I am raising this topic because i know several individuals have raised this issue but i want to state some argument for it again.
I think the payment entry should include a party type for General ledger so that it could be an option to be selected. If party type is General ledger then the party should be a list of general ledger without a filter but to exclude Debtors control ledger and creditors control ledger as this is already taken care of in the customer and supplier party type. or it may include it but not allowed to be posted into if selected with an option to allow in a setting
In my 15 years of experience as Accountant, using ERP softwares such as sage evolution and Oracle, the simplicity of ERP software is crucial and ERPnext is doing a great job offering this platform. however the payment entry to me has a little setback to it being completely perfect.
The above suggestions is based on the following reasons;
-
Take an example of an organization that is completely automated with ERPnext workflow and where expenses are raised by the requesting department. first, journal entry would not be completely okay because the requesting departments may not be accountants to understand the principle of double entry and to me, they are just doing an accountant job. payment entry however would be great if it can have the feature i mentioned above. Sage evolution has this feature where in the settings you can avoid direct postings to the General ledger of Debtors Ledger and Suppliers Ledger. Having done that, you could then choose (in the cash batch) between AR, AP and GL), when you want to do a Cash or Bank batch posting. if you choose AR, list of Customers will show in the next field. If you choose AP, list of Suppliers in the next field and if you choose GL, it will show the list of all GL including debtors and Creditor ledger. However it will not allow you to post (when you click process button) into these 2 ledgers (Debtors and Creditors ledger) unless you allowed it in the settings.
-
Consider also when provision of some expenses are made (through Journal Entry) and they need to be paid at a later date (example is making provision for an expense that need to be matched with a date in November 30th but actually paid in December). Payment Entry is a perfect doctype for this, however, you cannot select a general ledger( the liability) where you want the payment to go to except you create the ledger as a payable ledger if you select employee party type, which to me is not a normal practice. the only payable ledger you should have is Creditors ledger. even if you do create that account as a payable account, it means all the current liability ledgers have to be created as a payable account and this is not okay. The truth is that if you copy the account code with its description into payment entry, it will accept it but it would never show as the list of drop down account because of the filter applied in the code for the field.
-
There are some expenses that are just one off with a supplier and as such may not need to create the supplier, post supplier invoice before raising the payment entry. they could have just been treated in a single doctype such as payment entry with ability to post to the expense ledger and not through that rigorous method since there is no need to track the transaction with the supplier.
-
Expense Claim doctype would have also solve the above problem, but it has a compulsory field of payable account which to me should be optional as not all expense claim need to have a payable account. Also it does not solve the issue in number 2 above.
With all these points, i want to suggest that;
- A general ledger be added as a party type options
- When selected, the party should list all the general ledger
- A settings in Accounting Module to either allow direct posting to creditors and Debtors ledger (Receivables and Payables)
- Based on 3 above, permission should be given to post into these 2 accounts in payment entry when selected in the party.
Thank you.