Feedback on my process of entering Prepaid Expenses

SOLVED

Hello,

I have done some research using the SAGE 100 ERP built in help center, this community, and general google searches and it appears that the following process would work for recording a prepaid expense.  The expenses related to this payment will be incurred next fiscal year and broken up quarterly.

The process is pretty standard except for when I record the expense as it is incurred.

Recording Prepayment:(link to the sage partners "record a prepayment" instructions)
 Note:  For the GL distribution I choose a Prepaid Expense asset account for the distribution.

Recording Expense:
1.  When in the period that a portion of the expense is incurred, I create an invoice in the AP Invoice Entry tool.  (This would be a recurring invoice with the distribution preset)
2.  I enter in a new invoice number and choose the Prepaid Invoice from the above "Recording Prepayment" step, but I choose zero for the amount to be applied.  I also choose zero for the total invoice amount.
3.  In the distribution Line tab,  I credit the above Prepaid Expense asset account and debit related expense account for the portion of the expense incurred that period.

This appears to do what I want it to.  That is, it retains an asset corresponding to the amount of unused prepayment at a given moment, records the expense in the proper period, and keeps the bank rec in the loop.

Are there any issues here that I might be unaware of?  Something I could not find in my research was the impact of constantly applying zero to the prepayment in the invoice entry step.  Is there some place that tracks the balances of un-applied prepaid invoices.

Thanks for reading and thanks ahead of time for any advice,

Joe

  • 0
    verified answer
    I suppose that would work.

    I normally just do a general journal or recurring journal entry to amortize away the prepaid asset to expense.
  • 0 in reply to TomTarget
    I do it the way Tom does it also. Much easier.

    Joe
  • 0 in reply to TomTarget
    Hi Tom, Thanks for the reply. I like to avoid GJEs whenever possible, but my system above could be too inefficient. It just seems a bit strange. Incorporating the prepayment tool into a process would be worthless if you can't easily apply the incurred expenses in the proper period. Further, do you know how SAGE tracks those open Prepayments? If the tool doesn't do that, it again seems to be worthless. Thanks!
  • 0 in reply to JoeBlue
    I think there may be a little confusion between a prepaid EXPENSE and a prepaid INVOICE.

    Amortizing prepaid insurance monthly would be a prepaid expense which Sage 100 does not have a "tool" for.

    Making a deposit/payment for an invoice that you have not yet received is a prepaid invoice and that is what the instructions you have found are for.
  • 0 in reply to TomTarget
    Hi Tom, I see what you mean about an easy tool to match up recurring prepaid expenses like insurance and it's too bad that there isn't an easy way to do that. A disadvantage with just booking a GJE is not having a quick and easy way of associating that credit out of prepaids with a vendor and it's associated service/original recording of the document.

    If I'm understanding you right, the only time these prepayment instructions would be applicable is if you're paying for services/goods received for the current period, but have not yet received the invoice.

    Thanks again for your time!

    -Joe