Importing Accounts Payable Data

Accounts Payable data is stored in the following primary files

Vendor – The Vendor Table contains all of the vendor companies in the system.  A vendor record with a unique name and account number should exist in this file for each company pointed to by an AP or Purchase Order document.  Vendor records can be entered into the system manually or they can be imported from csv or other files automatically using standard utilities.  The Vendor system is used by the Accounts Payable, Purchasing, Product Management and other systems, and Vendor data is usually loaded early in the system startup process. 

AP Register – The Register file contains one record for each vendor invoice entered into the system (open or closed).  Register records contain information that applies to the whole invoice (vendor name, invoice number and date, terms, amounts, etc.).  Each Register record has a unique Tran# and is also normally unique based on the vendor and invoice combination (the system can support but is usually set to block duplicate invoice numbers for each vendor)..  Open register records have a balance and the check date and check number fields in the record will be blank

Register records can be entered into the system using a specialized program called AP Beginning Balances Entry, or they can be imported.  Beginning Balance AP Invoices have specific requirements, and specific fields must be loaded so that the system can properly audit the activity against the invoice after conversion.

Journal Entry – The Journal Entry file stores the distribution detail for each invoice in the AP Register file.  If an invoice is entered into the system, the system creates a register record with the invoice details and 2 or more journal entry lines to record the invoice in the general ledger.  Imported invoices – from a prior system, will not normally have any journal entry lines (the logic is that they were posted to the prior system and are included in the AP Balance you are bringing over to the GL from the old system).

The Journal entry file is also used to record the payment activity for each invoice.  As invoices are paid or applied against each other, the system create journal entry lines to document the activity.  Standard reports automatically audit this JE activity against the invoice balances to flag any discrepancies.

Inventory Activity – The Inventory Activity or  Invtran file is used to record item activity (changes to costs and quantities).  Inventory Activity records are created for purchase order receipts and vendor shipment transactions.  The StreamV AP system allows you to match or tag these transactions during accounts payable invoice entry so you can verify that the value of the goods you are paying for matches the amount of invoice from the vendor.  Items received from a vendor that have not been matched up with an invoice are referred to as un-vouchered inventory.  The amount of this inventory is tracked in the general ledger system and can also be reported on using the Un-vouchered Inventory report.

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Accounts Payable System Startup Tasks