AR Invoice Creation - Pending Invoices

This section briefly describes the Pending file and how accounts receivable invoices are created from the Pending file.  The Pending file is discussed in more detail in the documentation for the Order Processing and the Warehouse Management systems.

Pending Overview

The Pending File is used to track items that belong to your company, but which are not physically present in one of your warehouse locations. 

Pending records are created when a type L (loaner or no charge) order is completed. (Loaner and other order types are discussed in detail in the documentation for the Order Processing System).  Loaner orders can be created manually or automatically based on the type of Pending transaction being processed.

When a loaner order is invoiced, the system creates a “Shipper “ (type DS , OS, or SH) invoice.  Each Shipper invoice has a 0 value as the invoice is used to record an internal transfer of the items being processed.  Shipper invoices are NOT posted to the general ledger. 

Shipper invoices are created with a 0 balance and they do not record a sale.  Shippers store the prices that were input when the loaner order was created but the invoice balance is set to 0 when the invoice is saved.  Shipper invoices do not show up on the AR Aging. 

As each shipper invoice is created, the system reduces inventory based on the items shipped, and it creates pending records to track these items (in detail) in the Pending sub-ledger.  Any serialized inventory records being processed are also updated to show that the serialized item is in the Pending file.

The pending sub-ledger is part of the inventory owned by your company and it is included in the Inventory Balance in the General Ledger.  Each item in the Pending file stores a cost (the unitcost of the item at the time it was moved to Pending) and the movement of an item from inventory to pending does not result in a change to your inventory balance in the general ledger.

Pending records are used to handle a variety of situations, which include;

•      Processing evaluation and demonstration items that you send to customers.  These items will normally be returned or billed out (invoiced) to the customer.

•      Handling trade shows and rep samples.   These items will normally be returned, written off, or billed to the rep – or another party.

•      Transfers between your warehouse facilities.  The IFT system allows you to ship inventory between facilities and to track the items being transferred and control the timing of the receipt in the destination facility.

•      Return to Vendor transactions.  The Pending file is used to process items that have been sent back to your vendors for credit, repair or replacement.  Once the item disposition is known, the items can be returned to inventory, or used to create a credit to the vendor.

•      Billing consolidation issues.  The Ticket Billing and Invoice Customer from Pending options allow you to ship to a customer for a period of time using shipper orders without creating accounting invoices.  The Pending records created by this process can then be used to create a single invoice for multiple shipments to the customer.

•      Returns and repairs processing.  The Pending system can be used to move items into quarantine style inventory during Returns and Repairs processing, to handle complicated situations.

Once records are created in the Pending file, the items are tracked in the Pending file until the items are returned to inventory, written off, invoiced to a customer. or used to create a credit to the vendor.

Once a pending record has been created, it can be viewed and processed using one of several specialized Pending programs. 

Each of the pending programs supports multiple different options for closing out or disposing of open Pending records, and some of these options will create accounts receivable invoices when Pending transactions are processed.

The program used for each Pending record is based on the record type.   This record type is usually determined by the type of loaner order that was used to create the Pending record.

 The programs that are used to process Pending records include

•      Loaner Management – The Loaner Management program is used to track items that have been loaned out to customers, sales reps or other entities.  The Invoice Customer option can be used to generate an accounts receivable invoice from this program in order to bill the customer or other entity listed in the Pending record for the Pending items.  The program also allows the operator to return Pending items to inventory, or to write them off to the general ledger.  Loaner Management is part of the Accounts Receivable System.

•      IFT Management – The IFT Management program is used to track inter-facility transfers of inventory and to handle exceptions duirng transfer processing.  The program will allow an operator to write off Pending items or return them to inventory.    No accounts receivable invoices can be generated from this program.  IFT Management is part of the Warehouse Management System

•      RTV Management – The RTV Management program is used to process Returns to Vendors.  Items are shipped to the vendor using a loaner sales order – which creates records in the Pending file as it the order is completed.  Later, once the disposition of the items is known, the pending records can be used to create a credit for the items returned, or to record the receipt of replacement or repaired items.   RTV Management is part of the Accounts Payable System.

•      Ticket Billing Management – The Ticket Billing Management program is used to combine the invoice detail for a customer to handle situations where the customer does not want to receive an invoice for each shipment.  Items are shipped to the customer and are recorded in the Pending file.  Later a ticket billing process is used to create one invoice from the Pending records for the customer.  This invoice is used to bill the customer for the items that were shipped and to close out the pending records for the individual shipments.  Pending records may also be written off or returned to inventory from the Ticket Billing Management program.  The program is part of the Accounts Receivable System.

•      Pending Management – The Pending Management program is used to handle advanced repair and returns processing situations.  The Pending records shown in the program are created when the items on a customer RA are Returned to Pending (so that a credit can be issued to the customer and the items can be held in the Pending file while they are repaired or evaluated).  Pending records can be invoiced to a customer, returned to a vendor, written off or returned to inventory from the Pending Management program.

Invoice Customer Overview

All accounts receivable invoices that are generated from the Pending file are currently created by the Invoice Customer option.

The Invoice Customer option is available in the Loaner Management, the Ticket Billing Management, and the Pending Management programs. 

The Invoice Customer option allows the operator to invoice one or more than one Pending record (or invoice) for the same customer.

The operator identifies the items, quantities and serial numbers being processed and verifies or changes the price to be used for each item.

The system then verifies the following as the transaction is saved.

•      The Pending records point to a valid customer.

•      The customer company is not a reserved entity (like the RTV Customer or internal customer used by the RA System).

•      The records all point to the same customer.

•      The proper number of serialized inventory records are identified and they have the correct status.

•      The items all were invoiced in the same currency.

If the records do not pass the above checks, the transaction is aborted and an error is displayed.

Once the valid records have been selected and verified, the system performs the following tasks.

A sales order is created for the Pending items.  The sales order stores the price from the last value field in the Pending record,  and the cost from the pending records is moved into the sales order lines.  This cost is needed in case the cost of the item in inventory changed since the pending record was created (the system is reducing the pending subledger, so the cost to be used needs to be the pending cost).

The sales order is passed to the Invoicing Routine and it is used to create an invoice for the items being processed.  This invoice has a document type of OI and a source of PN.

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AR Invoice Creation - AR Payment Processing