Posting Vouchers with a Previous Month's Date

Normally vouchers in the accounts payable module are posted with a transaction date of the current month. At month end the accounts payable module is balanced and reports are printed. The A/P to G/L Interface is obtained and posted into the G/L module. After the A/P module is balanced and reports are printed nothing for the previous month’s dates are posted.

Sometimes a vendor invoice is received for a previous months date. It is recommended to us a voucher invoice date of the first day of the current month, NOT the previous month date.

If it is desired to use the vendor’s actual invoice date on an ongoing basis, which is a previous month’s date, this document explains how to handle it.

NOTE: Once a fiscal year has been closed in the G/L module, it is NOT recommended to enter vouchers dated for the closed fiscal year.

Example:

Fiscal year is 01/01/11 through 12/31/11. It is now November 2011. October 2011 A/P was just balanced. The A/P to G/L interface for October 2011 was obtained & posted into the G/L module. Financials for October and all previous months have been printed. The November vouchers are posted daily. Vendor invoices have been received & vouchers posted dated August, September & October 2011.

A/P Daily Balancing Spreadsheet:

See document A/P Daily Balancing & A/P Daily Balancing Spreadsheet Example.
Add an extra column for the $ amount of the previous months dated vouchers. This column should have a total.
Previously months dated vouchers should be entered onto the A/P Daily balancing spreadsheet into this new column.

Posting Vouchers daily (Task 1)

When the vouchers are posted daily, the date range of the current month will be used during the posting procedure. For our example: 11/01/11 through 11/30/11 is used for the starting & ending document date to post.
A separate posting is done each day for the previous periods date range. For our example: 01/01/11 through 10/31/11.
This gives a separate posting for all of the previous dated vouchers for the whole year. This would be entered on the A/P Daily balancing spreadsheet into the new column.

At month end before any other monthly balancing is started in the A/P module:

All of the previously dated vouchers are going into the G/L module for only one month prior; i.e. Using our example: we said vouchers were posted for August, September and October; with the next 2 steps, all of these vouchers will go into the G/L module, in the Month of October.

STEP 1:

Obtain & post the previously dated vouchers into the G/L Module

General Ledger (Module 4)
- Post interface transactions (Task 2)

Prompts for Specific Interfaces (Task 2)

In “Post interface transactions” the system prompts for the specific GL Interfaces to be obtained and posted. A screen helps to prevent accidental double postings by allowing the user control over which interfaces will be obtained and posted for each batch.

                              Choose Interfaces to be posted

                          Last       Last        Obtain for
                         generated    posted        posting
         Interface      for         for           now?
   --------------------- ---------   ---------    -----------
1. Payroll.............. 10/31/11    10/31/11     P/R (Y/N) N
2. Accounts receivable.. 10/31/11    10/31/11     A/R (Y/N) N
3. Accounts payable..... 10/31/11    10/31/11     A/P (Y/N) Y

4. Post the selected interfaces to G/L period: 10       10/01/11 to 10/31/11
5. Assign a posting date within period 10 of:   10/31/11
6. Transaction date range: 01/01/11 to 10/31/11
7. Transaction division range: ALL

Any changes?

Fields 1 & 2: answer N
Field 3: answer Y to obtain the A/P to G/L interface. (A new A/P to G/L interface from the A/P module will be generated and printed.)
Field 4: Enter the period number where the interfaces should be posted. In this example it would be period 10 for 10/31/11. A pop-up window appears to show date ranges for each period and highlights the current period. Make sure the period is the correct month & year.
Field 5: Enter the posting date that should be applied to the obtained A/P vouchers. In the example it would be 10/31/11.
Field 6: Enter a date range of A/P transactions to be posted. Using our example the date range would be 01/01/11 through 10/31/11 (the whole year). The key is to answer N to the questions “Include previously interfaced vouchers?” below.
Field 7: Enter a division range of A/P transactions to be posted. Blank means ALL.
When it asks "Include previous interfaced vouchers?" answer N
- The interface report will automatically include the information for any vouchers with this date range which have NOT YET BEEN INTERFACED, i.e. back-dated vouchers from a closed month.
- The increase in Accounts Payable on this A/P to G/L interface should equal the sum of the Voucher Postings for the previously dated vouchers. This should also equal the new column on the spreadsheet, for the previously dated vouchers.
- Make sure the last page, bottom line, debits and credits equal each other.
- There should be NO unknown accounts on the A/P to G/L interface.
The G/L posting register will also print. Save it.
Make sure there are NO errors.
Make sure there isn't anything "Out of Balance" on the screen.
Answer YES to "Posting of G/L Records OK?"

To skip step 1 above a manual journal entry can be posted to adjust the G/L accounts accordingly.

Note: Remember to rerun the financial statements for each of the succeeding months so they reflect the changes. For this example the financial statements would need to be reprinted for October.

The next step is to go to the normal A/P balancing procedures. For this example, November A/P would need to be balanced. And the November G/L Monthly procedures completed.