A supplier liability is a financial obligation you have toward your suppliers (= creditors). This means you owe an amount for goods delivered or services rendered by a supplier that you have not yet paid.
Supplier liabilities typically arise when you purchase goods or services on credit. When you receive goods or services from a supplier, they send you an invoice stating the amount owed and the payment terms. Until you settle this invoice, it remains a liability to the supplier.
With good liability management, you can ensure the following:
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Financial control: Managing liabilities allows you to maintain a clear overview of your company’s financial obligations to suppliers. This is essential for sound financial planning and control.
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Liquidity management: By managing liabilities, you can ensure that you meet payment deadlines and avoid financial bottlenecks. This helps maintain sufficient liquidity so your company can meet its payment obligations. Especially for smaller companies that may not have as many financial reserves, it is important to avoid financial bottlenecks by paying invoices on time.
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Good relationships with suppliers: Paying your invoices on time builds trust with your suppliers and fosters a good relationship. This can help you get better prices and terms and develop long-term partnerships.
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Compliance with laws and regulations: It is important to comply with tax regulations regarding bookkeeping and invoice payments. By managing liabilities in Xentral and transferring them to, for example, DATEV, you can ensure that your company meets all legal requirements.
The Liabilities module offers functions such as filing invoices, posting tax rates, and controlling incoming invoice verification. It also includes pre-account assignment for financial accounting and enables the scheduled output of the liability as a SEPA transfer with cash discount settings.
When entering an incoming invoice, you should typically provide the following information:
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Supplier information: Name and address of the supplier, as well as their contact details.
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Invoice data: Invoice date, invoice number, and if applicable, an internal reference number.
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Description of goods delivered or services rendered: A detailed list of the goods or services you have received.
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Quantities and unit prices: The number of items delivered or the quantity of services rendered, along with the respective unit price.
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Total amount: The total amount of the invoice, composed of the unit prices of the delivered goods or services.
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Payment terms: The payment deadline and the agreed payment method.
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Posting accounts: The corresponding posting accounts to which the costs are to be assigned, such as accounts for raw materials, operating resources, or services.
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Optional information: Depending on requirements, additional information such as tax rates, discounts, or other relevant data can also be entered.
Steps to create a new liability:
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Navigate to Accounting > Liabilities and click on +NEW.
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Click on the Supplier field, add a supplier from your address master data, and click Accept. The supplier address data is loaded.
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Enter the data from your supplier invoice: Invoice number, Invoice date, Amount/Total (gross), Posting text, Receipt date, Payment method, Payable until.
(Optionally, you can also fill in additional fields for information purposes and, for example, link a purchase order.)
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You can grant the following approvals for the document and control the traffic light indicator in the liabilities overview (process approval for payment from Xentral):
Goods/services verification (purchasing): With this approval, you set the traffic light to green and confirm that the goods receipt has arrived in full.
Incoming invoice verification (accounting): With this approval, you set the traffic light to green and confirm the supplier invoice as correct (data, mandatory details, and billed goods).
Note: As long as one of these traffic lights is orange, the liability is not approved for payment.
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Click on Save.
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Click on Release to assign the liability a consecutive number from the number range.
Note
Upload the supplier invoice as a PDF to transfer it to DATEV or other accounting systems. Click on Select file to upload a PDF file. Select the file and click on Save.
The following fields are available for recording the information from your incoming invoices. The following fields should always be maintained as mandatory fields:
Supplier, Invoice number, Invoice date, Amount/Total (= total amount), Receipt date, Payment method, Goods delivery approval, and Invoice verification approval.
For the account assignment, you can enter the Posting text or maintain it in the Pre-account assignment input.
Note
For incoming invoices with mixed tax rates, you can carry out the cost center and account posting directly in the Pre-account assignment tab. The information in the main overview (Tab: Payment) for cost center is purely optional for information purposes.
