Bank Reconciliation | Suggestions - Matching by invoice number rather than amount
Reconciliation to be matched by INVOICE NUMBER rather than amount
Ruth Carter
shared this idea
Thanks for sharing this idea. I can see why matching by invoice number or reference, instead of relying on the amount first, would be really valuable for businesses dealing with instalments, part-payments, or payments that don’t exactly equal the invoice total.
Right now, suggested matches are based on the statement line and transaction having the same amount, with other statement details also considered, so I understand why this request would help reduce manual work and lower the risk of matching a payment to the wrong invoice.
If this would improve your workflow too, please add your vote and comment with a real example of when matching by invoice number or customer reference would save time or prevent errors. The more detail shared here, the easier it is to show the impact this has for customers.
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Leigh Renak
commented
we raise a large number of invoices that are paid in installments over up to a 12 month period. so an invoice for £120 may be paid in 12 installments of £10 each direct to our bank. The payment will include the account number for the customer in the reference field. When Xero suggests a match, it seems to do so by first looking to the value of the receipt and comparing it to the outstanding balances of individual invoices. we would like it to suggest solely based on the reference account no. Can this be done. there are too many for it to be worthwhile setting up rules for each customer paying this way, and the amoints will likely change each new year.
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JOHN KALLINICOS
commented
I cannot believe that this issue is not taken seriously. I am an accountant with 45 years experience. I would suggest I have a fair idea of an accounting problem and this is a problem. I had a similar issue when I had to educate XERO as to what constitutes the fundamentals of a trial balance and they still got it wrong. When you produce software for accountants you would think a software company might take some notice of accountants.
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JOHN KALLINICOS
commented
When importing bank statements from other programs Xero allocates the payments to the customers on the basis of amount in preference to other variables like customer code, invoice number or name of customer. This preference to amount creates a lot of miss matching of payments and requires extreme caution as payments end up being allocated to the wrong customer. The payment should default to invoice number then customer reference then customer name. It should never be allocated by amount owing as this is not unique.
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Jessica Crombie
commented
it would be great to be able to create bank rules for part bill payments such as monthly payments against a larger bill. alternatively suggestions on open supplier invoices that the payment may be related to on the bank feed.
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JOHN KALLINICOS
commented
On further consideration I have to agree invoice number is definitely the best option because it’s unique. It’s a shame Xero seems to think this is not a big deal. The current match based on amount creates a lot of work and errors. It’s a shame they do not understand the problem.
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JOHN KALLINICOS
commented
Invoice number will not necessarily fix the problem but it’s better than basing the matching on amount. In reality it should match in the following order reference, name, invoice number. Amount should never be used as it’s too remote.