3.0 How to transfer an AP balance to another invoice and/or vendor.

Modified on Fri, 24 Oct at 2:27 PM

If an invoice was posted to the wrong vendor but the distribution was correct, I can simply move the payable balance with a journal entry.

I will open a new journal, and then select my AP GL account. In this example, I want to take the balance of $100.00 away from the vendor it is currently listed under. Because AP is a liability and has a normal credit balance, this means I need to input a POSITIVE amount in my journal entry. This may seem contradictory since AP inquiry shows a positive $100 for that invoice, but it is important to remember that liability accounts carry that credit as their normal balance and are therefore inversed. See below- this line in the journal will net that invoice balance to zero.

Then, I must enter a line to put that balance onto another vendor. This will be put to the SAME AP account in the journal entry, but will be a NEGATIVE value in the journal, which will actually put the balance there to be paid when posted. In my example below, I am moving the $100 balance from invoice 6456 over to invoice 8794.

A NEGATIVE entry ADDS value within AP, while a POSITIVE entry SUBTRACTS value within AP for these journal entries.

Once this is posted, I see that invoice 6456 now nets to zero and the balance has been moved to be paid under invoice 8794.