In e-Commerce, the high volume of one-time and occasional customers in financial accounting quickly leads to a confusing flood of personal accounts. To keep accounts receivable accounting lean, similar customer groups that settle through the same channels or payment methods are grouped together in a common booking account – the so-called collective account (CpD account).
By using the Collective debtors module, you can store automated rules in Xentral to flexibly control different debtor numbers for specific sales channels, delivery countries, or payment methods. Instead of creating a separate booking account for every online shop buyer, the system bundles the revenue according to your criteria. In the subsequent financial accounting export (for example, for DATEV), these different debtor numbers are clearly displayed for each individual customer (debtor). The granular customer data such as delivery and billing addresses are retained directly on the respective sales order and receipt, so that traceability for shipping and customer service remains fully guaranteed.
Important
Note the following legal and tax aspects before using collective debtors in your company and, if in doubt, consult your tax consultant:
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Identifiability (GoBD): The grouping on a collective account is only permissible under tax law if the identity of the actual contractual partner remains permanently and unchangeably archived in the source document (invoice/sales order) in the ERP system.
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Invoicing obligations (§ 14 UStG): Amounts above the small amount limit (currently €250) mandatory require the full address of the customer on the document, even if the booking is made via a collective account.
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Tax separation (OSS procedure): Revenue must not be mixed flat-rate. It is mandatory to create separate collective debtors for domestic revenue, taxable EU revenue (OSS), and tax-free third-country sales.
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No open dunning: Customers with payment terms (purchase on account, primarily in the B2B sector) must never be booked to collective debtors, as this bypasses open item management (OPOS) and automated dunning.
Collective debtors are particularly suitable for the following use cases:
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Standard B2C business in your own online shop (for example, Shopify): Hundreds of orders are received daily from customers who pay directly via instant payment methods (PayPal or credit card). Here, a rule could apply that groups all revenue on a collective debtor based on the Channel criterion.
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Marketplace revenue (for example, Amazon FBA): Since Amazon collects payments in bundles and pays them out to the merchant as a flat rate, you can assign the different number for the Amazon collective debtor via the Project or Channel criterion. This significantly simplifies the later reconciliation of the Amazon payout report.
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B2B direct purchases via guest access: If corporate customers order small quantities irregularly via guest access and pay immediately (for example, via Sofortüberweisung), you can link the booking to a collective debtor via the Payment method criterion. This saves your sales team the manual creation and checking of a fixed customer master data sheet.
To assign different collective debtor numbers automatically in Xentral according to your needs, you must first store rules in the Collective debtors module. Different criteria can be selected to assign the different debtor number. Depending on which criteria you select, the different debtor number is only assigned for certain groups or debtors.
Important
For existing customers, the criteria such as the payment method must already be stored in the contact master data so that the different debtor number can be used. It is not possible to automatically assign different debtor numbers retroactively.
Proceed as follows to create a new rule for collective debtors.
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Use the Smart Search to open the Collective debtors module.
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Click on + NEW at the top right.
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Carry out the desired settings for the collective debtor. The table below contains more detailed descriptions of the individual settings.
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Click on Save.
Field label |
Description |
|---|---|
Criteria |
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Payment method |
Select the payment method whose sales orders should always receive the different collective debtor number. |
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Channel (e.g. shop) |
Select the channel (e.g., shop) whose sales orders should always receive the different collective debtor number. |
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Delivery country |
Select the delivery country whose sales orders should always receive the different collective debtor number. |
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Project |
Select the project whose sales orders should always receive the different collective debtor number. |
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Customer group |
Select the customer group whose sales orders should always receive the different collective debtor number. |
Settings |
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Booking account |
Enter the booking account. This is the different debtor number that is then visible in the contact master data and in the financial accounting export. |
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Save in address |
Select whether the different debtor number should be stored in the contact master data. The following options are available:
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Once you have created at least one rule for assigning debtor numbers, you can use the overview in the Collective debtors module to see all rules at a glance. The criteria and settings of the individual rules are displayed in the overview. This allows you to quickly see which different debtor number is assigned to which group or debtor. You can also create new rules at any time in the overview or edit existing rules by clicking on the pencil icon.
Especially if you use several rules, the Sequence column in the overview allows you to see the ranking of the rules. This is because it can happen that several rules apply to one sales order. In this case, the rule with the highest priority is used to assign the different debtor number. Rule 1 has the highest priority, followed by Rule 2, Rule 3, and so on.
Imagine you have created a rule that should assign a different debtor number for customers with the Prepayment payment method.
If an invoice with the Prepayment payment method is now created and released, Xentral automatically fills the Dev. customer or vendor number field in the Payment conditions / Taxation tab of the contact master data with the different debtor number stored in the rule.
If you now carry out an accounting export grouped by positions, the different debtor number is displayed for each customer in a separate column.