You may have associations with contacts where you act as both customer and supplier. In this context, it is common for trade credits to be granted to simplify payments and collections. Therefore, it is possible to offset a purchase invoice against a sales invoice and vice versa, using a manual payment gateway that you must create beforehand.
Clearing scenarios
There are different situations for invoice clearing:
Clearing two invoices, one purchase and one sales invoice, which have the same or different amounts.
Clearing in bulk: grouping several commercial transactions with a contact that includes several purchase and sales documents.
1. Clearing two invoices
For this first scenario, follow these steps:
1.1. Create a manual payment gateway
Go to Treasury > Banks.
Click on + Add account at the top right.
Select Payment gateway.
Choose Add manually as the gateway type.
Associate an accounting account and save the changes.
1.2. Record a payment on the purchase invoice
Go to Purchasing > Invoices.
Select the purchase invoice you want to clear.
Click on Add payment.
Enter the amount to clear, selecting the created gateway as the payment method.
Click on Confirm.
1.3. Registering a collection on the sales invoice
Go to Sales > Invoices.
Select the corresponding sales invoice.
Click on Add Collection.
Enter the same amount you used for the purchase invoice payment, selecting the same gateway as the payment method.
Click on Confirm.
1.4. Reconcile if amounts do not match
If, after clearing the two invoices, there is still money left over that you have not been able to adjust (for example, if the invoices are not the same amount), you will need to link the outstanding money to a bank transaction. This means that you will need to reconcile that difference with a transaction in your bank account, such as a payment or a collection. By doing this, you make sure that everything checks out and there are no unresolved differences in your accounts.
2. Clearing in bulk
If you want to perform a mass clearing, you can apply the same steps to a group of invoices. Register a payment and a collection using the same gateway for each invoice involved for the amount you wish to clear.
Remember that the payment gateway will allow you to manage the debts generated between the customer and supplier. This gateway account will be considered settled once all invoices are cleared.