Vendor Invoice Memo
The Vendor Invoice Memo is a debit note: it lowers what you owe a vendor. You raise it for goods returned, a price agreed down after the bill, or a claim. It looks like the Vendor Invoice and posts the other way round.
What it is for
A memo puts a debit on the vendor's account. A payment or a Vendor Settlement can then use it to reduce what you pay.
Like the invoice it has two kinds, decided by the Transaction Journal:
- Against a purchase return (Journal Indicator
P). The lines come from a purchase return order. You cannot debit more than the return order's balance. - Free text (Journal Indicator
F). You type the lines and their accounts.
A purchase return also raises its memo by itself when a memo journal is set: the Memo Journal of Account Payable Setting, or else the memo journal of the purchase order's purchase organization. With neither, no memo is raised.
Every field in plain words
The header is the same as on the Vendor Invoice, with these differences:
| Field | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Return Authority Number | The vendor's return authorisation | Optional |
| Purchase Order | The return order the lines come from | Against-return memos only |
| Payment Term, Payment Method | Configured but never shown on this screen | They are taken from the vendor. A vendor without them cannot get a memo |
| Payment Specification | Stored | Recorded only |
| Budget Control Applied, Budget Limit Verified, Budget Limit Override | Budget flags | Editable here, read by the budget check |
The lines grid has Account, Unit, Quantity, Price, Discount, Tax Zone, Tax Group, Line Text, Purchase, Purchase No and Name, as on the invoice.
How to configure it
- Make a memo journal (nature for vendor debit notes) per kind, free text or against a return.
- To raise memos from purchase returns by themselves, set the Memo Journal in Account Payable Setting, or the memo journal on each purchase organization.
- Digital invoices. When the company and the journal both send documents to the tax authority's portal, and the memo is in the company currency, the memo must be posted on today's date and every line needs an HS code. A parked memo then needs the journal's unposted number range. Such a memo cannot be reversed.
Scenarios
- Goods came back damaged. Post the purchase return. The memo is raised by itself if a memo journal is set; otherwise raise it here with the against-return journal and the return order.
- The vendor agreed a discount after billing. Use the free-text memo journal, one line for the amount, with the account that receives the discount.
What it is connected to
- Vendor Invoice: the document it reduces.
- Payment: an invoice payment lists open memos of the vendor with a negative amount.
- Vendor Settlement: nets memos against invoices without money moving.
- Batch Posting posts parked memos.
- Purchase returns: Purchase Return in Inventory, against a return order on Purchase Order in Purchasing.
If something looks wrong
- "Payment Term cannot be Empty" or "Payment Method cannot be Empty". The vendor has none in this company. Set them on Release Vendor In Legal Entity.
- "Memo has been stopped for Return Order : ..." Memos are blocked on that return order.
- "Basic Data - Line ID: ... - Purchase Quantity: ... cannot exceed Balance Quantity: ... in Return Order : ..." More than the return order's balance.
- "The posting date should be the current date." A digital-invoice memo must post today.
- "Line ID: ... HS Code is Rquired for Authority Portal" Put the HS code on the item.
- "Un Posted Number Range is not configured in Journal" A parked digital-invoice memo needs the unposted range on the journal.
- "This Document is Linked with Digital Invoice, you cannot reverse this Invoice" It went to the authority portal; raise an opposite document instead.
- "Invoice: ... cannot be reversed. Following Payments have been raised against it: ..." Reverse the payments first.