Third-party entries and lettering
View the items of a customer or supplier, letter by hand or automatically, unletter and track reminders.
The Entries tab of a third-party record shows all its lines on the customer or supplier account: invoices, credit notes, payments, miscellaneous entries. This is where you letter, unletter and track reminders.
Opening the entries of a third party
- Open Third parties and click the customer or supplier.
- Go to the Entries tab.
Three indicators sum up the position:
| Indicator | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Balance | Total of the unlettered items. For a customer, what it owes; for a supplier, what the company owes it. |
| Open items | Number of unlettered lines. |
| Lettered lines | Number of lines carrying a lettering code. |
The columns
| Column | Content |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal code and entry number. |
| Document | Document reference (invoice number). |
| Period | Number of the accounting period. |
| Date and Due date | Entry date and due date. |
| Amount | Positive for an invoice, negative for a payment or a credit note. |
| Lettering | Lettering code, empty for an open item. |
| Reminder | Level of the last reminder and its date. |
| Comment | Label of the line. |
The filters
- All, Lettered, Open: lettering state.
- Fiscal year: a specific fiscal year or All fiscal years.
- Balance ≠ 0: hides the lines with no effect.
Reversed entries and their reversals are not shown: they offset each other and do not need to be lettered. Zoom on entry opens the full entry of a line.
Lettering by hand
- Filter on Open.
- Tick the lines that offset each other, for example an invoice and its payment. The counter shows "… line(s) ticked".
- Click Letter.
- The message "Lettering AAB: 2 line(s)." gives the code assigned.
Three conditions are checked:
- at least two lines are selected;
- all of them belong to this third party and are still open;
- their total is zero. Otherwise the lettering is refused and the remaining difference is shown.
Partial lettering does not exist: a group is either balanced and lettered, or open. For a partial payment, leave the invoice and the part payment open until the balance is paid, or clear the difference with a miscellaneous operation.
Automatic lettering
The Automatic lettering button processes all the open items of the third party in two passes.
- Opposite amounts. Each line is matched with the oldest line of exactly the opposite amount: an invoice of 500,00 € and a payment of 500,00 €, an invoice and its credit note.
- Shared references. Among the remaining lines, those that share a document reference, a structured communication or a document number are grouped; if the group is balanced, it is lettered. This is the case of an invoice paid in two transfers carrying the same communication.
The message "Automatic lettering: … group(s), … line(s)." sums up the operation. Each group receives its own code.
Run the automatic lettering after booking a series of payments allocated by hand to the third party's account: it catches up on everything the bank reconciliation did not letter.
Unlettering
- Filter on Lettered.
- Tick one or more lines and click Unletter.
- The code is removed from all the lines of the group, including those you did not tick. The message shows the number of lines unlettered.
Tracking reminders
For an overdue customer item:
- Spot the open line whose due date has passed.
- Click Send reminder.
- The reminder level of the line goes up by one step, up to level 3, and the date of the reminder is recorded. The message "Reminder sent for … (level …)." confirms.
The Reminder column keeps track of the last level reached, even after the item has been lettered: you thus keep the reminder history of each customer.
The Send reminder button records the level and the date of the reminder on the item. Check with your firm how the reminder letter or e-mail is actually sent to the customer.
What is recorded
Each lettering, unlettering, automatic lettering and reminder is recorded in the activity of the company file, with the author, the code and the lines concerned.
Frequently asked questions
A line does not appear in the third-party record. It was posted as a miscellaneous operation on account 400000 or 440000 without the third party. Reverse the entry and post it again with the third party.
The balance of the record differs from that of the trial balance. The record only totals the unlettered items, excluding reversed entries. The trial balance adds up all the lines of the control account, all third parties combined.
The lettering is refused although the amounts look identical. Check the direction: a credit note posted in an invoice journal is added instead of subtracted.