Processing Credits in TSM

Introduction

There are several scenarios under which a credit might be entered for a debtor invoice in TSM.

1. Full credit for an invoice
2. Partial credit for an invoice

These are affected by two factors:

1. The invoice has been posted to the accounting package or not
2. Receipt record being entered for one or more invoices.

Because there is no way for TSM to communicate to the accounting package which future invoice a credit will be applied to, credits are not handled the same way in TSM as they are in the accounting packages. Furthermore, some accounting link interfaces prohibit posting payment records that are zero dollars or less or invoices with a zero dollar value.

The conditions under which a credit can be applied can vary quite a bit and an attempt to represent this diagrammatically or in tabular form is more likely to confuse the reader rather than clarify the issue. Inevitably, such an approach will omit some uncommon but plausible scenario. For this reason this chapter offers a more general overview of the process of applying credits, the sorts of decisions that may be involved and focuses on the end result; how the data will be processed by the Accounting Link.

The “correct” accounting practice is adjustment, not erasure. This is historical: accounting ledgers were paper records with transaction entries running down the page and whilst a mistake in a transaction amount can be immediately corrected by crossing it out, if the said mistake is detected later, the ledger can become a real mess. So, the adjustment is entered into a separate adjustment ledger. The end result: the ledger is neat and everything balances. This tradition is well-ingrained. Sumerian accountants using clay tablets had the same problem.

Because accounting software is more comparable to a stack of cards than to a running ledger, each card containing a single transaction, erasure is instinctively an easier task. The user has to remember that in a relational database each record or “card” may have a reference to one or more other records and manual changes may need to be entered there also.

This is why the Invoice’s posted status in TSM is so important. Due to current software limitations, the accounting link is asynchronous, one software package doesn’t always “know” that corresponding data has been changed in the other and it is up to the user to make necessary adjustments in both.

Full credits



A full credit for an invoice may be applied as a means of returning the money to the customer or by applying part or all of the invoice value against another of the customer’s invoices. In the first instance if the invoice has already been posted to the accounting package, the user may choose to simply erase it from both applications. This will however result in there being no record that the transaction has ever been made. Alternatively, the user may want to create an adjustment record, either on the invoice itself (by adding a dummy non-stock part “REBATE” or similar) or an additional invoice with a negative value on it. If the payment record has already been posted to the accounting package, there is no other option to credit it by creating a negative adjustment invoice and entering a negative payment record for it. If a payment has not been posted yet, a zero dollar payment can be entered against both invoices. This will remove the invoice from the TSM Statement/Aged Debtors report. Note that whilst a negative dollar invoice will post, a zero dollar or a negative payment record will fail to post to the accounting package. It will appear in the failed queue which will alert the user to the fact that they will need to apply the credit manually.

The screenshot below illustrates how a full credit would be applied using an adjustment invoice and a payment record totaling to $0. Note that to enter payments against several invoices the user will have to select the Cash Payment module from the Action menu. Pressing the Receipts button on the Invoicing Tab of the Job Cards module will bring up the cash popup for that invoice only.



Partial Credits

A partial credit is usually necessary for one of two reasons:

1. The customer has overpaid an invoice and wishes the excess to be applied against a future invoice.
2. A part of an invoice needs to be credited for whatever reason.

TSM allows overpayments to be entered for invoices. This overpayment will post to the accounting package as normal and the invoice there will be automatically marked as “Paid”. This invoice will appear in a statement report and on the Cash Popup screen for this customer with a negative value against it, ie: the customer is owed money. When entering payment for a subsequent invoice in TSM the user can reconcile the overpayment by entering a negative amount paid to the amount of credit being applied and enter an amount against one other or more invoices on the screen. If a full amount is applied to the invoice, it will disappear from this screen the next time a payment is entered for this customer and from the debtors report. QuickBooks post will not accept “hybrid” payments. If one portion of the payment against several invoices is negative, the payment will not post. The user must remember to apply the credit in QuickBooks manually. MYOB Post can now process credit payments and will apply it against whichever invoice the user enters it for.



A partial credit for an existing invoice can be entered in one of two ways: as an adjustment invoice or as an adjustment entry on the job. Alternatively the invoice can be deleted, amended and re-created again. This, as well as an adjustment line on the invoice work best when the invoice has not yet been posted to the accounting package because the extra work of amending it there also is not yet required. If the invoice has already been posted, and the user is inclined to adjust it directly rather than via an adjustment invoice, they will need to delete the invoice from both TSM and the Accounting package, re-enter and re-post.

An non-stock adjustment product can be created for this purpose as shown below.



Alternatively if particular products on a job need to be credited back, these products can be added to the job with negative quantities. This will place them back into stock, if active stock control is used.



Tip: An invoice can be re-created with the same invoice number by setting the invoice numbering to “Manual” in Invoices Setup. When the user presses “Create Invoice” they will be prompted for a number. They can enter the invoice number being re-created or press enter to go to the next number in the sequence.

Note: If the Invoices Setup option to lock invoices after creation is enabled, simply entering the adjustment line onto the job and pressing “save” will not amend the invoice amount. The user will have to either switch the option off prior, or delete and re-create the invoice record.

An adjustment invoice record is the accounting “correct” way of entering a partial credit, however in practice many users choose to amend the existing invoice and then (re)post it. This is done primarily as a means of keeping TSM data “clean”, where all jobs records are in fact jobs – i.e. site visits and not adjustment records.

Posting to the accounting package

The table below illustrates what types of transactions associated with processing credits will post to which accounting packages.

Example from the MYOB Post

In this example a full credit is applied in TSM and the results are posted to MYOB. The purpose of this section is to give the user a better what to expect as a result.

There are two invoices in TSM, numbers 1009 and 1000, for $100 and -$100 respectively:



A payment is made against both invoices in TSM:



…and the results are posted to MYOB:



Note the error message on posting that payment. MYOB will not accept it automatically, meaning that it must be entered manually by the user. This error, along with the empty amount filed (at least for full credits) in the Transaction queues tab will ensure that the user is made aware that additional action is required to process this transaction:



Once the appropriate action has been taken, the User Action field against that transaction needs to be set to “Mark As Updated” by right-clicking on it and selecting the option from the menu, ticking the box on the left and pressing “Post Data”.

The user will need to contact TSM Support if additional information is required.