How to correct a payment error when a supplier or payee is underpaid or overpaid
This article explains how to make corrections using ExpensePlus when you have made a mistake with your payments, leading to a supplier or payee being underpaid or overpaid.
The error might have occurred when the purchase was entered, or a mistake was made when setting up the payment.
In this article:
The supplier / payee was under / overpaid (caused by an incorrect purchase amount)
If the supplier / payee was underpaid or overpaid, caused by an incorrect purchase amount, in the match transaction screen, reconcile the paid out transaction with the corresponding payment in the right-hand table.
If the supplier / payee was underpaid
You will need to add another purchase for the amount you still owe and pay this through the usual ExpensePlus payment process. You can then match this transaction as usual on the match transactions screen.
You can upload the same receipt/invoice as the original purchase.
If the supplier / payee was overpaid - and they repay you the overpayment
You should request they pay the money that was overpaid back to your bank account.
When the incoming amount appears on your match transactions screen, you should reconcile this as a 'supplier refund' (for suppliers) or 'expense repayment' (for payees).
You can do this by selecting the transaction in the left-hand table, clicking the + button, then selecting the relevant option from the drop-down menu for transaction types.
This will create a negative expenditure transaction.
If the supplier / payee was overpaid - and they request a credit note
If the supplier / payee was overpaid, but instead of repaying the money, they suggest that you deduct it from the next payment you make to them, you can record this in ExpensePlus.
Within the purchases screen, enter an invoice to pay (for a supplier) or expense claim (for a payee), but with a negative value. This should be the amount to be deducted from the future payment.
Once this has been marked as approved, keep this purchase on your payments screen to offset against a future invoice/expense claim to that supplier/payee (reducing the amount they are paid).
The supplier / payee was underpaid/overpaid (caused by human error when setting up the payment)
On the Match Transactions screen, select the bank transaction on the left-hand table, and the payment on the right-hand table, and click 'confirm'.
Single fund/category allocation
When the payment is an expense recorded against a single fund/category, ExpensePlus will automatically update the expenditure amount of the payment to be the same as the bank statement amount. Then follow the instructions in Scenario 3 above to pay the remaining amount or record the overpayment.
Multiple fund/category allocation
Where the payment is made up of a purchase recorded against multiple categories or multiple purchases, ExpensePlus isn't able to automatically update the payment amount as described above.
Instead, you will need to:
1) Select the 'edit button' (pencil icon) to the right of the payment
2) Select the 'Unmark payment as set up' option to send the payment back to the payments screen.
You need to un-select transactions for the edit button to show to the right of the payment.
3) Then update one of the purchases that is part of the payment to make the payment amount match the amount that was actually paid.
Typically this is done by adding an additional budget line of either positive or negative value.
4) Once the payment amount matches what was actually paid, mark the payment as paid again.
On the match transactions screen, you will then be able to match the payment. Then follow the instructions above to pay the remaining amount or record the overpayment.
If you 'Unmark a payment as set up' and there are other expenses waiting to be paid on the payments screen, the first payment might be 'grouped' with these purchases.
Once you have corrected the amount of the relevant purchase, to mark the correct purchases as paid again you should:
- click the tick to the right of the payment group (even if there are more purchases in this payment group and so the total does NOT match the amount already paid)
- in the pop-up that appears, untick the purchases that are yet to be paid
- check that the total matches the amount that was actually paid
- click confirm and authorise this payment if needed (as it has already been paid). Don't tick to send a payment notification as this will have already been sent.
To better understand the Bank Reconciliation module, please view the module overview video here.