Tip
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Supplier |
Entry via text or search field for the supplier address or supplier number from the master data. The address and payment data are loaded by clicking Accept. |
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Invoice no. |
Invoice number of the incoming invoice. This number is assigned by your supplier’s ERP system. It serves as a reference number in accounting for assigning the PDF document, the account assignment, and the payment posting on your bank account. |
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Purchase order |
Optional: Link to a Xentral purchase order. The number can be entered manually; alternatively, a liability can also be created from a purchase order. |
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Invoice date |
The invoice date of your supplier’s incoming invoice. |
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Amount/Total (gross) |
The total amount of the incoming invoice (= total). This total amount includes all costs listed on the invoice, including goods or service costs, any taxes, shipping costs, and other fees. For tax-exempt invoices, the net and gross amount may be equal in total. |
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VAT standard |
Optional: Invoice amount at standard tax rate, e.g., 19% in Germany |
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VAT reduced |
Optional: Invoice amount at reduced tax rate, e.g., 7% in Germany |
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Additional tax |
Optional: Option to enter additional amounts and tax rates |
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Additional tax |
Optional: Option to enter additional amounts and tax rates |
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Posting text |
Entry of a custom text for the accounting information. This posting text overwrites/supplements the Xentral suggestion. For example, a posting text could be: "Material procurement RE123456 LF700001 VB2024-700005" |
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Project |
Optional: Entry of the sales channel for information purposes |
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Sub-project |
Optional: Entry of the sub-project for information purposes, if project management is used |
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Sales order |
Optional: Entry of the sales order for which the goods were procured. A function used in conjunction with "Sales order to purchase order" to see the assignment not only in the purchase order but also later in the liability. |
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Cost center |
Optional: Entry of the cost center for the incoming invoice |
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General ledger account |
Optional: Account assignment for the total amount of the incoming invoice (only applies to DATEV export in DATEV format. For DATEV Unternehmen Online, the account assignment is important. The account assignment overwrites the entry in the general ledger account for the accounting export.) |
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Clarification case |
Marker for the liabilities overview. You can filter by clarification case to check deferred account assignments or open questions. |
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Reason |
Clarification case reason as text input. For more text, the internal note can also be used in addition. |
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Internal note |
Information field for annotations, notes, open items. |
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Receipt date |
Invoice receipt date. For the accounting export, either the invoice date or the invoice receipt date can be selected. |
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Payment method |
Payment terms with your supplier. The data is loaded from the master address. Alternatively, you can set the payment method individually per liability. |
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Payable until |
Payment due days. Deadline by which you must have paid your supplier. Usually for payment method: Invoice. |
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Cash discount in % |
Cash discount in percent, e.g., 2%. This amount is automatically deducted from the transfer made via Xentral as long as you are within the cash discount period. |
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Fix cash discount |
? |
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Cash discount until |
Cash discount deadline — by when you must have paid in order to claim the cash discount amount. |
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VAT |
Taxation of the incoming invoice. Domestic, EU delivery, or export. This information is independent of your subsequent account assignment. With the account assignment, you specify which account with which input tax your amounts are to be posted. |
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VAT ID |
Your supplier’s VAT identification number. |
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Freight costs |
Freight cost information. Freight costs are specified as an amount but are not automatically carried forward for account assignment. |
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Approval Goods/services verification (purchasing) |
With this approval, you control the traffic light indicator of the liability. As soon as you tick this checkbox and save, the goods delivery is confirmed as complete and the traffic light is set to green. Fully green liabilities are, for example, approved for transfer in Xentral payment transactions. |
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Approval Incoming invoice verification (accounting) |
With this approval, you control the traffic light indicator of the liability. As soon as you tick this checkbox and save, the accounting verification of the incoming document is confirmed as complete and tax-compliant, and the traffic light is set to green. Fully green liabilities are, for example, approved for transfer in Xentral payment transactions. |
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Amount paid |
Information about the outgoing payment of your liability. |
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Cash discount received |
Cash discount information of the outgoing payment. |
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Paid on |
Date of the actual outgoing payment on the bank account. |
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Action |
Here you can manually confirm a liability as paid. Or if you use payment receipt, you can also edit liabilities and bank payments here — for example, remove the link to the bank account to re-post. |
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Write protection |
Write protection protects your document from editing after completion. You can also control user permissions and, for example, grant access to the overview or the details. Once write protection is set, only you can make further changes. |
What is the difference between your supplier’s invoice number and the automatically assigned liability number in Xentral? When you need which one — and where to find them.
