Understanding the Flow of Accounts Receivable

The flow of information through the Accounts Receivable application is described below.

When a charge ticket becomes an invoice (moves to status B), an entry is created for the invoice in accounts receivable. When this occurs, entries are made in two files: AR-MASTER and AR- BATCH. In addition, following is updated:

The A/R figures in the (PDA) President's A/R screen

The customer's history in the Customer History window (C-AUX file).

Once an invoice is in the Accounts Receivable Posting window, you can post payments to it. When you post payments, the AR-MASTER and AR-BATCH files are updated as well as the Current $ and Total $ fields in the (PDA) screen.

At the end of the day, you print the A/R Batch Report, and release the accounts receivable batches. This clears today's batches from the AR-BATCH file. (Entries in the AR-MASTER file are not affected.) You audit the day's accounts receivable activity by adding the figure for the Accounts Receivable Trade account, which prints under the Total of All Batches heading on the A/R Batch Report, with yesterday's accounts receivable total. This sum is today's accounts receivable total. It should match the current accounts receivable total, which appears in the Total $ field in the (PDA) screen.

At the end of each day or at the end of the month, you age your accounts by running the Age-Only Trial Balance Report. You can do this through the (OR) Accounts Receivable Reports screen. If your customers prefer statements that include only outstanding invoices, complete the month-end procedures by doing the following:

Purge completed (zero-balance) invoices through the (O) Accounts Receivable Selectors or (OR) screen

If you assess finance charges, calculate them through the (O) or (OR) screen

Print statements through the (O) or (OR) screen.

If your customers prefer statements that include paid and outstanding invoices, complete the month-end procedures by doing the following:

If you assess finance charges, calculate them through the (O) or (OR) screen

Print statements through the (O) or (OR) screen

Purge completed (zero-balance) invoices through the (O) or (OR) screen.