Posting a One-Off Prepayment

Manual prepayments are required when an invoice has already been posted that did not include the prepayment entries. This is achieved by posting a Prepayments document input form. The required prepayment entries are automatically posted by the system once the prepayment document has been posted.

Before posting any prepayment documents, it is essential to check that all the accounting periods within the prepayment time frame exist, and have a security role of PERIOD.8 or less. Prepayments are not posted to the correct periods if this is not the case, and this can be time consuming to rectify. For information on how to check the access level, please see Opening/Closing Accounting Periods.

This topic assumes you are familiar with selecting and completing document types and input forms. For more information, please see Completing Document Input Forms.

Scenario: An invoice was received for insurance totalling £12,000. The policy covers 01/09/2020 to 31/08/2021. The invoice was entered, but the prepayment was overlooked. A prepayment needs to be posted covering the applicable accounting periods.

1. Go to Documents, then select Document Input from the menu.

2. The Document Input dialog is displayed. Select ... in Document type, then double select to select FEPB - Prepayment to Balance Sheet (where FE represents the location code of the document type) from the Select a document type dialog.

3. The Date and Period default today's date and the current accounting period. The date and period should be the date in which the initial prepayment document is posted. To change the date, select a date from the Date drop-down calendar. To change the period, select ... in Period, then select the required period from the Select a period dialog. Select OK to confirm the selections.

4. The Prepayments document input form is displayed. In Description, enter the description of the prepayment, e.g. Annual Insurance Premium.
   

5. Enter the date the prepayment begins, in DD/MM/YYYY format, in Start Date.

6. Enter the end date of the prepayment, in DD/MM/YYYY format, in End Date.
   

   The accounting periods covered in the Start Date and End Date must have a security role you can post to i.e. PERIOD.08 or less. The manual prepayment document input form uses your own user access level, which is different to that of the automatic prepayments used on purchase invoices, credit notes, and miscellaneous payments. If you do not have the security role which allows you to post to all periods in the prepayment range, the prepayment is not released. Please check with your system administrator, the person within your establishment/organisation who administers your system, i.e. has a CUSTADMIN login, if you are unsure how to check this.

7. Double-select in Nominal, then double-select to select the applicable Nominal from the List of Nominals dialog.
   

8. Double-select in Account, then double-select to select an applicable Account from the List of Accounts dialog to post the prepayment against.
   

9. Enter the full amount of the expense being prepaid in Value, e.g. 12,000 (do not enter any currency symbols i.e. £, $, etc.)

10. The Description field defaults with Prepayment. You can over-type this with your own description for the prepayment detail line. This is the description which appears in a Document Enquiry.
    
    Do not enter any additional lines on the Prepayments document input form. You should only post one line per document. If you attempt to post multiple lines, the prepayments will not release correctly into the applicable periods.

11. Press F5 to post the document. After a few minutes the system posts the automated prepayment documents.

    Prepayment Nominal

    The following graphic shows the result of our example prepayment on the Prepayment nominal (FEN9320). Document FEPB3 posts the full expenditure to the Prepayment nominal on the balance sheet, 12,000 in our example. Documents FEPM1 to 12 release the applicable prepayment amounts over the specified monthly periods to the applicable expenditure nominal.

    

    Expenditure Nominal

    The following example shows the FEN3260 (Insurance) nominal that the prepayment was posted to. Document FEPB1 transfers the full cost of FEPI30 to the prepayments nominal on the balance sheet. The FEPM1 to 12 documents reverse the prepayment back into the expenditure nominal against the applicable accounting periods.