Paying invoice without invoice number?

Posted by jnttsh on July 24, 2006, 11:41 pm

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My situation is this:

BACKGROUND: Weekly, we create invoices that go to a number of
clients. Our clients are subsets of various corporate entities, so
that we may bill the Corporate client at site A, Site B, and so forth.
Our invoices are sent to the site and approved by the project manager
and then on to corporate.

The project managers, internally, use Purchase Orders. For MOST of
the sites, the project managers simply forward our invoice stapled to
the Purchase Oder and then the AP clerk puts the invoice number on the
check stub.

One project manager, for whatever reason, does not forward our invoice
but only his purchase order. Consequently, the check stub from the
client lists a series of invoices and, for that one site, their
purchase order number instead of our invoice number.

The invoices are always the same amount so it is impossible for me to
precisely match the payment to the invoice.

I could just arbitrarily assign each incoming payment to the oldest
invoice for that site but that's probably just putting off the issue.
The first time a payment is questioned, their records would probably
show an invoice as paid that we show as open.

I'm working on getting this fellow to comply with the prevailing
practice but in the meantime, I need to keep my accounting system
squared away.

MY NEED: Some way to record the payment (even if temporarily) while
keeping track well enought to eventually go back and sort this all
out, while at the same time having the outstanding AR all in balance.

Any ideas?

Posted by Golden California Girls on July 25, 2006, 5:10 am

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jnttsh@houston.rr.com wrote:

> My situation is this:

> BACKGROUND: Weekly, we create invoices that go to a number of

> clients. Our clients are subsets of various corporate entities, so

> that we may bill the Corporate client at site A, Site B, and so forth.

> Our invoices are sent to the site and approved by the project manager

> and then on to corporate.

> The project managers, internally, use Purchase Orders. For MOST of

> the sites, the project managers simply forward our invoice stapled to

> the Purchase Oder and then the AP clerk puts the invoice number on the

> check stub.

> One project manager, for whatever reason, does not forward our invoice

> but only his purchase order. Consequently, the check stub from the

> client lists a series of invoices and, for that one site, their

> purchase order number instead of our invoice number.

> The invoices are always the same amount so it is impossible for me to

> precisely match the payment to the invoice.

> I could just arbitrarily assign each incoming payment to the oldest

> invoice for that site but that's probably just putting off the issue.

> The first time a payment is questioned, their records would probably

> show an invoice as paid that we show as open.

> I'm working on getting this fellow to comply with the prevailing

> practice but in the meantime, I need to keep my accounting system

> squared away.

> MY NEED: Some way to record the payment (even if temporarily) while

> keeping track well enought to eventually go back and sort this all

> out, while at the same time having the outstanding AR all in balance.

> Any ideas?

Yes, record their PO#'s on your invoices! Then it is a simple matter of looking
at
your open invoices for the PO#'s on the stub before you record the payment. If
that
isn't enough just modify a collections report to show the PO# as a column.

Posted by jnttsh on July 25, 2006, 9:24 am

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Golden California Girls,

Good idea but in my case I'm still wondering -- the reason: We send
the invoice to the site. The project manager then puts a p.o. number
to it, and forwards it to corporate. We aren't privy to the po#.

Now, I might be able to work it out where he notifys me of the po
number but I'm looking for a quick tracking fix pending the time I am
anticipating it will take to get all of us on the same page so that we
can just end up using our invoice numbers.

With that in view, any additional thoughts? thanks, John.

On Tue, 25 Jul 2006 02:10:41 -0700, Golden California Girls

>Yes, record their PO#'s on your invoices! Then it is a simple matter of

looking at

>your open invoices for the PO#'s on the stub before you record the payment. If

that

>isn't enough just modify a collections report to show the PO# as a column.

>jnttsh@houston.rr.com wrote:

>> My situation is this:

>> BACKGROUND: Weekly, we create invoices that go to a number of

>> clients. Our clients are subsets of various corporate entities, so

>> that we may bill the Corporate client at site A, Site B, and so forth.

>> Our invoices are sent to the site and approved by the project manager

>> and then on to corporate.

>> The project managers, internally, use Purchase Orders. For MOST of

>> the sites, the project managers simply forward our invoice stapled to

>> the Purchase Oder and then the AP clerk puts the invoice number on the

>> check stub.

>> One project manager, for whatever reason, does not forward our invoice

>> but only his purchase order. Consequently, the check stub from the

>> client lists a series of invoices and, for that one site, their

>> purchase order number instead of our invoice number.

>> The invoices are always the same amount so it is impossible for me to

>> precisely match the payment to the invoice.

>> I could just arbitrarily assign each incoming payment to the oldest

>> invoice for that site but that's probably just putting off the issue.

>> The first time a payment is questioned, their records would probably

>> show an invoice as paid that we show as open.

