AP descriptions in Fund Accounting

[mafmctr]

We have a problem when multiple invoices paid to the same vendor in AP are fed to the general ledger. Only one summary transaction for the whole check is posted in the GL. The description from the first invoice is what is populated in GL description field. GL activity reports list the same transaction description for all the accounts charged...even though they actual AP description(s) is likely very different. This is particularly a problem when we pay a credit card bill that will have many invoices for purchases from different vendors (but the check will be written to the credit card company). Is there any way to have the invoices post separately in the GL? Or any other creative idea to get the descriptions to agree with with the activity?

[Matt]

Are you talking about the posting to the checking account or to the expense accounts? If to the checking account--there can only be one transaction line posted to the account if multiple types of expenses (e.g. a credit card bill) are paid on one check. Otherwise the check amount will not match up to the bank statement on the bank reconciliation. If to the expense accounts--the system will post a separate line for each individual expense you input, even if the multiple lines all post to the same account. So for the expense part of the entry just input a separate line for each expense that you want to separately identify in the system.

[mafmctr]

Ok, I see that you will get only one checking account record and separate records for each invoice. But how do you control the description that is posted on the expense side for each of the invoices? We enter separate descriptions on each invoice but the only one that is populated in the posting process from AP is the first description.

[tborgal]

I have the same complaint about the way the invoice information is displayed but I can understand why this happens. The only way to get this information that I know of is to get it in a report. Go to Accounts Payable in the Accounting drop down menu select Reports then selected Paid Items - click on Run then enter the Vendor ID then either a check range or a date range and check Include Distributions and Include Notes. This report will give you all the information you are looking for. You must use the Vendor ID or else you will not get the distribution information.

Hope this helps. I know it is more operations than you would like but I know of no other way to accomplish this.

[Matt]

Ok--now I understand what description field you are referring to. This is actually the field in the Maintain Invoices screen in Accounts Payable that shows the Vendor Name. You do not ordinarily want to change what the system defaults in this field. Instead, there is a second description field on the screen called "line description" where you can input details on what the expense was for for each account. This is where you want to input the descriptions of the expenses. This will get you the detail you are looking for.

[mafmctr]

It looks like populating the specific line item description will work. We will give it a try...thanks for the help!