According to HMRC rules, VAT on all invoices should be based on the full price. Suppliers must account for VAT on the amount they actually receive, and Customers can recover the amount of VAT that is actually paid. As such, a Credit Note is automatically generated for any Settlement Discount value and allocated to the invoice and payment so that VAT is correctly accounted without the need for manual adjustments. More information with examples is available; see How To… » VAT on Settlement Discounts.

This feature within the Purchase Ledger and the Cash Book, enables you to control the payment of purchase invoices by optionally requiring them to be approved for payment.

Before you can use this feature, you need to set the number of approvals required. This is done from the Purchase Ledger Options - Remittances tab card. Here you are able to select No Payment Approval (the default), One Stage Approval, or Two Stage Approval.

The Suggested Payments list will be available even if you have selected No Payment Approval, but the Approve and Unapprove icons will not be active.

Then you need to set up the approvers:

In Security Profiles, find the Profile of a User who is to be given the ability to approve Payments.

Select Purchase Ledger - Transactions - Suggested Payments, and under the Options, change the details as required.

These settings determine the number of approval stages the Payment of Invoices will require.

Print determines whether a User can Print the Suggested Payments.

Disputed determines whether a User can deal with Disputed Invoices.

If No Payment Approval is chosen, then the Invoices will appear in both of the Remittances list windows, and in the Suggested Payments list window, but in the latter, the Approve/Unapprove icons will be greyed out, and will not be active. In this case Suggested Payments can be used to specify a suggested amount to pay, or to add a List Ref. to an Invoice.

If Stage One Authorisation is chosen, then the Invoice only needs to be approved once.

If Stage Two Authorisation is chosen, then the Invoice only needs to be approved twice, either by a Stage Two approver, or by a Stage One approver and then by a Stage Two approver.

When Purchase Invoices have been entered, select Suggested Payments to display the Suggested Payments selection window. This function can also be accessed through Cash Book - Suggested Payments.

Calculation of VAT on all invoices should be made based on full price. The system checks the method that was used to calculate the settlement discount at the time the invoice was raised to ensure that Settlement Discounts are not applied twice to the VAT value.

Depending on your approval level, some of these options may be disabled. For example, Stage One approvers can only view transactions that still require stage one approval and not those that are awaiting stage two approval.

Find Transaction by - In the absence of any other selection criteria being entered, All Transactions will be displayed. However, if you wish to select Transactions on the basis of the level of approval they have reached you can do so from the drop down menu which includes the following options:

Preferred Payment Method - Enter or lookup from the Payment Method list.

Accounts On Stop - If this is selected, the search will include suppliers who are on stop.

On this window on the right of each line is shown its approval status.

To approve a line (or lines), select them by single clicking and entering a value in the Allocated Value box, or by double clicking, and then click on the Approve button.

From Stage 0, updates to Stage 1

From Stage 1, updates to Stage 2

To unapprove lines either double click on them, or single click on them and click on the Unapprove button.

From any Stage, updates to Stage 0

The change in the approval status will be shown.

When an amount is entered into the Allocated value field, the Outstanding amount is updated (reduced) by the amount.

If you wish, you can print a selective list of the currently displayed Invoice list, with various options.

You can add a List Reference to selected Transactions by entering it in this box and clicking on its Set List Reference button. If a Transaction is given a new List Reference, then the old Reference is lost. The List Reference will be updated regardless of values being entered.

When you have made your selections, click on the OK button to update the invoices with the approvals you have given (or removed).

Once the Invoices in the Suggested Payments list have reached the desired approval stage, they will appear in the Remittance - Cheques/BACS list and can be processed normally in these functions.

Clicking Set % button overrides the default display of Settlement Discount. Clicking the button once will clear any Settlement Discount already displayed. Clicking a second time will re-display any Discount it has previously cleared.

Clicking the D button sets and removes the Dispute flag. Clicking the button once sets the Dispute flag for all Invoices displayed; Clicking the button a second time clears the Dispute flag for all Invoices displayed. The Dispute flag can be set/removed for individual Transactions by selecting the Transaction in the list and setting or un-setting the * Disputed check box. When flagged as being Disputed then when you save, and when a ledger Query Type has been saved, a Query Details dialog prompts you for the Query Type.

There is a print icon on both the Suggested Payments selection window and the Suggested Payments approval list window.

Suggested payments is a feature of the Purchase ledger and the Cash Book that enables you to control the payment of Purchaser’s invoices, by optionally requiring them to be ‘approved’ by either one or two ‘approvers.

Both print icons will open a print Output window so that you can select the destination for the report: Screen; Printer; File.

When print is selected from the Suggested Payments selection window:

When print is selected from the Suggested Payments approval list window: