Invoice & Bill Posting Date Issues Across Multiple Periods

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 12/9/2017 7:38 PM, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
> Thanks Maf.,
>
> But it seems the entire invoice posts together on the posting date, not by line-item date. I just double checked several of them that crossed period boundaries.
>
> I’m in the U.S., not sure what the specific rules are on invoice time frames, but GAAP would say the invoice/bill date doesn’t matter - what matters is when you actually do the work or incur the expense.
>
Going to put my two cents in (even though I am  not doing business 
accounting)

More complicated that that (the dates) and I will give you a concrete 
example from my own experience as customer. We had a solar system 
installed and we had a CONTRACT with the installer and this contract 
specified dates/events that made various portions of the job payable. 
Things like "upon signing contract" (of course no actual work done), 
upon delivery of materials (that one at least matches the above), upon 
completion/up and running but THAT depended on actions outside of the 
control of the vendor (when building/electrical inspector signed off, 
when electric utility came out for final hook up and they stall that as 
much as they can).

In other words, of all of the payments, only ONE was related to when the 
vendor actually do the work.

However I agree that the date an invoice is prepared is irrelevant. 
Should have effective dates for the charges.

Michael D Novack