Invoice number (supplier)
The invoice number is the unique number of the incoming invoice assigned by your supplier’s ERP system. It serves as a reference number in accounting to correctly assign the following elements:
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the PDF document of the record
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the corresponding account assignment
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the payment posting on the bank account
Since each supplier uses their own number format, this number is not standardized but is structured individually per supplier.
Liability number (Xentral)
The liability number in Xentral is an internal system number that is automatically generated based on a number range you define. This number is:
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unique and sequential
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in the fixed format of your Xentral number range
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helpful for a completeness check of the recorded documents
Tip
Notes on searching in search fields or in Xentral modules:
In the liabilities overview search, you can filter by the following numbers:
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Supplier invoice number
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Xentral liability number
Example: For a payment you find on your bank statement, the Xentral liability number is typically used, as it is linked to the payment posting (outgoing payment). For a PDF invoice, the supplier’s invoice number is usually required, as the document has no internal system ID.
Liabilities start by default at number 1, counting upward. You can also pre-configure a different internal liability number in the central number range. This internal number is used to link bank statements and is also used for payment transactions. And of course, in this way you have a clean consecutive number range that helps you check the completeness of your documents.
Note
If you use multiple projects and different number ranges, you can post liabilities per channel or use the central company project for all liabilities, e.g., STANDARD.
For an additional branch, you can also use two projects and two number ranges for liabilities and filter by project, or configure user permissions so that only the own branch is visible.
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Go to your Liability and upload a PDF supplier invoice via Select file.
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Click on Save (in the liability).
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The PDF document is displayed for review in the Preview on the right side of the overview.
Note
All PDFs uploaded as files of the type Other file to this liability are displayed as a combined PDF.
Note
Error message in PDF display: An error after uploading can have the following causes: Incorrect file format — ensure that you have uploaded a single- or multi-page PDF. You can delete the PDF in the Files tab and upload it again.
For the automatic recognition and capture of information such as invoice number, invoice date, and invoice amount, you can speed up data entry and document processing. OCR recognition also helps you reduce errors and costs.
By uploading the PDF supplier invoice, the fields are automatically recognized and the corresponding values are assigned. The following data can be recognized:
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Invoice number
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Invoice date
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Amount/Total (gross)
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VAT
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Currency
Steps to set up OCR recognition:
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Go to your Liability and upload a PDF supplier invoice via Select file, then click on Save (in the liability).
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Create the automatic recognition for this supplier number via Set up OCR.
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Configure the arrangement for Invoice number, Invoice date, and Amount/Total (gross) by specifying for each field which term names this information. For example, if your supplier’s invoice number is displayed as Invoice number: 400245, enter Invoice number: as the recognition term, and for the arrangement to the right of it (to capture the value to the right of the term Invoice number:).
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Click on Accept data. The OCR recognition is saved for this supplier.
Steps to run OCR recognition:
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Click on Start OCR.
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Review the displayed data.
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Confirm with Accept data to transfer the data into the liability.
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Click on Save (in the liability).
If your invoice contains a tax rate, the amount is saved in VAT standard.
You can pre-assign accounts for liabilities for the accounting export and carry out preparatory bookkeeping. Account assignment offers the following functions:
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Account assignment of the individual incoming invoice (posting of the liability)
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Distribution of amounts across multiple posting accounts, e.g., goods receipt at 7% and 19%, e.g., in SKR04: 5400, 5300
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Entry of an associated cost center
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Review and adjustment of posting text and document field
Steps to carry out an account assignment:
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Go to the Pre-account assignment tab in the Liability.
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Click on +New entry. You receive an input for the account assignment. Amount and posting text are pre-filled for you (provided you have already entered them in the main overview under Details).
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Enter a general ledger account from your chart of accounts, e.g., 5400 Goods purchase 19% (SKR-04).
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Optional: If different, you can add or change the currency, posting text, and document field.
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Optional: Select the cost center.
