Vendor Invoices Workspace

Use this workspace to enter vendor invoices and vendor credit memos.

Information is held in a posting journal for future allocation and posting.

You enter this information into a posting journal that you can post either directly from this workspace or from the Posting or Print Posting Journal workspaces in the G/L module. More than one posting journal can be active at a time.

When you enter the vendor invoice, you must allocate it to indicate the accounts and job-, item-, or asset-related purchases to which the invoice pertains. You can perform the allocation in the Invoice Allocation workspace before you post the invoice or in the Reallocate Invoices workspace after you post the invoice. Depending on the type of purchase that the invoice covers, you can enter the allocation or reallocation using the following methods:

• If the invoice is for items for your warehouse, you must allocate the invoice in the Invoice Allocation or Reallocate Invoices workspace and select the For Inventory Purchase field for the invoice allocation line. If you select the For Inventory Purchase field in the System Information workspace, Maconomy automatically selects the corresponding field in this workspace when you create a vendor invoice. When you select this field, Maconomy creates an allocation line that contains the full invoice amount and with the For Inventory Purchase field selected. You can edit the allocation line manually if needed. If you specify a purchase order number and a packing slip number that matches the delivery note number of a receipt that pertains to that order, Maconomy automatically creates an allocation line for each line on that receipt that resulted in an item movement. On the automatically created allocation lines, the For Inventory Purchase field is selected.

  The selection of the For Inventory Purchase field and the allocation of the amount cause Maconomy to create purchase transactions in the sub-tab of the Invoice Reconciliation workspace that corresponds to the vendor invoice that you entered. After you post it, you can reconcile the vendor invoice with the corresponding item receipt in the Invoice Reconciliation workspace.

• If the invoice is not for items for your warehouse, you do not need to create any purchase transactions. In this case, enter the relevant P&L cost accounts or job numbers in the Invoice Allocation workspace, depending on whether you want to enter the purchase directly in the G/L module or relate it to a job.
• If the invoice is for acquisitions of fixed assets, you can create a fixed asset-related invoice allocation line. You can enter the information about the specific assets before or after the posting of the vendor invoice.
• If you have not yet decided where to enter the vendor invoice, you can postpone entering it until after it is posted. You can then enter it in the Reallocate Invoices workspace to the relevant cost accounts or jobs. In this case, do not allocate the invoice in the Invoice Allocation workspace.

If a vendor invoice pertains to goods for your warehouse as well as goods or services not for your warehouse, you can combine these three methods for the same vendor invoice. You can allocate part of the total invoice amount and create a purchase transaction for this, allocate part of the amount without creating purchase transactions, and finally post the remainder of the amount with no allocation. In this case you need to reconcile invoice allocation lines for inventory purchase and perform a reallocation of the unallocated invoice amount. If you select the Aut. Appr. of Purchase Transactions system parameter in the Set-Up module, Maconomy automatically reconciles vendor invoices against the corresponding purchase transactions. If you do not select this system parameter, you perform the reconciliation in the Invoice Reconciliation workspace

Use the Margin, Appr. of Purchase Transactions system parameter in the Set-Up module to specify the size of the difference allowed between a purchase transaction and a vendor invoice. If the difference is less than the specified margin, Maconomy automatically allocates the difference. If the difference exceeds the allowed amount, you still need to perform the reallocation in the Reallocate Invoices workspace.

When you have entered all of the information for a vendor invoice, you use the Submit Line for Approval action. Next, the invoice must be approved according to the approval principle that is specified for vendor invoices.

When you submit a vendor invoice, Maconomy checks if the approval should be based on approval hierarchies or if the vendor invoice can be approved by all users with access to the approval actions. You create and maintain approval hierarchies in the Approval Hierarchies workspace in the Set-Up module. You can perform the approval at several levels, coordinated by an approval hierarchy. If so, Maconomy picks an approval hierarchy based on the invoice allocation information. Through this hierarchy, Maconomy identifies the people who are to approve the allocation. The criteria for whether a vendor invoice requires approval and who is to perform the approval can be the size of the amount on the allocation lines or the number of the vendor in question, for example. You can only transfer the invoice and post the amount after all required people have approved the allocation lines of the invoice. See the description of the Approval Hierarchies workspace in the Set-Up module for more information about approval hierarchies.

