How to do this?

Hello,

Suppose I m at the end of the year and I know that I have to recieve a bill for let’s say telephone costs.
I have learned that it’s a good habit to put the costs on the year that the costs are made.

So I do these steps :

31/12

Telephone costs  100 
to Recieved bills          100 

Now on 10 janauri I recieve the invoice.

So I do

Recieved bills    100 
to Payable bills         100 

then I pay at the 12 janauri

Payable bills   100 
to Cash/Bank         100 

Can I do this the best with a some journal posts.

Roelof

Yes your process is right. the 31/12 would be done by a Journal. It suggested that use the term Accruals instead of Received Bills, as you haven’t actually received the bill.

Your 10/01 you would enter via the Purchase Invoices tab having set the Telephone company up first under Suppliers. Then the 12/01 would be Bank or Cash - Spend Money

You are addressing the difference between cash and accrual accounting. To understand this, I recommend starting here: What is the difference between the cash basis and the accrual basis of accounting? | AccountingCoach. Navigate around that web site to learn more.

You also cannot enter transactions that involve bank or cash accounts (actual payment of money) via journal entries in Manager.

From the framework of the question it would appear that accrual accounting is their intention. Big tick to them.
Cash accounting isn’t being considered.

In most cases, you would not know exact amount of the bill. So the common practice is to “accrual” the cost before closing the accounts to reflect the expense in the P&L report. To do this,

Dr Telephone Expense $estimated amount
Cr Accrued Expenses $estimated amount

After you have received the bill, process it through accounts payable as usual (It’s really a bad idea to record invoices via journal entries). At the end of January, reverse the above entries.

This also applies to things like travels, rent, etc. Make making accruals a routine at the end of month, so you won’t forget them.

Oke,

I think only the first step need to be a journal post.
the invoidce and payment can be done with the invoices tab.