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Click on Save.
Note
If you have made a typing error, you can edit or delete account assignment postings and re-enter them.
Note
Distributing amounts across multiple posting accounts: If you want to split the total amount across two tax rates, e.g., 7% and 19%, or across different cost accounts, proceed as follows:
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Change the total amount, e.g., 100 EUR, to the new smaller amount, e.g., 70 EUR.
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Fill in the remaining fields and click Save. The remaining amount of 30 EUR is automatically left over and is displayed to you as a difference.
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Repeat the steps for a new account assignment line as above. For the next posting, this amount will be suggested exactly. You could also continue to split it into a third posting.
Note
Functions for amount adjustment:
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Plus icon (gray): Loads the amount from the liability.
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Plus icon (blue): Adds the tax rate.
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Minus icon (blue): Subtracts the tax rate.
You can see the balance of your account assignments in the Difference display. Here you can check whether the total amount from the details adds up, or whether you have over-posted or forgotten an amount, e.g., because 2,000.00 EUR is still missing.
You also receive a warning message, for example in the log of the liability or in the overall overview, when you click on the missing account assignments filter. Here, non-matching balances are also displayed for your review. In the overview of all account assignments, these errors are not displayed.
Tip
Tip on account assignment: When entering the account assignment number in the General ledger account field, you enter accounts with tax keys directly. In the accounting program (e.g., DATEV), input tax is only posted correctly when the tax key in Xentral is prefixed to the expense account — 90 for 19% and 80 for 7% input tax. Examples:
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'906815' for '19% incoming invoice office and business supplies'.
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'5400' for 'Goods purchase 19%'. DATEV automatic account that also automatically calculates the 10% in DATEV.
You can view the log of a liability either in the overview of all liabilities by clicking on the Detail view (= mini-detail) of a row, or within a liability in the Log tab.
In the log, you will find a quick summary of the following information:
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Fields of the incoming invoice
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linked account postings (bank account statements)
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account assignment for accounting incl. balance difference
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paid status
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invoice approval and goods receipt approval
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linked purchase orders
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editing log
Note
You can carry out the assignment of purchase orders in the Assignments tab. You can find the workflow in this article under Assigning a Liability to Purchase Orders.
Using the "Reload positions from goods receipt" button, the positions from the linked purchase order are loaded into the liability. This function serves the purpose of overview and assignment — the value of the liability does not change as a result.
Note
If the liability is created via a purchase order whose goods receipt has already been posted, the positions in the liability are filled automatically.
In the liabilities overview, you can see all current liabilities and configure the filters to match your workflows, adjusting the volume of items to be reviewed accordingly. For example, you can display all liabilities to find specific transactions via the column searches, e.g., by supplier number or invoice number. You can also export this view as a spreadsheet or CSV file.
You can edit, cancel, duplicate, download, and mark liabilities as paid. These actions can also be controlled via user permissions per user.
