assign 1 payment to different invoices

[David Gillam]

Hi Geert,

Thanks for the reply!  As I'm now (finally) on 2.6.5, I'll try your method, as it seems to fit my general use-case (oldest invoice is fully paid, newest invoice may not be paid at all), results in less manual effort, etc.

Cheers!

David
Gillam Data Services, Inc. - Computer Training & Support
dave at davegillam.com | www.davegillam.com | 972-383-9391

 

> On Jan 29, 2015, at 8:21 AM, Geert Janssens <geert.gnucash at kobaltwit.be> wrote:
> 
> On Thursday 29 January 2015 08:01:05 David Gillam wrote:
>> I may not be doing it correctly, but the following seems to work for
>> me:
>> 
>> 3 invoices as described below, 1 payment as described below.  Let's
>> say the payment is check #1234.
>> 
>> Pay invoice 1: $3, check #1234, remaining balance = $2
>> Pay invoice 2: $2, check #1234, remaining balance = $8
>> Pay invoice 3: $1, check #1234, remaining balance = $3
>> 
>> Note how the three payments are all the same check number.
>> 
>> I have one customer who routinely pays multiple invoices with one
>> check, so in my case, usually the remaining balance on each invoice
>> is $0.  There are times when the customer doesn't write a check large
>> enough to pay all invoices, so I just apply the amount to pay in full
>> the oldest invoice(s) leaving a partial payment on the newest
>> invoice.  I then notify the customer of the current payment status.
>> 
>> Is there anything wrong with this method?
>> 
> Hi David,
> 
> What you do is perfectly ok from an accounting point of view.
> 
> The difference between your and my solution is that you end up with 3 
> payment transactions and I end up with one. I took Tereque's question as 
> if he wanted to end up with only one payment transaction in the end as 
> only one payment really happened. But that's mostly taste.
> 
> If you are ok with multiple transactions I would surely recommend your 
> way of handling it. It's much more straightforward.
> 
> Note that both methods are only for situations where you need to have 
> control over which part of the payment goes to which invoice. If the 
> invoices can be paid in a fifo order (first-in-first-out), you can 
> simply select all invoices in the payment window, set the amount of the 
> payment and hit ok. In the original example that would result in 
> INV1 receives $5
> INV2 receives $1
> INV2 unpaid
> 
> From an accounting point of view that is perfectly fine as well. In 
> accounting receivables are against a customer, not against individual 
> invoices. The split over invoices can be done for practical reasons.
> 
> Geert