Help - over payment of expenses and Sage - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

Pitstop · Member

Help - over payment of expenses and Sage

VinceH · Expert

It largely depends how you deal with expenses normally - for example, do you have a purchase ledger account that the expenses 'claim' is posted to as though it's an invoice, with the payment posted against it, or do you just record bank payments for the expenses?

If it's a purchase ledger account it should be quite simple: presumably there is now a 'payment on account' on Sage to the value of £70. So this month post the expenses claim in full, pay £70 less, and allocate the payment and the previous payment on account against the 'invoice'.

If it's done as a bank payment, it could be more complicated, depending on how you analyse the expenses (and how you handle any VAT). You might want to give more details about the normal method you use, and what's therefore showing on Sage for last time, in order to get better advice.

Pitstop · Member

Hi Vince. Thank you for responding. It was always paid through bank payment. What happened was that something was paid for by company cheque but my director forgot he paid cheque and claimed it on his expenses too! The person who was doing the finances, used to work backwards in my opinion. She would pay the expenses then work through the receipts! This was when she realised that she had paid him for something that had already been paid for by cheque. Too late then!

Thank you Vince

VinceH · Expert

Okay, easiest solution:

Let's say the director's expenses claim this month (without taking into account the overpayment) is £236.43

Write a cheque to him for £166.43 (i.e. £70 less - to recover the previous overpayment).

On Sage, post a bank payment for £236.43, analysing the expenses however you normally would. Then post a bank receipt (same cheque number) for £70, analysing it however the £70 overpayment was analysed.

When you do your bank rec, you'll see a payment and receipt with the same cheque number, netting off at £166.43 - which is the amount that will have gone through the bank when the cheque clears.

Pitstop · Member

Thank you Vince

Will this still work the same as we pay by BACS payment for expenses?

I really appreciate your help.

Thank you

VinceH · Expert

Yes, the same principal applies: You'll have a payment and a receipt on Sage that together (payment minus receipt) will match a payment on the bank statement. What you won't have is a cheque number - but you might have whatever reference you input.

If it's BACS-proper (rather than a transfer, which these days everyone calls BACS) then you might have a whole batch of transactions on Sage - a number of payments, minus that receipt - rather than just the single payment and receipt. But ultimately, it's still the same thing.

Pitstop · Member

thank you so much for your help. I will get to grips with this tomorrow. Once again thank you :)