When you edit an allocation that is already approved for posting, you must approve the allocation for posting again by using the Approve (Line) for Posting action in either this workspace or in the Invoice Allocation workspace.

If a vendor invoice corresponds to a purchase order that you entered in the Purchase Orders workspace and then sent to the vendor, you can save time by entering the purchase order number in the sub-tab. If you do this, Maconomy automatically allocates the entered vendor invoice in the Invoice Allocation workspace to a number of entries that correspond to the purchase order lines.

If you selected the Allow fully received purchase orders only system parameter in the System Parameters workspace, you can only submit invoices on which a purchase order has been specified if the purchase order has been fully received.

In the sub-tab you can specify a vendor invoice to be copied to the new invoice. You can also choose to have the new entry reverse the effect of an existing invoice. This functionality facilitates the creation of vendor invoices and credit memos and is thus also useful in situations in which a credit memo should reverse the effect of an original vendor invoice.

If you selected automatic approval at submission in the approval hierarchy set-up, Maconomy automatically approves vendor invoices when you submit them by using the Submit Line for Approval action. This parameter is useful if the user who submits the invoice is also the person who should approve the invoice for posting, because both actions can be performed by using the Submit Line for Approval action.

The Status field on each line in the sub-tab displays the current status-such as Awaits Allocation and Awaits Posting-of each invoice.

If you create an invoice manually in this workspace, you can assign a file that contains, for example, a scanned image of the original vendor invoice to the vendor invoice. To assign such a file to the invoice, you specify the entire path of the file in the File Name field in the sub-tab. If you do this, Maconomy automatically creates a document archive in which it stores the file. You can also specify a document archive and the name of a file that is already assigned to that document archive. See the description of the File Name field for more information about this functionality. You can use the Show Document action to use a third-party program like Acrobat Reader or a browser to display the file.

If you select the Margin for purchase order reconciliation system parameter in the Set-Up module, you set up Maconomy to automatically control and reconcile purchase orders against assigned vendor invoices. In that parameter, you specify the maximum amount or percentage difference allowed between a purchase order and a vendor invoice so that Maconomy reconciles these automatically. If the difference is greater than is allowed, you must perform the reconciliation in the Invoice Allocation and Reallocate Invoices workspaces.

When posting a vendor invoice that is reconciled against a purchase order to which job accruals are assigned, Maconomy automatically reconciles the assigned job accruals within the margin specified in the Margin, job accrual reconc. system parameter in the Set-Up module. For more information about job accruals, see the description of the Job Accruals workspace in the Job Cost module.

In connection with the creation of a purchase order, the amounts that you enter on each purchase order line are included in the financial commitment accounts. When you post a vendor invoice to which a purchase order is assigned, Maconomy releases the commitment to an actual obligation. Maconomy calculates the amount that is released from the number of items specified on the individual vendor invoice lines and from the unit prices specified on the purchase order. You can only enter a purchase order on the line in the sub-tab if the purchase order has been approved.

The following example illustrates the calculation of released commitment amounts:

Purchase Order	Account No.	Text	Number	Unit Price	Amount	Commitment
83001	1010	Books	10	250	2,500	2,500

Purchase Order	Account No.	Text	Number	Unit Price	Amount	Released Commitment
250001	83001	Books	6	260	1560	1500

As this example illustrates, the commitment amount that is released is the amount from the vendor invoice. See the Purchase Orders workspace for more information.

If you have started an invoice allocation in the Invoice Allocation workspace, the vendor invoice journal cannot be posted before the allocation has been approved for posting in the same workspace.

If a company other than the company displayed in the tab of this workspace is specified in the sub-tab of the Invoice Allocation and Reallocate Invoices workspaces, intercompany postings between the responsible company and the specified company occur at the time of posting. These intercompany postings are of the type Vendor Invoice. However, if you do not select the Create intercompany entries for companies with same parent company system parameter, Maconomy only creates intercompany entries if the two companies involved are not both assigned to the same parent company.