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In 4.65, I can no longer work with reimbursements/expenses when creating an invoice.


RogerMialkowski

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Hello, I'm a paid user of Express Invoice and I am having a problem after upgrading from 4.62 to 4.65. I'm a small computer repair business where I have to purchase parts for my customers and then charge them for the part when I create the invoice. I can't just add another line item because it would increase the total invoice amount and it would show up on sales reports which I get taxed on. In the past (4.62 and earlier), I would get it to work by entering in the expense/reimbursement the day of the purchase with a negative amount as my screensnip shows and apply a cash payment for the same negative amount. Then, on the invoice the customer sees, I would enter a line item for parts (72.07) and then the labor amount which would bring me the grand total I was due. So when I printed the customer sales reports, the parts expenses would not be showing up which is good since I don't want to be taxed for it at the end of the year. But upon upgrading EI to 4.65, when I try to accept the negative payment, it says I must enter a positive number so I'm kind of stuck. Any advice?

 

 

Thanks!

Roger

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I noticed 4.65 said Beta in the upper right corner and when I clicked on it I was able to revert back to 4.62 so I'm back in action at the moment. Is there a proper way of invoicing customers for billable expenses without the billable expenses showing up on the sales reports? The way I'm doing it now is kind of a hack since I'm not an accountant but I would love to learn how to do it the right way.

 

Thanks!

Roger

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  • 5 weeks later...

Not sure if I understand situation exactly. I only use the free version for a community club but I too found on upgrade that I could no longer have in my items list a negative (-) figure. The way I got around it was to have a default value of $0 for my item and then when I entered that item on an invoice I enter a minus value which the system accepts. The system will also save minus valued items if you create them from scratch in an invoice. Hope this helps.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello, thanks for responding. I am able to create an invoice with the negative (-) amount, but if I try to apply payment of the negative amount is where it complains that it cannot be a negative number. Let me try to explain better what I am doing.

 

Customer says they need an external hard drive so I buy it for them upfront using my money.

Invoice #1

Qty = 1, Item = Reimbursement, Description = USB External Hard Drive, Unit Price = -$50.00, Tax = None, Total = -$50.00

Subtotal = -$50.00

Total = -$50.00

Normally (with 4.62 and below) I would be able to apply payment of -$50.00 in EI to mark this invoice as paid and the customer sales report shows a negative balance of -$50.00.

 

I deliver and set up the hard drive for them and give them an invoice which needs to include the cost of the parts + labor.

Invoice #2

Qty = 1, Item = Reimbursement, Description = USB External Hard Drive, Unit Price = $50.00, Tax = None, Total = $50.00

Qty = 1, Item = Labor, Description = Setup USB External Hard Drive, Unit Price = $50.00, Tax = None, Total = $50.00

Subtotal = $100.00

Total = $100.00

They provide the $100.00 payment and I apply payment to the invoice for the $100.00 in EI.

When I run a sales report, the total sales for the customer should and does come out to $50.00 since the previously paid invoice had a $50.00 negative balance.

 

Since 4.65 doesn't allow for these negative figures, I am stuck on how I can charge my customer for reimbursables without them showing up on the sales report which is what my yearly income tax is charged against.

 

I'm sure there's a simple and logical way of getting to where I need to be with 4.65, I just don't know of how to construct the invoices to reflect that. I hope this made a little more sense.

 

Thanks!

Roger

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  • 2 months later...

"Since 4.65 doesn't allow for these negative figures, I am stuck on how I can charge my customer for reimbursables without them showing up on the sales report which is what my yearly income tax is charged against."

 

RogerMialkowski, have you found a way to apply a negative payment?


Thanks,
Joe

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On 4/23/2017 at 10:09 PM, RogerMialkowski said:

Hello Joe,

     Unfortunately I have not yet found a way so I had to revert to the version previous to 4.65. Are you in the same pickle as me?

Thanks,
Roger

Yes I am, also I have 4.49 and i cannot do this.  I also downloaded 4.62 and i still cannot apply a negative payment...

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50 minutes ago, jcicero said:

Yes I am, also I have 4.49 and i cannot do this.  I also downloaded 4.62 and i still cannot apply a negative payment...