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Edit |
Use the pencil icon to edit the liability. |
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Cancel |
Use the X icon to cancel the liability. Liabilities in draft mode without a consecutive number from the number range can be deleted. Liabilities with a number that you have already released via the approval can only be cancelled. NoteCancelled liabilities are not transferred in the accounting export to DATEV. |
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Mark as paid |
Use the checkmark icon to mark liabilities as paid. Use this function only if you do not want to use the assignment via your bank account. |
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Copy |
Use the copy icon to duplicate liabilities as a copy. Use this function when creating multiple invoices from one supplier or entering identical data. For example, you can copy the last monthly billing from your internet provider and release it directly, or, for example, the office rent. |
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Download PDF |
Use the PDF download icon to quickly download the incoming invoice when needed. |
A range of filters is available to you for carrying out internal approvals, account assignments, and checks. The following filter functions are available:
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Due date for payment
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Date range as filter
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Goods receipt verification and invoice verification for review and final payment approval
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Incoming document PDF attachment for completeness check for accounting
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Account assignment and bank posting
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Completed and archived liabilities
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Unpaid liabilities and clarification cases
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Month overlaps between invoice date and receipt date
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Payable until |
Payment due date, by when the incoming invoice becomes due. The payable until field is used. |
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From date |
Liabilities from the date dd.mm.yy onwards are to be displayed (invoice date). |
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Goods receipt OK missing |
Goods receipt verification has not yet been confirmed. Traffic light icon for goods receipt verification is orange and blocks payment. |
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Invoice receipt OK missing |
Incoming invoice verification has not yet been confirmed. Traffic light icon for invoice verification is orange and blocks payment. |
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PDF attachment missing |
Liability does not yet have an uploaded PDF document. The incoming invoice is still missing. (Upload as PDF, type: Attachment) |
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Account link missing |
The assignment to a bank account posting has not (yet) been made. |
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Cancelled only |
Displays cancelled, unfinished liabilities. Cancelled archived liabilities can be found via Archive and Cancelled only. |
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All |
Displays all liabilities, including cancelled and posted (completed) ones. |
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Archive |
Displays all posted or completed liabilities (= paid liabilities via an assigned account posting or the manual marking via the paid icon and payment data such as date etc.) |
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Clarification cases |
Liabilities that are marked as clarification cases. |
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Missing account assignment |
Optional: Filter setting displays whether an account assignment is entered in the liability fields. |
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Missing pre-account assignment |
Liabilities whose pre-account assignment is empty or incomplete, e.g., because a balance difference exists between the total of the liability and the total of all account assignments. (Differences can be viewed in the liability under the Account assignments tab) |
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Invoice date and receipt in different months |
Liabilities whose invoice date and receipt date are not in the same month (prerequisite: both dates are maintained in the liability) |
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Payment missing |
In the account assignment overview, you can see all postings to accounts per liability listed by date range. This view gives you the option to review the monthly overview and cross-check it.
In the view you will find the following fields: Date, Liability number, General ledger account, Posting text, Document field, Amount and Currency. As well as the filter for the daily or time range setting.
You can also export this view as a CSV. To do this, click on the CSV, Excel, PDF, or Print buttons. The columns can be further narrowed down using additional search filters.
The recurring liabilities function allows you to automatically create new liabilities on a specific day, by date. Or to create a liability when a payment to a supplier has been made and the bank payment has been imported into Xentral’s payment receipt. You can also have bank statements posted to accounting accounts, e.g., cost accounts and cash transfers.
You can therefore have liabilities with incoming invoices automatically created on the day of the bank posting, e.g., chamber of commerce contributions, internet providers, rent, leasing fees, utility bill payments, etc. And you can post entries to cost accounts, e.g., tax authority debits, municipal debits, rent, standing orders, cash transfers, fees.
Examples:
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A new liability is created when your internet provider has collected a direct debit from your account with a monthly identical debit reference. Amounts may vary from month to month. The reference is the decisive factor.
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A new liability is created when the standing order to your landlord for your office is paid. The amount and reference are the same every month.
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A liability is created when the fee for your leasing vehicle is debited. If the amount is the same every month, you can also have 2 liabilities created if it is a netted amount that should go to two accounts with fixed amounts.
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An account assignment is proposed for posting the bank account (without creating a liability) when your monthly cash transfer of, e.g., 5,000.00 EUR leaves one account as a standing order and is posted to another.
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An account assignment is proposed for posting the bank account (without creating a liability) when the utility bill payment is debited.
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An account assignment is proposed for posting the bank account (without creating a liability) when the tax authority debits VAT or corporate tax.
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An account assignment is proposed for posting the bank account (without creating a liability) when the municipality debits trade tax.
Examples for step-by-step instructions.
