Multiple invoices, one payment, how to do bookkeeping?
chenzh
Member Posts: 9
Hello,
I have sent clients 3 invoices, and the client paid all together with one payment.
Now in my Wave transaction records, I have:
- 3 invoice paid records
- 1 bank transaction record
The repeated numbers doubled the amount, and I am not able to merge them together.
How should I do in this case? (if I want to link invoice record to the bank transaction record)
Thanks.
Best regards,
Chen
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Comments
Forgot to add:
The same situation happens when I pay someone as well.
e.g One invoice to pay, but down payment first; then by the end of the project, I pay the rest.
So I have one invoice, with 2 bank records.
Same issue here, I can't link the invoice to the bank records, can't merge either.. quite annoying.
Hey @chenzh Great question here! So for the invoicing piece, it sounds like you've been clicking 'Record a payment' in addition to that bank transaction importing, correct? If so, your process here is going to be fairly simple! You'll want to not click 'Record a payment' on those invoices, and instead, following this Help Center article here on how to split that bank transaction in order to associate it with each of your invoices.
Can you let me know how you're feeling that you can't associate those bank transactions with your bill, in your second scenario here? I'd love to see what you're seeing, if you have some screenshots that you could share!
Thanks for the reply!
I am actually using the slipt payment feature you have, but I am having trouble with "associate it with invoice and receipt"
What I do usually is (not sure if it's the way tho):
I upload bank statements, and merge records with invoice records or receipts I uploaded), so each bank transaction has something to tell what it is about.
The problem I have here is:
I can have a bank transaction split into a few payments, but I can't associate with any invoice or receipts.
I can make note about the transaction, but I can't check the documents in case I need to verify/audit the payment.
Would you recommend some better practices? Or maybe it's a feature to develop?
Thanks.
@chenzh Curious if you could explain what you mean by not being able to "associate with any invoice or receipts". From my understanding, it sounds as though when you attempt to categorize one of the splits in the transaction, you are unable to select the invoice or bill that you are trying to associate it to. Are you able to further explain if the issue is that it does not show up on the options list or if it instead gives you an error of some sort? If you can attach a screenshot, that would be even more helpful!
Hey @JordanD,
I made a few screenshots to explain the situation:
Pic 0:
My usual practice: I upload a bank statement, check the transactions, find the match between bank record and my purchase receipt (or sale invoice) , then merge them together. and clicked reviewed.
Pic 1 & 2:
You can see one reviewed record, I have 2 sources, and merge together.
Pic 3:
I sent a client 2 invoices: 268 euros & 150 euros.
Once I received the payment, I record the payment, Wave generated 2 transaction records as on the screenshots.
Pic4:
The client paid 2 invoices in one time, so I have ONE bank record (received 418 euros).
I can split the 418 euros into 268 & 150 under this bank statement record.
But I can't merge with the other 2 invoices records.
If I do nothing, on my accounting transaction, it will look like this:
**It made my received amount doubled on paper. **
The same situation could happen in many situations, such as when someone pays one invoice in 2 times too. (not only sales invoices)
I hope this is clear for you now.
Looking forward to your reply. (it has been bothering me since the beginning of using Wave)
Thanks!
Cheers,
Chen
The fundamental issue I have here is :
The "Merge" feature you have here is only for 1 to 1 (1 record matches with the other one, with the same amount).
You can't "Merge" 3 or multiple records together, eg.
Record A: 100 (bank statement)
Record B: 80 (invoice 1)
Record C: 20 (invoice 2)
You can't merge Record A + B + C into the final record amount = 100
In case I did not make myself clear,
Let's imagine a situation:
If you go to a shop, buy a computer for 600. the cashier print out a receipt (600.)
then you think you need a monitor for 300. so the cashier print out another receipt (300)
To avoid your trouble, so the cashier asks you to pay 900 in total once.
Now your bank record has 1 transaction (900 expense)
You have 2 receipts in your hand (600 + 300).
How would you make bookkeeping in Wave ( in a way that you can understand in future what this 900 is about, and see the receipt directly )?
Hi @chenzh , thanks for getting back.
As you've described there, this merge is not possible. Merges are specifically only possible for exactly identical transactions, and since the split is part of a line within a single transaction, it cannot be merged.
If you are using Stripe and the invoices are being marked as Paid automatically/this can't be edited, in this case, as a workaround I would recommend editing the amount on the bank imported transaction when you receive a lump sum across multiple invoices. Then, add another income transaction for the other half of the deposit. I know that is not an ideal solution.
Otherwise, if you are marking the invoices as paid manually, I would recommend just not marking the invoices as paid until the bank import transaction comes in, and categorizing it to the invoice.
The "work around" you mentioned, I have already tried. But I feel its more for the sake of "making this software work"...but fundamentally disturb the idea of bookkeeping...
Isn't it against rule of bookkeeping if I make up the bank statement records?
If I invoiced clients but not record the payment, then it will show as unpaid invoices. If I have many invoices, how can I tell some invoices are really unpaid, some are paid but not record payments??
The issues I have here I frequent so often (both for receiving payments and pay out), I assume other people might do too. So I would suggest to check with product team and maybe develop some feature for this issue if it's possible ..
Thanks.
Best regards,
Chen
I have found that if I receive a lump payment for multiple invoices, first I need to NOT mark the individual invoices paid on the INVOICES area but ONLY in the TRANSACTIONS area. I wait for the transaction to come in to the bank in Wave, and split it into the various invoices. BUT THEN that still didn't categorize them as sales etc. So sometimes I have to ADD INCOME and create another deposit of the bulk payment, categorize it as SALES, then when done I'll have two equal deposits to merge.
Note, when I get paid once for each invoice, Wave seems to create a deposit which I can categorize as SALES, and another one that says PAYMENT BY WAVE which is usually already attributed automatically to an invoice (I guess it matches them up by amount) and I just merge them together. But somehow it doesn't seem to do that in the multiple situation.
Hey there @Placidbeach
We've got a really great article that outlines some steps on how to account for this depending on the method that your client used to pay the invoice. Check out this article and let us know if you have any other questions!
Strangely if there is a wave payment of just ONE invoice, wave DOES nicely give me an income entry that I can categorize it as sales income.
Hi @Placidbeach , thanks for getting back! To clarify, are you referring to getting paid for Wave Payments in a lump sum amount which is greater than the invoice asked for? If so, then in that case you would need to create a transfer to get the funds categorized properly/appearing in the right place! (Normally this happens automatically.) This is because the invoices are already marked as paid, and the payment is associated with the money in transit account called Payments by Wave, which is where the system shows the money to be 'on the way' while waiting for your bank import.
Your funds will now appear as moved from the money in transit (Payments by Wave) account and the sales will be accounted for! In future, if you have questions about your Wave Payments, please submit a ticket to our Support team where a dedicated agent will be able to provide you with the timely assistance you require.
Another option i found to resolve this issue manually (yes, its not ideal) is to create a duplicate transaction of the lumpsump deposit imported from bank account and then manually edit the amounts on the original txn and the copy transaction accordingly to match the 2 auto imported transactions (invoice payments).
Hi All, Regarding receiving a combine payment from a customer...What I find frustrating is that 2 years ago I used to be able to split a transaction (bank deposit) and merge each of the splits with each invoice. In recent (2020) changes Wave has made, this option has been removed so reconciling is impossible now.