From an accounting standpoint, if July is closed, enter the invoice and post it in August.  If your financials need the expense to reflect accurate info, you would accrue the expense using a reversing journal entry.

blorf thanks for your input.

SC75 -

The invoice date does not determine the posting date.  When you print the invoice register, the date on the print screen (where it says "accounts payable posting date") is the date that is used for posting all of the invoices in that batch to the GL.

Helium

Just so I understand correctly, entering July 31 invoice date on the AP Invoice entry form does not affect the month the entry is reflected on the GL because the posting date is still in August. So there would no affect to my July financial statement?

If that is correct then I assume that setting the System Date to 7/31/14 before opening AP "Invoice Data Entry" to make the July 31 Invoice date entry would affect my GL. Correct?

Helium

Just so I understand correctly, entering July 31 invoice date on the AP Invoice entry form does not affect the month the entry is reflected on the GL because the posting date is still in August. So there would no affect to my July financial statement?

If that is correct then I assume that setting the System Date to 7/31/14 before opening AP "Invoice Data Entry" to make the July 31 Invoice date entry would affect my GL. Correct?

If July is closed, I would not try that. Bad things can happen.

Ok thanks to everyone for all your advice.  In the end we took the easy road and recorded the Invoice in August with a August invoice date and just made notations that we vendor send it late. Probably not the cleanest way to do it, but it should not cause any problems.

SC75 -

The posting (or transaction) date is what impacts the GL.  The invoice date does not.

I always assign the real invoice date to my invoices, regardless.  I just post them in the current month.

Helium.  Thanks for the insight I think we will do it that way in the future.