In Manager, a purchase invoice can become overpaid when more has been paid or posted against it than the original total of the invoice. This results in the Balance due for the invoice showing as a negative amount. Manager will display Overpaid in the Status column of the main Purchase Invoices tab listing:
There are many reasons an invoice could become overpaid:
- You accidentally paid the supplier more than the current invoice balance due.
- A payment to a supplier was allocated to the wrong invoice.
- A debit note was posted to an already-paid invoice.
- A payment was posted to a correct purchase invoice to which Manager had already distributed money automatically because an invoice was not selected during a previous payment entry. (The program can often, but not always, resolve situations like this spontaneously.)
Overpaid invoices are considered bookkeeping errors. Manager will display overpaid invoices at the top of the Purchase Invoices tab listing so you can see and resolve them. You should resolve overpaid status before generating supplier statements.
Viewing the purchase invoice ledger
To determine the specific reason a purchase invoice is overpaid, view the ledger for that invoice. To access the ledger, click on the blue amount under the Balance due column in the tab list:
This will reveal all transactions posted against the specific invoice (including the invoice itself) and a running balance:
Resolving overpaid status
Resolve overpaid status by editing one or more of the transactions in the invoice ledger.
Example
You entered a purchase invoice for ACME Distributing for 4,000. By mistake, you entered your credit card payment of the invoice for 4,400. However, a check of your credit card statement reveals you actually paid the correct amount. So this is only a data entry error. To resolve this issue, you edit the transaction where you recorded the payment as 4,400 to the correct amount of 4,000.
Suppose, however, you discover that you really did overpay. In that case, edit the payment and split the amount so only 4,000 is allocated to the purchase invoice and 400 remains unallocated:
After the transaction is updated, the invoice status shows Paid in full:
The unallocated 400 is applied to any other unpaid purchase invoices you have with ACME Distributing, oldest due date first, or remains as a credit to be applied to future purchase invoices.
Note
In situations like the one just described, good practice is to communicate with your supplier about your wishes. Do you want a refund? Or do you want your supplier to carry your credit on account for upcoming purchases?
Overpaid purchase invoices can also result from unexpected debit notes against already-paid invoices.
Example
Brilliant Industries has a purchase invoice from Edison Electrical Supply for inventory. The invoice is paid in full:
Upon opening one of the boxes to replenish merchandise on its shelves, Brilliant discovers some of the goods were damaged during transit. Rather than having the broken goods returned, Edison agrees to issue a credit note to Brilliant for their cost. Brilliant enters this transaction as a debit note, allocating it to the original purchase invoice. The purchase invoice is now overpaid:
Brilliant has two choices. It can ask Edison for a refund, posting the receipt to Accounts payable and the specific purchase invoice. The purchase invoice ledger will show all relevant transactions:
As an alternative, Brilliant can edit the debit note by deleting the purchase invoice allocation, leaving the 522 credit on account with Edison:
Manager will then automatically apply it to the next purchase invoice created for Edison. Either way, the purchase invoice status returns to Paid in full:
