the account the monthly portion will be expensed to. In this instance we used 7280 Taxes – Real Estate.
Once complete press escape or click ok. You will now be in the Enter & Edit Vendor Invoices – Prepaid Expense screen. Enter the first date you would like to start expensing in the Date to Start Expensing field. Since this example is for real estate taxes for the year 2020 we entered 01-01-20 in the Date to Start Expensing field. In the # of Months to Expense field, type in the number of months you would like to spread the expense over. When finished click ok or press escape.
You are now in the Multi- Month Expense screen. The disbursement dates are shown along with the accounts being debited and credited for the specific dates. You can then press escape or click ok.
The star in the GL Description field next to Prepaid Expenses indicates there is a multi-month distribution associated with the Invoice. New line allows you to enter another expense distribution for the same invoice for an additional amount if needed. When complete press escape or click ok
At this point you are in the Enter & Edit Vendor Invoices Distribution screen. Notice the system auto populated the Distribution Account, 1400. When finished press escape or click ok.
Your Invoice(s) will be displayed. When finished press escape or click ok.
If you are ready to update select yes.
Below you will see the General Ledger Summary for the Invoice. The transaction posts as a credit and a debit to Prepaid Expenses and a debit to the Taxes-Real Estate General Ledger accounts.
On the dates specified in the Vendor Invoice, the system will move the amounts from the pre paid account to the expense account. The transaction will be shown in a GL transaction inquiry under the expense account on the dates entered on the Vendor Invoice as seen below.
