Accounts Payable - Purchase Order Reconciliation Process Flow

This topic describes step-by-step instructions for reconciling a purchase order during voucher entry in Voucher Entry. This process allows you to reconcile the cost of the merchandise on the voucher against the cost established on the purchase order. You are allowed to select one or several purchase orders for reconciliation.

When you first open Voucher Entry, the following fields may be displayed with default data:

To reconcile purchase order(s) and create vouchers:

  1. Open a new batch (or select an existing batch). You can use the buttons on the Batch tab in the ribbon to open or select a batch.

  2. Enter a supplier code in the Supplier Code field. The supplier's defaults appear for the currency, payment terms, payment method, accounts payable account, and 1099 status. Verify these defaults and change any values, as necessary.

  3. Verify/change the date in the Voucher Date field to reflect the supplier's invoice date.

Note If the invoice date falls out of the parameters of the dates included in the default posting period/year, a message will appear advising you that the invoice date is not in the posting period/year. You have the option to select another (open) posting period/year, change the invoice date, or accept the default posting period/year.

  1. Enter the supplier's invoice number or reference number in the Reference # field. The system will check for duplicates and advise accordingly.

  2. Enter the purchase order number in the PO # field or click the Purchase Orders button in the ribbon to select one or more purchase orders in Voucher PO Selection. If you click the Purchase Orders button, make purchase order selections by selecting a purchase order and clicking the Add button (to add one purchase order at a time), or click the Add All button (to add all purchase orders from the grid). If you select multiple purchase orders, the PO # field in Voucher Entry displays Multiple.

Note The Bill to Location field in Voucher PO Selection defaults to the default bill-to location for your user ID. If the purchase order you want to reconcile is not displayed in the Available PO's grid, you may need to change the bill-to location, or the products for the purchase order may not have been received.

Note When you select a purchase order, a warning message appears if the purchase order's currency, payment method, payment terms, or accounts payable account do not match the values entered in Voucher Entry. The values entered during voucher entry override the values for the purchase order.

  1. Click the Reconcile button in the ribbon to display A/P PO Reconciliation. This window displays all purchase order line items and corresponding receipts for the selected purchase order(s). By default, all receipts against the selected purchase order(s) are available in the A/P PO Reconciliation window.

  2. If you do not want to reconcile all receipts, click the Select Receipts button in the ribbon to display A/P PO Select Receipts, which allows you to add, remove, or view receipts. When you have finished, click the OK button in the ribbon to close the window, and refresh the receipts displayed in the A/P PO Reconciliation window.

  3. For each line item, enter the quantity invoiced in the Voucher Quantity column, and press the Tab key. When you press the Tab key, the Pay Qty column is populated with the quantity entered in the Voucher Quantity column. You can change this quantity if necessary.

  4. For each line item, verify/change the costs in the Voucher Unit Cost and Pay Unit Cost columns.

  5. If the purchase order has been fully received and the voucher is for the full purchase order amount (and you do not expect any other shipments against the selected purchase orders), click the As Is button in the ribbon to equate the invoice and pay quantities with the expected quantity and fully reconcile the purchase order. If you do this, the purchase order status will become Closed (closed purchase orders cannot be edited).

Note A variance general ledger entry (see General Ledger Account Resolution) only occurs if the check box in the Fully Invoiced column is selected. If the Fully Invoiced check box is cleared, you are expecting additional invoices that must be reconciled for the purchase order receipt. If you are not expecting additional invoices that need to be considered for this reconciliation, then it’s a good practice to click the As Is button in the ribbon, and make any corrections afterwards. Failure to exercise care during this process can lead to a reconciliation problem with the accounts payable clearing account(s).

  1. If you need to reconcile additional charges (such as tax, freight, duty, etc.), click the Additional Charges tab and verify/update the additional charges against the purchase order. Clicking the Update button opens Reconciliation Charge Maintenance, which allows you to accept or edit the invoice and pay amounts. Click the Exit button in the ribbon when done to return to the A/P PO Reconciliation window.

  2. Click the OK button in the ribbon after you have finished entering/verifying the desired quantities and costs, and verified the total cost. This will return you to the Voucher Entry.

  3. If you want to view the account resolution for the reconciliation against the selected purchase order(s), click the Enter Expense Accounts button in the ribbon to display A/P and Expense Accounts Entry. This window allows you to adjust the invoice amount for items that may not have been included on the purchase order (such as tax or additional duty/freight). Adjust the Total field to the amount you want to pay. The difference needs to be allocated to one or more general ledger accounts by selecting the appropriate account type and account(s) and entering the amount to allocate to the general ledger account. After you have entered/updated general ledger accounts and their amounts in this window, verify the Voucher Amount field displays the correct invoice amount, and either click the Enter Voucher button in the ribbon to create an accounts payable voucher or click the Exit button in the ribbon to return to Voucher Entry. The latter will retain the account resolution, and allows you to edit/review the voucher information.

  4. If no further processing is required, click the Enter Invoice button in the ribbon to create an accounts payable voucher. The voucher is created.

After accounts payable vouchers have been created, other processes include:

Processing Payments

To process payments:

  1. Select vouchers for payment. After vouchers have been created (and/or are posted to the general ledger), they are ready for payment. This process is accomplished in Voucher Payment Select. You must select the payment method entered for the voucher during voucher processing or select All to view vouchers for all types of payment methods.

  2. For vouchers not being paid by check or direct deposit (payment method is Cash, Other, Manual, Prepaid, Transfer, Wire, etc), payments are completed in Payment Entry after being paid.

  3. For vouchers being paid by direct deposit, payments are completed in Direct Deposit Payment Entry.

  4. For vouchers being paid by check, total payments must be approved in Voucher Payment Authorize. After checks have been approved for payment, print checks in Check Print.

  5. Post payments to the general ledger. After checks are entered into the system, they must be posted to the general ledger. This is accomplished in Accounts Payable Post. You can select to post all payments or payments for a specific batch number. In addition, if vouchers have not been posted, they too can be posted at the same time.