Sometimes you may have two invoices that cancel each other out: for example, when you and a contact owe each other money, or when there is a return and you need to correct a previous invoice.
Instead of making actual payments or collections, you can offset those invoices in Holded so that the final balance is squared.
1. Offset sales and purchases with the same contact
Sometimes, you may have a contact with whom you work both ways: he sells you products or services (supplier) and also buys from you (customer). In these cases, it is common to offset invoices: use what you owe him to pay what he owes you, or vice versa.
1.1. Clearing a purchase invoice with a sale
To clear two invoices, one purchase invoice and one sale invoice, where part of the amount is cleared with other expenses and the rest is managed through a bank account, follow these steps:
1.1.1. Create a manual payment gateway
Go to Treasury > Accounts.
Click on + Add account at the top right.
Select Payment gateway > Add manually as gateway type.
Give it a clear name, such as "Invoice Clearing".
Associate an accounting account and save the changes.
This gateway will be the bridge account to reflect the clearing between invoices.
1.1.2. Record a payment on the purchase invoice
Go to Purchases > Invoices and open the purchase invoice you wish to clear.
Click Add payment in the right side panel.
In the Amount field, enter the amount to be cleared against the corresponding sales invoice.
Verify that the Date of the payment is correct.
Under Account, select the payment gateway you created earlier.
Click Save.
This records that you have paid that part using the clearing.
1.1.3. Record a collection on the sales invoice
Go to Sales > Invoices and open the sales invoice to be cleared.
Click Add payment in the right side panel.
Enter the same amount as in the previous step, selecting in Account the same gateway as the collection method.
Click Save.
This records that you charged the sales invoice using the balance of the purchase invoice.
1.1.4. What if the amounts do not match?
If the invoices to be cleared have different amounts, you must reconcile the difference as follows:
Record the bank transaction:
If the sales invoice is higher, record a collection from Sales > Invoices.
If the purchase invoice is higher, add a payment from Purchases > Invoices.
Reconcile the difference:
Go to Treasury > Accounts and select the bank account where the transaction was recorded, and click Reconcile.
Click Reconcile.
Locate the transaction corresponding to the pending difference, and assign it to the pending invoice to complete the reconciliation.
This ensures that the difference is correctly reflected in your accounting.
1.2. Bulk clearing of several purchase and sales invoices
If you want to perform clearing in bulk, you can apply the same steps to a group of invoices.
Use the same gateway created before.
From each invoice (purchase or sale), register a payment or collection with the gateway for the corresponding amount.
When all invoices are cleared, the gateway will be automatically settled.
2. Clear a return (corrective invoice) with the original invoice
Sometimes, after issuing an invoice, something happens that makes it necessary to adjust it: you may return part of what you bought, or your customer may return something that he had already paid for. In such cases, an amendment or return invoice is generated.
Before reconciling the related bank transaction, it is important that you link that return invoice to the original invoice. This way, the outstanding amount will be correct and everything will be well reflected in your accounting.
For example, imagine you have a sales invoice for $100 and then you make a return of $30. If the customer pays you only €70, you should relate the refund to the original invoice before reconciling that collection. This way, the system will know that those 30 € have already been compensated and will not remain as pending by mistake.
This also applies to purchases, when you return something to a supplier and they credit you.
To relate the return to the original invoice and be able to reconcile, follow these steps:
Go to Sales > Invoices or Purchases > Invoices, depending on what you need.
Open the original invoice you want to clear.
In the right side panel, click Add Payment.
At the bottom, select Relate to an existing payment (you will see a magnifying glass icon).
Choose the amendment invoice or credit note you created.
Click Confirm.
Once you have done this, the outstanding amounts will be adjusted automatically. You will now be able to reconcile the bank transaction without errors, and your accounting records will be in order.