We invoice exclusively through the service module. Customer deposits have to be entered 3-2 instead of a normal cash receipt. Yes, this tracks it to the work order so the invoice is correct but causes all kinds of other problems. It reduces accounts receivable by creating a credit balance instead of crediting a customer deposit account. Profitability reports are ruined because it looks at the deposit like a credit memo and reduces revenue. Please fix this and program Sage to handle customer deposits correctly.
It is valuable because, once fixed, AR on the balance sheet would be correct and we could review profitability reports without wondering if we lost money or if there was just a customer deposit Sage thought was a reduction in revenue.
Thanks!
by: Bill S. | over a year ago | Service Receivables
Comments
Oh, please do this! We get around the problem by entering the deposit as a separate invoice (using the work order number with a trailing D) then invoicing for the full amount of the quote with a line item for a credit in the amount of the deposit. The accounting is more or less correct but it's clunky and it's very easy for a new employee to miss that a deposit has been taken and overcharge the customer.
In response to Maria V., this is almost the standard procedure.
In 11-2 there is a box in the bottom left corner labeled "Deposit" in which you can enter an amount for a down payment/depost. When you save the record, it creates a separate 11-2 record posted as a credit invoice. The number is the same as the original record but has a "-1" appended to the end.
The only change that should be made is when the deposit is posted, it should be "applied" to the work order, it shows the correct balance. This currently does not happen and the user must "pay" both invoices at the same time in the system in order to get the amount correct.
This really needs to be added to Sage. The deposit throws off the profitability report, making a $5000 invoice with deposit of $500 look like the job invoice was only for $4500.
My first message mentions 3-2 but I meant 11-2. The deposit field on 11-2 is the field that causes all the problems due to how Sage records it. I can see how Maria's workaround but, as she points out, creates a manual process that is easy for someone to miss. Sage - please update this field. Could it not use a customer deposit liability account to create an AP like ledger to track the deposits. Then pull those out when a final invoice is prepared and apply it against the amount due?