[Question] Pastel invoicing

[Martinco]

How would I make an invoice on Pastel where I sell some goods to a customer and he pays me a deposit on the goods. I bank the deposit and 2 weeks later I need to make the invoice when I supply the goods and need to show his deposit on the invoice ?
To the best of my knowledge invoicing will not accept a negative amount. ( The deposit already paid ) I.E. goods to the value of R1000, then subtract the deposit of R500 showing the amount owed as R 500.

[Neville Bailey]

Hi Martin,

I would run a customer statement to reflect the upfront deposit and the subsequent invoice/s.

Invoices are only meant to reflect what goods/services are being charged, not what payments were received - that's what statements do.

[Martinco]

Hi Neville,

Ok I understand that but here is the scenario :

A Customer ( friend ) ordered some goods from me which I offered to import at cost to him. ( we share in the profit after wards ) and he offered to pay the supplier direct.( A good idea at the time) I did the rest of the importation as I have an import permit and also paid the VAT, Duty and Disbursement charges to the courier co, as the consignment was addressed to me .

I now need to invoice him for these charges. How do I do that as to reflect the total Vat and other charges payable back to me ?

I was thinking along the lines of making a normal invoice to him showing the goods at the correct price with the correct Vat and showing the original payment to the supplier as a "deposit" and thus getting the Vat correct.

( I need to claim the total Vat back, charge him with the Vat to enable him to again claim Vat back from Sars. ) Huh !!

[BusFact]

Invoice him for the full amount of goods plus import costs. Just because its on the invocie doesn't mean he has to pay the full invoice, but at least everything is recorded properly.

You invoice him R50 + R7 for goods and R50 + R7 for shipping. Total invoice due is R114.00 . Present invoice to him so he can claim too.
You process 2 supplier invoices for R50 + R7, one each for goods and shipping. This leaves you with income = expense and a nett profit of nil.
Process a journal crediting you mates account and debiting the supplier of goods account, because he paid them directly.

Statement will now show just R50 + R7 outstanding and due to you from your mate (for the shipping portion).

As Neville said, leave records of payments off the invoice. Although feel free to add notes for clarity if necessary.

Does that help?

[Martinco]

So, ok, I am going to make an invoice to him showing the goods at cost on line 1 showing NO Vat. Then on line 2, I am going to show the Disbursement with NO Vat, then on line 3 I am showing the Vat as per the import documentation. The result would be that Pastel does not calculate any Vat payable to SARS because I have already paid the Vat. I then present him the invoice and he only pays me the Vat and disbursement. I then make a journal credit on his account showing the original amount as paid and a journal debit to the supplier to balance.
Have I got this right ?

[BusFact]

I'm not sure that would be the correct way of laying it out, but would be happy to be corrected.
If you invoice the goods in line 1 with normal VAT, doesn't that equal the VAT in line 3? My gut feel is that you can charge VAT out at 14% or zero rate in special circumstances, but charging out VAT at 100% on a line item might be dodgy.

I would also imagine that you should be able to charge out the no vat disbursement at zero rate as I'm assuming its a zero rate item. I'd prefer someone else to confirm that though.

The invoice payment thing I though I had a hold of, but the VAT angle is throwing a curve ball.

[Martinco]

Yes, the Vat is the problem !
What about the following:
I make an invoice to him showing my costs and he pays me for that.( At 0 rate )
I give him all the original clearing documents and he adds that to his original payment to the supplier and claims Vat back on the total.?

[BusFact]

Sorry Martin, when it comes to the VAT issue I am just not sure. I doubt you would be allowed to charge an invoice out at 0% without a very good reason. The VAT from the bill of entry wil most likely reflect your vat number, so technically he can't claim it.

Is it not possible to simplify it (treat it like you would if he was not a mate) and maybe be a bit flexible on whether VAT zeroes out exactly?

Calculate your total cost of import (excl VAT, but incl goods and shipping). Invoice him this amount plus normal VAT.
When you do it like this, which of you appears to be losing out? Maybe give some approx numbers.

[Dave A]

Martin, did the off-shore supplier generate an invoice to you or in the name of your mate?

[Martinco]

To me

[Dave A]

OK - I don't understand the problem then.

You've been invoiced by the supplier, which you will show as an expense in your books, and you've declared output VAT on imported goods based on this value. As you are selling the goods on, you'll also be claiming the VAT you paid to SARS on this invoice as an input VAT deduction in your VAT return in due course. Ultimately the whole deal is VAT neutral to this point.

The goods are now yours and you are going to sell them to your mate so that it becomes his so that he can sell it on at a profit which you two are going to split.

So you now invoice your mate {cost + VAT} and invoice him {profit share + VAT} later (or just invoice him {cost + profit share + VAT} now).

Now when it comes to dealing with the money, having a bank account in your books called Contra is handy in situations like this, but I expect the money flow could be dealt with by a journal entry too. (I know how I'd do it in Quickbooks - I'll leave it to the Pastel gurus to cover the journal if you go that way).

So you receive payment against your invoice to your mate, and you pay the bill from the off-shore supplier by the amount paid by your mate to the offshore supplier.

In your mate's books, he will show that payment as being towards your bill to him.

And hey presto - the only question left is when do you get the rest of your money

[Martinco]

Ok I am going to make a copy of this and take it with me when I get arrested for fiddling the Vat/books and maybe they lock both of us up in adjacent cells ! But thanks anyway..........I shall do it this way.

[Dave A]

Don't worry - if you look closely, SARS is getting their legitimate slice - the VAT on what you're invoicing your mate plus the VAT on his nett markup