>> I'm working on getting this fellow to comply with the prevailing

>> practice but in the meantime, I need to keep my accounting system

>> squared away.

>> MY NEED: Some way to record the payment (even if temporarily) while

>> keeping track well enought to eventually go back and sort this all

>> out, while at the same time having the outstanding AR all in balance.

>> Any ideas?

Posted by Golden California Girls on July 25, 2006, 10:58 am

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jnttsh@houston.rr.com wrote:

> Golden California Girls,

> Good idea but in my case I'm still wondering -- the reason: We send

> the invoice to the site. The project manager then puts a p.o. number

> to it, and forwards it to corporate. We aren't privy to the po#.

New rule for customers, well this one anyway, "We can't ship until you give us
the PO#."

I'm surprised their A/P isn't all over this guys butt to provide the invoice
matched
to the PO!

> Now, I might be able to work it out where he notifys me of the po

> number but I'm looking for a quick tracking fix pending the time I am

> anticipating it will take to get all of us on the same page so that we

> can just end up using our invoice numbers.

> With that in view, any additional thoughts? thanks, John.

> On Tue, 25 Jul 2006 02:10:41 -0700, Golden California Girls

>> Yes, record their PO#'s on your invoices! Then it is a simple matter of

looking at

>> your open invoices for the PO#'s on the stub before you record the payment.

If that

>> isn't enough just modify a collections report to show the PO# as a column.

>> jnttsh@houston.rr.com wrote:

>>> My situation is this:

>>>

>>> BACKGROUND: Weekly, we create invoices that go to a number of

>>> clients. Our clients are subsets of various corporate entities, so

>>> that we may bill the Corporate client at site A, Site B, and so forth.

>>> Our invoices are sent to the site and approved by the project manager

>>> and then on to corporate.

>>>

>>> The project managers, internally, use Purchase Orders. For MOST of

>>> the sites, the project managers simply forward our invoice stapled to

>>> the Purchase Oder and then the AP clerk puts the invoice number on the

>>> check stub.

>>>

>>> One project manager, for whatever reason, does not forward our invoice

>>> but only his purchase order. Consequently, the check stub from the

>>> client lists a series of invoices and, for that one site, their

>>> purchase order number instead of our invoice number.

>>>

>>> The invoices are always the same amount so it is impossible for me to

>>> precisely match the payment to the invoice.

>>>

>>> I could just arbitrarily assign each incoming payment to the oldest

>>> invoice for that site but that's probably just putting off the issue.

>>> The first time a payment is questioned, their records would probably

>>> show an invoice as paid that we show as open.

>>>

>>> I'm working on getting this fellow to comply with the prevailing

>>> practice but in the meantime, I need to keep my accounting system

>>> squared away.

>>>

>>> MY NEED: Some way to record the payment (even if temporarily) while

>>> keeping track well enought to eventually go back and sort this all

>>> out, while at the same time having the outstanding AR all in balance.

>>>

>>> Any ideas?

Posted by jnttsh on July 25, 2006, 9:30 am

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Golden California Girls,

You'll note that between you and the other person who responded, I
think I may have a short-term quick fix. Thanks a bunch. This will
solve a lot of agony. John.

On Tue, 25 Jul 2006 02:10:41 -0700, Golden California Girls

>Yes, record their PO#'s on your invoices! Then it is a simple matter of

looking at

>your open invoices for the PO#'s on the stub before you record the payment. If

that

>isn't enough just modify a collections report to show the PO# as a column.

>jnttsh@houston.rr.com wrote:

>> My situation is this:

>> BACKGROUND: Weekly, we create invoices that go to a number of

>> clients. Our clients are subsets of various corporate entities, so

>> that we may bill the Corporate client at site A, Site B, and so forth.

>> Our invoices are sent to the site and approved by the project manager

>> and then on to corporate.

>> The project managers, internally, use Purchase Orders. For MOST of

>> the sites, the project managers simply forward our invoice stapled to

>> the Purchase Oder and then the AP clerk puts the invoice number on the

>> check stub.

>> One project manager, for whatever reason, does not forward our invoice

>> but only his purchase order. Consequently, the check stub from the

>> client lists a series of invoices and, for that one site, their

>> purchase order number instead of our invoice number.

>> The invoices are always the same amount so it is impossible for me to

>> precisely match the payment to the invoice.

>> I could just arbitrarily assign each incoming payment to the oldest

>> invoice for that site but that's probably just putting off the issue.

>> The first time a payment is questioned, their records would probably

>> show an invoice as paid that we show as open.

>> I'm working on getting this fellow to comply with the prevailing

>> practice but in the meantime, I need to keep my accounting system

>> squared away.

>> MY NEED: Some way to record the payment (even if temporarily) while

>> keeping track well enought to eventually go back and sort this all

>> out, while at the same time having the outstanding AR all in balance.

>> Any ideas?