Pay vendors

When you pay a vendor, record the payment against the bills it settles. The money is booked out of the bank account it left, the bills it pays show Partial or Paid, and the vendor’s balance falls.

Pay a vendor

1. Go to Payables ‣ Transactions ‣ Payments and click New payment.
2. Pick the Vendor. Their posted bills with money still owing appear under Open bills, with the Balance still due on each.
3. Enter the Payment date: the day the money left, so the payment posts in the right period.
4. Pick the Payment method and the Bank account you paid from.
5. Enter the cheque or transfer number in Reference, so you can find the payment when you check the bank statement.
6. In Allocate, enter the amount paid against each bill. Click Pay full balance beside a bill to fill in all it owes, or Pay all to settle every bill listed.
7. Check the total under Payment out, then click Save draft and Confirm.

Despite the button’s name, the payment is posted at once and opens with its number. The Allocations tab lists the bills it paid and what each still owes; each of those bills now shows Partial or Paid. The ledger has taken the money out of the bank account’s ledger account and off the payable, and the journal entry is on the Related tab. Click Print to prepare the payment as a PDF to send to the vendor.

Field	What it sets
Vendor	Who was paid. The payment is made from the vendor’s subsidiary, on their posting profile.
Payment date	The date the money left. The exchange rate and fiscal period are read at this date.
Payment method	How you paid: Bank Transfer, Cheque, Cash or Wire Transfer.
Bank account	The bank or cash account the money left.
Currency and Exchange rate	The currency you paid in, taken from the vendor.
Reference	The cheque or transfer number.
Notes	Anything your staff should know about the payment.

Note

The amount of the payment is the total you allocate, so you cannot record an advance or pay more than the listed bills owe from this screen. A vendor shared by all subsidiaries can be paid only by a user who works in one subsidiary; give the vendor a Subsidiary if the payment is refused.

Spread a payment over the oldest bills

When you pay a vendor a round sum, let Axon Suite settle their oldest bills first.

1. Pick the Vendor, so their open bills are listed.
2. Enter the sum paid in Amount, beside Auto allocate.
3. Click Auto allocate.

The sum is spread over the bills by date, oldest first, each up to its balance. Check the Allocate column, change any amount you need to, and save as above.

Example

A bakery owes its flour mill three bills: 1,200.00 from 2 June, 800.00 from 16 June and 950.00 from 30 June. It transfers 2,500.00. Auto allocate pays the first two in full and puts 500.00 against the third, which then shows Partial with 450.00 still due.

Pay in a foreign currency

When you pay in a currency other than your subsidiary’s, the payment is converted at its Exchange rate. The difference from the rate the bill was booked at is a realised gain or loss, posted to the accounts named in Set the exchange gain and loss accounts.

1. Check that Currency shows the currency you paid in, the same as the bills’.
2. Enter in Exchange rate how many units of your subsidiary’s currency one unit of that currency was worth on the payment date.
3. Allocate and save the payment.

Danger

The Exchange rate field starts at 1, and the payment is booked at whatever rate it holds; it does not look up the rate on file. Always type the day’s rate, or a USD 1,000 payment from SAR books is booked as SAR 1,000 and leaves a false exchange gain on the bill.

Void a payment

A posted payment cannot be edited. To correct one, void it and record it again.

1. Open the payment from Payables ‣ Transactions ‣ Payments and click Void.
2. In Date, enter the date the reversal books on.
3. Click Confirm.

The payment shows Void. Its allocations are released, so the bills it paid are owed again, and a reversing journal entry puts the money back into the bank account on the date you gave.

Messages you may meet

Message	What to do
No open documents	The vendor has no posted bill with money owing. Post their draft bills first.
Select a bank account.	Pick the Bank account you paid from.
The bank account is not active in this payment’s subsidiary.	Pick a bank account that belongs to the vendor’s subsidiary, or to all subsidiaries.
A document can only be settled in the currency it was raised in.	Set Currency to the bills’ currency, or record a separate payment for bills in another currency.
The documents it settles sit on different posting profiles; settle them separately.	Record one payment per posting profile, allocating only the bills on that profile.
The amount claimed is more than the document still has outstanding.	Lower the Allocate amount; another payment or a debit note has reduced the bill since you opened the screen.
The accounting period is closed.	Use a Payment date in an open period.