If you regularly pay for such costs as rent, standing orders, or services that vary little from period to period, you can automatically create invoices for all or a selection of the payables and vendors at once.
The ability to create separate recurring payable batches saves you from having to enter an invoice for each recurring payable and vendor manually. It also provides a specific audit trail for the recurring payables by assigning them a separate batch type (Recurring).
Preparing Recurring Payable Records
You use the Recurring Payables screen to add records for the recurring payables you use and to assign them to vendors.
Specifying When to Process Recurring Payables
You can create payables you intend to apply indefinitely, or you can set them up to stop once you have paid a maximum amount or reached a certain date, or once you have processed a specified number of invoices.
Entering Details for Recurring Payable Invoices
You add distributions to recurring payable records, similar to invoice entry.
You can have Accounts Payable calculate taxes when you create a recurring payable batch, or you can enter the taxes manually.
Other Information You Can Enter with Recurring Payables
If you need to send your payment to a different address than the one in the vendor record, you can include a remit-to location with each payable. The remit-to location is used on the invoice when you create a recurring payable batch.
Creating Recurring Payable Batches
When the recurring payables are due, you use the Create Recurring Payable Batch screen to create a batch of invoices.
You can create a recurring payable batch by vendor number, vendor group, or recurring payable code.
Accounts Payable creates invoices for the amounts specified in the selected recurring payable records.
When you process a recurring payable batch, Accounts Payable checks to ensure that the invoice total (including taxes) will not cause the amount invoiced to date to exceed the maximum amount specified in the recurring payable record. If the maximum amount will be exceeded, Accounts Payable does not create the invoice, and does not update the Last Invoiced date field for the recurring payable.
You can edit the recurring payable batches, print listings for them, and post them in the same way you process other types of batches.
Note: If a recurring payable batch with the same batch date exists when you process a recurring payable batch, the new transactions are added to that batch.
Manually Invoicing a Recurring Payable
If you accidentally delete a recurring payable invoice, or if you need to create an additional recurring payable invoice for another reason, Accounts Payable lets you create an invoice manually. For more information, see Invoicing a Recurring Payable Manually.
Assigning Document Numbers to Recurring Payable Invoices
When you create a recurring payable batch, Accounts Payable automatically assigns a document number to each invoice. The document numbers use the prefix and start with the next number assigned for recurring payables on the Numbering tab of the A/P Options screen.
Reusing Deleted Recurring Payable Invoice Numbers
If you delete a batch of recurring payable invoices before posting them, Accounts Payable does not automatically reset the next invoice number for recurring payables on the A/P Options screen. To prevent gaps in your audit trail of recurring payable invoice numbers, you should change back to the number assigned to the first invoice in the deleted batch.
Reporting Recurring Payable Invoices
Invoices for recurring payables are shown as transaction type IN on all listings and reports in Accounts Payable, and the batch type is Recurring. The G/L Transactions report assigns AP-IN as the source code for recurring payable invoices.
When you post a batch of recurring payables, the program adds the recurring payable amounts to vendor period-to-date and year-to-date invoice totals. It also updates the Last Invoiced date and Last Invoice Amount fields in the recurring payable record.
Posting Recurring Payable Batches
When you post a recurring payable batch, Accounts Payable creates a posting journal for the transactions and updates the following records:
- Vendors. Adds the amount and number of new recurring payables to the totals for the period in the vendor’s account. Also enters the amount and document date of the last recurring payable that was posted for the vendor.
- Vendor Groups. Adds the total amount of the recurring payables invoiced to vendors in the group and the number of recurring-payable invoices created for the group to the group statistics. Use the Vendor Groups screen to view this information.
Creating General Ledger Transactions
When you post recurring payable batches, Accounts Payable creates transactions for the payable accounts specified for each detail line on a recurring payable invoice, and for the affected accounts in the vendor’s account set. Posting also creates balancing transactions for the corresponding payable control accounts. Print the posting journal for the recurring payable batch or the G/L Transactions report to view this information.