Supplier Invoice Management is where you can enter and track all of your event or conference expenses with various suppliers. Depending on some of your initial preferences enabled for the Accounting Module, you may or may not see all of the following options.
Accounting is something that every company has their own specific processes and procedures for. Small meeting organizers will develop their own chart of accounts and accounting practices, while larger corporations and meeting groups will have processes and accounting practices as directed by their accounting departments.
Actual & Accrual Expenses
In the world of business accounting, there are two distinct processes when dealing with expenses:
- Actual Expenses - this term refers to entering in actual invoices received from vendors.
- Accrual Expenses - this term refers to entering in anticipated but budgeted estimates of an expense in the form of an 'accrual' invoice.
If you don't turn on Allow Supplier Invoice Accruals in Accounting Setup Preferences, you won't see this option in your Supplier Invoice Management screen.
New Invoice Entry Tab
This is the main entry window for Supplier Invoices. On this page, you can enter the following expense information:
- Supplier - select from a list you created in Application Setup. (This is a global library of suppliers that you can re-use in any of your events.)
- Type - select Actual or Accrual, as appropriate.
- Reference number - if you use an internal reference number, enter it here.
- Date - the date of the invoice.
- Due Date - date payment is expected by the vendor.
- Total Amount - enter the total amount of the invoice here.
- Attachment - if you received the invoice as a file (e.g. a PDF) or have scanned a physical copy, you can link the file here. You cannot have more than one, but you can remove the attachment, and replace it with another.
- Approved - this check box is used if you have a review/approval process from management. All expenses not approved will automatically show up in the Pending Approval Tab.
- Totals - on the right side of your entry, these items are calculated automatically for you, based on the Expense Items you enter.
- Item Total - total amount of all expense items (should always equal the Total Amount of the invoice).
- Total Ex-Tax Amount - your local tax rate is automatically calculated, and your total expense minus tax is shown here.
- Total Tax Amount - your local tax rate is automatically calculated, and your total tax amount is shown here.
- Currency - select your desired currency here.
- Add Expense Item - this is where you enter all expenses as shown on the invoice. You will enter the following:
- Account Number - select the correct account from the drop-down list. These account numbers were defined by you in Accounting Setup Preferences.
- Details - enter the expense detail here.
- Amount - the pre-tax amount of the expense goes here.
- Tax - enter the tax amount here, if any.
Accrued Supplier Invoices Tab
All accrued supplier invoices will appear here. You can edit any accrued expense until it is paid, then you can't edit the record any further.
Pending Approval Tab
All expenses requiring approval will go here. You will can select individual expenses or groups of expenses than can be approved in a single click.
Actual Tab
The Actual Tab displays a list of all actual expenses. Note, you can see, but not edit, these expenses.
All Tab
The All Tab displays a list of all actual and accrued expenses. Note, you can see, but not edit, actual expenses, and likewise for accrued expenses that have been paid.