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Selection |
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Selection |
Create via payment receipt: The liability is created based on the bank account data, or the bank account is automatically filled with an account assignment. Automatically by date: The liability is created automatically by date. This function is only possible with the type: Liability. |
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Type |
If Create via payment receipt was selected, the following second option can be set: Liability: A liability is automatically created for the bank statement line. The line is automatically posted once the liability has been created and released. Chart of accounts: The bank statement line is automatically posted to a specific account. (without liability) Import error: The bank statement line is automatically written off as an import error. (without liability) |
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Active |
Active entries are evaluated for recurring liabilities. Deactivated ones can be left in the list — they are not taken into account. This means you can also temporarily deactivate an automatic assignment without deleting it or creating templates. |
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Filter |
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Posting text |
The posting text refers to the postings on your bank account. If the posting text is always the same and should be recognized, you can specify it as an assignment reference:
You can also use %Text% as a placeholder to filter for a text element in the middle of a posting text, in order to automatically assign standing orders or fixed direct debits:
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Debit |
This amount in the DEBIT column is to be recognized, e.g., recurring fixed amounts such as a cash transfer as a standing order. Tip: Usually you need additional parameters — the monetary amount alone is rarely sufficient as a reference:
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Credit |
This amount in the CREDIT column is to be recognized, e.g., recurring fixed amounts such as a cash transfer as a standing order. Tip: Usually you need additional parameters — the monetary amount alone is rarely sufficient as a reference:
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Fee |
This amount in the FEE column is to be recognized. |
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Currency |
The posting has the following currency |
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Liability |
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Supplier |
The liability is to be created for this supplier. You can add the supplier by entering the supplier number or name from the master data. |
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Counter account |
The liability is to be created against this counter account, e.g., office supplies 19%: '906815' |
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Invoice no. |
The liability is to receive this invoice number entered, e.g., 'Contract 12345' |
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Purpose |
The liability is to receive this posting text. |
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Cost center |
The liability is to receive this cost center. |
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Payment method |
The liability is to receive this payment method. Select from your list of payment methods. |
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Goods receipt approval |
The liability is to automatically receive goods receipt approval. |
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Invoice receipt approval |
The liability is to automatically receive invoice receipt approval. |
You can specify tax rates for your internal recording that you need when you want to enter the amounts separately in Xentral again for information purposes. This information is a purely ERP entry and does not control the account assignment for accounting, e.g., for transfer to DATEV. See the description for Pre-account assignment here.
An invoice that represents a credit is called a "credit note invoice." This means that your supplier is refunding money to you. This can happen when you have returned goods or when there are errors in the invoice that need to be corrected. The credit note invoice clearly shows the amount of the refund and the reason for it.
Credit note invoice from your supplier
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Supplier credit notes can be created as a separate document as a negative liability. If a refund of the amount is made to the bank account, this payment can be linked to the liability.
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Alternatively, the credit note can be offset against an invoice and created in one liability. The amount is then (invoice amount – credit note amount) → this amount is transferred to the supplier and then linked to this liability in the payment receipt. The liability would then have 2 PDF documents and can be split accordingly during posting.
Price differences and offsetting of amounts:
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The liability then turns out to be higher or lower than the purchase order. (The purchase order can either be adjusted again, or when creating a liability, the difference can be noted in the purchase order’s note field.) The amount for the liability is then lower or higher than the purchase order amount. However, it matches the PDF document of the supplier at this point (supplier invoice and liability have the same amount; the difference only relates to the purchase order. The item price can also be adjusted directly in the purchase order (edit icon next to the position of a purchase order, when expanded in the purchase order overview using the gray arrow at the front) (purchase price for the item).
When a liability in Xentral payment receipt is paid via a bank account, it is posted with the payment information and moved to the Archive (see Filter description). This means it can only be viewed in the filter via the Archive setting. In this way, only the due entries still to be checked for completeness are displayed at the front of the liabilities.
Linked payment receipts are displayed in the liability detail preview (= mini-detail) or in the log of the liability.
IMAGE: Log
IMAGE: Payment assignment: Payment status, date, populated fields
If a liability is only partially paid, the traffic light indicator of the liability is also displayed as partially paid, with the icon remaining half orange in the display.
IMAGE: Two-colored icon
You can also manually mark a liability as paid.
IMAGE and steps
One or more liabilities can be created directly from a purchase order.
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Create liability:
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Fill in liability: the full amount is suggested. If partial amount, please change and save.
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The liability is displayed in the purchase order:
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Additional liabilities for this purchase order can be created until:
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Close fully delivered purchase orders:
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Items from this purchase order are no longer displayed in goods receipt (the purchase order is closed)