Supplier Receivables

We have received the following question many times, “I did a Supplier Refund and when I go into Pay Payables, it’s not showing there.”

Let’s take a step back.

What are Supplier Receivables? They are balances that are owed to you from the Suppliers.

Where do they come from? They come from various areas of the software. Supplier Refund Receivables come from 2 different places. The primary area is when you go into Payables and you do a Supplier Refund. A Supplier Refund – for either parts or units is essentially a reverse purchase order.

When you send parts and/or units back to suppliers, you do a refund. Think about it. You bring inventory into Lizzy from the Suppliers via a Purchase Order, so why not do a Refund Purchase Order to send the inventory back. It works just like a regular inventory purchase order…you start the refund, put the inventory on the purchase order, and you post it. When you post it, Lizzy takes the inventory out of the system and she creates a receivable for you, because now that supplier owes you for inventory.

Please keep in mind that you want to follow what transpires in real life. Do NOT leave the supplier refund sitting out there forever. When UPS, Fedex, or some shipping company comes and picks the inventory up – post the refund.

The main reason for doing this is so your inventory is ALWAYS correct. Your financials will be accurate if your inventory is correct, and should something happen and you have to file an insurance claim regarding the amount of money you had in inventory, you would be accurate on that as well.

Expense refunds are the other form of supplier refund credit that you can create. These are mainly credits that need to be created in the system where a supplier gives you a credit for some advertising or something similar.

Supplier receivables are also created from invoices and an example of this might be a Vendor Promo such as Honda Bucks. Customers buy units and they use Honda Bucks to help pay for a portion of the purchase. The supplier, Honda, will then reimburse you for the Honda Bucks. So, a vendor promo payment method on an invoice will create a refund receivable for the supplier.

Rebate Receivables are created primarily from invoices – Major Unit invoices specificially. You enter a Dealer Rebate on a unit/deal and when you cash out the invoice, Lizzy creates this receivable for you. Now, the supplier owes you the money. Holdbacks and Bid Assists are done the same way – they are on the unit/deal and when you cash out the invoice, the receivable is created.

Warranty Receivables come directly from the Warranty Module. You do a service ticket and you mark parts and/or labor as warranty. Lizzy creates a warranty claim for you in the warranty module. You are responsible for going to the Warranty Module to complete and Post those warranty claims when you submit them to your supplier.

Now that we know how Supplier Receivables are created, lets get back to the original question…”I did a supplier refund and its not in the Payables section.”

The reason is, for ANY Supplier Receivable that is showing in the Receivables section, you MUST go and enter payment on it.

The Lizzy BMS / DMS has no idea how the supplier is going to reimburse you – so everything is placed in the receivables section. It is then up to you, when the supplier pays you, to go in and pay the receivable. Suppliers can pay you various ways. You can take a credit memo and should you do so – this will show up when you go to Pay Payables.

Or, the supplier can reimburse you with a check – which will filter over to your cash drawer  so that you can include it when you are getting together your bank deposit.

Or, the supplier can electronically transfer money into your bank account (EFT/ACH) – in which case, if you tell Lizzy you received an ACH – an EFT inbound is placed in your checkbook for you so that it deposits to your bank account and will be there for you to reconcile when you get your bank statement. Finally, some suppliers – if they are local to you, will reimburse you with cash – which again, goes to your cash drawer so you can deposit it to the bank.

So remember, if you go to Pay Payables, and your credit is not there, take a look in receivables and make sure you took a credit memo payment on the receivable itself, and it was not used against another payable.  Lizzy’s AR section should be thought of  as a holding tank to keep track of your credits until you actually receive the payments from your suppliers and vendors.  Use it properly and you’ll know more about the true condition of your company than you ever did before.