Linked Transactions, or "how to tell an invoice was paid"?

[Derek Atkins]

Dave Peticolas <dave@krondo.com> writes:

> I'm not sure that is the case. Invoices are often issued
> under terms that specify penalties (interest) to be paid
> if they are late. I know in some industries those penalties
> can be negotiated, i.e., they can differ from invoice to
> invoice. So tracking the specific invoices with
> outstanding balances is important. And if customers can
> pay specific invoices out of order, then that would add
> another wrinkle.
> 
> dave

This is true.  However from the Transactional point of view, A/R and
A/P again just give you a per-customer list of invoices not-paid
within particular date ranges (generally 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 90+).  So
from that respect, it doesn't matter.  Personally, I was viewing the
Direct-Entry A/R and A/P as more of a personal-users tool than a
full-blown invoice tracking system.

>From a penalty point of view, yes, it does matter which invoice was
paid and when. But I don't think I want to deal with penalties at the
Transaction/Account level; I think that is more the role of the
Invoice tracking system (as opposed to A/R).  Once you add Customers
and real invoices with terms, I think you've gone outside the role of
the current Ledger.  In other words, I'm hoping that business users
will use the Druids and Reports for much of this additional
functionality, which should be able to provide more functionality than
direct entry in the SplitRegister.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
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