When the supplier's paper and your receipt disagree — transcript

Play this as a presentation — one slide per step, with the same narration. Every word of every step is on this page.

This presentation is for you if you book supplier bills at GadgetSphere and the supplier’s invoice in front of you does not agree with the receipt behind it. In about ten minutes you will know which kind of difference goes back to the supplier as a question, which one needs agreeing before it posts, which document corrects which mistake after FINAL, and what to read before you void anything.

Step 1 — Send a quantity difference back as a question

After this step a short delivery will go to the person who can explain it. If the supplier billed 200 earbuds and your receipt says 195, the difference is theirs to explain, not yours to absorb. Leave the invoice as a draft, send the supplier your receipt number, the item and the five missing units, and ask for a corrected invoice or for the rest of the goods. Do not raise the line to 200 to make the screens agree: that moves the discrepancy out of accounts and into your next stock count. If the five really are on their way, they are still open on your purchase order and will arrive on the next receipt. Whoever finalises purchase invoices owns the query until the two papers agree.

Reference: Purchase Invoice Processing — Step 4: Check the invoice against the paper

Step 2 — Get a price rise agreed before it posts

After this step a price difference will be settled on paper first. RM 132 billed against RM 128 ordered may be perfectly legitimate, but it should be agreed by whoever negotiates with that supplier before accounts posts it, not discovered afterwards. Nothing in BigLedger compares the two prices: if you retype RM 132 on the line, the invoice finalises without a word. When the rise is agreed, key the agreed price and attach the supplier’s confirmation to the invoice. When it is not, the supplier reissues. Getting it wrong costs more than the supplier balance: the item’s moving average cost moves with the price you post, and nothing warns you.

Reference: Purchase Invoice (Internal) — Knocking off a purchase order or a goods receipt

Step 3 — Read the note names the way the ledger does

After this step you will not key a correction backwards. If an invoice was finalised too high, the document that lowers what you owe is a Purchase Debit Note: it debits the supplier, credits purchases, reverses the input tax when the note carries tax, and it can be pulled from the original invoice. A Purchase Credit Note does the opposite here. It posts on the same side as an invoice and raises what you owe, so it is the right document only when the supplier billed too little. Suppliers often name these from their own side, which is the reverse. If a supplier’s balance moved the wrong way after a correction, check this first, and fix it with the other note rather than a void.

Reference: Core Concepts — 6. The notes point the way the ledger points, not the way the name suggests

Step 4 — Send goods back on a return, not a note

After this step returned stock will leave your books on the day it leaves your shelf. Notes move money only; neither touches stock. When units go back to the supplier, the document is a Purchase Return. Finalise it when the goods go: FINAL takes them out of stock at the location, lowers the supplier’s balance, and leaves a credit you clear against their invoices or against a refund. No flow copies a return into a credit note, so do not wait for one to follow it. Better still, receive only what you are willing to be billed for. Damaged units left off the receipt stay open on the order, and the supplier either replaces them or bills less.

Reference: Purchase Return (Internal) — Overview

Step 5 — Read Doc Link before you void anything

After this step a void will undo exactly what you meant it to. Voiding a purchase invoice marks its knock-off links deleted, so the receipt’s lines open again and a fresh invoice can draw them. Voiding a goods received note does not check whether an invoice has already drawn it, so you can cancel a receipt that is still being paid for and the void itself gives no warning. A finalised invoice cannot be voided once a return is linked to it, and BigLedger hides VOID once your company is live on e-invoicing. So before any void, open the document’s Doc Link tab and read what depends on it.

Reference: Best Practices — 11. Look at Doc Link before you void anything

Check yourself

Three to five questions on what you just heard. Every correct answer links to the page that makes it correct, so you can check the source, not just the mark.

Next: Receipts that bill themselves, and proving the month · Back to the series · Play this as a presentation