Invoice-First: Receive, Bill and Settle

Invoice-first: receive the goods, book the final invoice, and clear the deposit

Steps 4 to 6 of the invoice-first workflow: receive the goods when they land, book the supplier’s final invoice against the receipt, then clear the deposit and pay the balance. It follows Step 3, where the order stayed open and the deposit voucher waited on the supplier’s account.

The running example: GadgetSphere Distribution Sdn Bhd (GSD) ordered 500 ultraportable laptops from a Singapore distributor at USD 620 each, USD 310,000, and paid a USD 93,000 deposit on a payment voucher. The container has arrived at the fulfilment centre, location GSO-FC-01.

Do not key the supplier’s invoice until the GRN in Step 4 is final: in BigLedger the purchase invoice is the document that books the stock. And keep the Forex applet’s USD rate current for the invoice date, because a USD document with no rate for its date will not finalise.

Two things carried from earlier in the job. If your accountant showed the liability at a period end before delivery with a manual journal (Step 3), reverse it when the invoice posts in Step 5. And check Before you start before Step 4: serial tracking must be switched on for the item before this receipt if you track laptops by serial, and the company’s default GL codes — the creditor code for this supplier’s type, PURCHASE, INPUT_TAX, FOREX_GAIN and FOREX_LOSS — must be linked.

Step 4: receive the goods.
Step 5: book the final invoice.
Step 6: clear the deposit and pay the balance.

Step 4: Receive the goods

Purchasing > Purchase GRN (Internal) > Internal Purchase GRN > Create

The container is unpacked at GSO-FC-01. Count first. Then create the GRN, set branch and location, and pull the order in — KO For → Purchase Order, or Search Document → Search Purchase Order — before your first Save: both panels exist only on a GRN that has never been saved. The 500 come across from the open queue; change the received quantity if the count differs. Open each line and enter or scan the serial numbers; the count must equal the quantity, and — when your GRN applet has serial validation on FINAL switched on — a serial that already exists in the company stops FINAL.

Record the shipping documents’ reference in the header and attach the packing list. SAVE, then FINAL.

The GRN locks, knocks the 500 off the order, and — provided the company’s Knock Off Configuration has the Purchase GRN → Purchase Invoice row — queues itself for the invoice. It writes no stock and no journal — the laptops are on the floor and not yet in the ledger. Stock Availability now adds them to Available Qty — it counts the GRN’s queue entry for the invoice, so this needs the same Knock Off Configuration row — while Stock Balance has not moved, so the two screens disagree by 500 until the invoice in Step 5 books the stock.

Step 5: Book the final invoice

Finance > Purchase Invoice (Internal) > Internal Purchase Invoice > Create

Now the supplier’s tax invoice — USD 310,000 for 500 units — can be keyed, because the goods are here. Set branch and location, the invoice date, and the supplier’s invoice number in the reference field. Currency USD; the rate fills from the Forex applet for that date. On Account pick the distributor. On KO For, choose Purchase GRN and pick the receipt from Step 4. The 500 lines come across. Now check the invoice date again: the knock-off stamps today’s date over the one you entered, so put the supplier’s date back before you go on.

Compare the copied lines with the paper: 500 units, USD 620, USD 310,000. If the distributor has billed a different price, this is the moment to stop; BigLedger will not stop you.

Add the tax line your supplier charges, if any — an import from Singapore normally carries no supplier SST; any import duty and tax paid to the forwarder is its own invoice from the forwarder.

FINAL. BigLedger creates the base-currency shadow and posts:

Dr  Purchase                        RM equivalent of USD 310,000
    Cr  Creditor — the distributor           RM equivalent of USD 310,000

and books 500 units into stock at GSO-FC-01 with their serial numbers, updating the item’s last purchase cost. The Posting tab shows Journal and Inventory posted; TraceDocument shows the rows.

Watch out for: This document is in USD but the company currency is MYR. Enter a non-zero exchange rate before finalising. (FOREX_DOC_REQUIRES_NON_ZERO_XRATE) — no rate was fetched for USD on that date. This one does stop FINAL. Enter it, or add the rate in the Forex applet, and finalise again.

Step 6: Clear the deposit and pay the balance

Two things to do, in this order.

Apply the deposit. Open the finalised invoice and go to its Contra tab. Search the supplier’s open documents; the USD 93,000 payment voucher from Step 2 is there. Tick it and enter USD 93,000 as the contra amount. Save. The invoice’s open balance drops to USD 217,000 and the voucher’s open balance drops to zero.

Pay the balance. Create a second payment voucher for the distributor — one payment line, USD 217,000, bank transfer, the invoice number in the reference — and on its Contra tab tick the invoice and enter USD 217,000. FINAL. The invoice is settled; the supplier’s account is nil.

If the exchange rate moved between the deposit, the invoice and the final payment, the difference between what the invoice posted and what the two vouchers posted is written to FOREX_GAIN or FOREX_LOSS on settlement. You do not calculate it.

What success looks like for this part

The GRN is FINAL with the 500 laptops and their serial numbers; the purchase invoice knocked off that GRN, carries the supplier’s invoice date, and its Posting tab shows Journal and Inventory posted; Stock Balance at GSO-FC-01 is up by 500. The deposit voucher’s open balance is zero, the invoice’s is zero after the second voucher, and any rate difference is on FOREX_GAIN or FOREX_LOSS. The whole job’s checks are in What success looks like.

Common mistakes in this part

Contra’ing the deposit against the wrong document. A supplier with several open vouchers and invoices makes this easy. Put the order number in the deposit voucher’s remarks and reference at the time, not later.

Forgetting the rate. A USD document with no rate for its date will not finalise. Keep the Forex applet’s rates current for the currencies you buy in.

Paying the balance before the invoice is in. A second no-contra voucher is another open deposit; nothing stops it and the supplier’s account then shows two debits and no invoice. Book the invoice first, then pay against it.

Keying the pro-forma as a purchase invoice, putting the deposit on the order’s Payment tab, and reading availability as stock on the shelf are on the front page’s list.