When you apply a negative payment, do you first create a credit for $-50 or go directly to payments and input -50


Thanks,
Joe

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Actually, I first create an invoice with Reimbursement for the category, qty 1, and describe what I purchased for the customer and enter -100.00 and record and apply payment as cash. Then I create the invoice the customer sees with the category Reimburse with a regular line item and then the next line item is my labor as a regular line item. There's probably a correct way to do this but I am not really an accountant so this has gotten me by several years now until the latest version of the software.

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  • 5 months later...

As far as Express Invoice is concerned, you bill for the parts the same. If it's cost vs even if you make some money on the part, you still bill for that amount.

Being taxed on it, as far as Express Invoice goes, that goes for wherever you are located and the jurisdiction tax laws.  Such as I am in USA. My tax is singular, so if the part is XXX.XX, then in on the invoice, I put that amount in, then whatever the tax is for XXX.XX, then the program automatically adds that tax amount into the invoice.  This is the correct way for most business. Tax report shows the amount due.

However, if you are speaking about, if you went to a retail store, paid $10.00 for a part and then paid a tax for that part, say raising the cost to $11.50 (as an example), then in your TAX Report, it's going to show you owing for that TAX a second time.  So what you do then, inside of Express Invoice, all you do is go into your ITEMS area, create a nice little name (call it TFPARTS as example/Reimburse) give it $1.00 value,  select the TAX button, change it from Default to NONE.  Each time you enter in a part you buy and already pay taxes on, you enter TFPARTS, Enter the name and then the amount you'll change from the $1.00 it shows, to your amount you paid total and no additional tax is then added. Since that item in your item list is set to NONE for tax!

Then on every invoice that you had to enter parts you already paid taxes upon, you would then list your total and no taxes would show up on your report.  Which then, if caught and you face an audit, you will want to make 100% certain you have every receipt to account and show, in fact you did pay the taxes on them!   Which is a true accounting nightmare.  But if you print 2 invoices, one for your customer and one for yourself. Take your receipts where you bought the parts, make your copies (due to most printed receipts will fade) and staple your copies to your own invoice and file it for end of year. (and the next 7)

Another way you could do this is just be honest and up front (since you're not making any money on the parts).  On your invoice list what your service includes.  Let's see, your a small computer company, so let's say you bill for service;  Service: R&R internal Hard Drive, copied data, checked system for errors, etc, system shows all signs of being 100%. Amount Due: $150.00 (whatever)
Comments form on bottom: pre-paid parts included in total of job.  This way, no tax reports to deal with, you get paid the $150.00, end of the year when you file your taxes, your purchased items are deducted from your profit and so on, and you are staying legal.  No difference from sending your client out to buy the parts at the same cost. It's still pre-paid. Easy to explain to your customer.  State and jurisdictions have still already got their money, and you're not having to pay double taxation.  (same as above) and still staple your copies to the invoices and file them.

Far easier just to properly register your company from the start, buy your items TAX EXEMPT and charge the appropriate tax and pay it.  Do it right. Tax isn't and shouldn't be a fear and it's pennies on a dollar. Just do it right and you'll have no problems.

You way above, you collect the $100 fully. You then report that you made $50.00 total. Come tax time, you are then filing your taxes for the amount of $50 and not the $100. Then you should be taking your purchased amounts of parts and deducting those as an operating expense.  If in fact you are filing your taxes, you have just filed you made $50 and now saying, Oh, I'm deducting $50 for the part I paid for... therefore I made ZERO on that sale.  That's filing false taxes!  As in the proper way, it would be you made $100, you paid $50 for the part, therefore your net is $50. you pay taxes now on the $50!  Still the same, but you're allowed legal deductions, which really helps offset what taxes you may wind up owing.  Always show in your reports. With the proper accountant, you'll probably find out, doing it right, you'll wind up paying less in taxes as how you have been going about it all this time. 

Zeroing that out so it won't show on your report is the wrong way to go about it

Though you may be getting by, get yourself some help, talk with an accountant. And don't use any that claims anything to do with dodging anything.  Do it right.  Not worth it in the end.  Hope it helps!

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