Improvement: Aged Debtor/ Creditor Detail report

Long awaited but so is having a VAT column against detailed aged debts, as provided by other systems, so that users on VAT cash accounting (the majority) can reconcile their VAT cash control at each quarter end.

It would be really nice if you could just allow the report to be sorted - pretty please. A similar sort of creditors report that would allow you to prepay payables for the coming period would also be a simple and much appreciated addition. The fact that currently bills have to be cut and pasted into a spreadsheet in order to create such a basic business requirement is extremely disappointing.

That should have read ...allow you to prepare payables for the coming period ;-)

Hi Paul - so just to be clear you would like to see an extra column on this report showing the proportional VAT amount left to pay?

Hi Andy - I think column sorts should be fairly quick and easy to add. As for the preparation of payables - what would you include in this report (or similar report) specifically to help aid you?

Hi John - here you go: https://secure.clearbooks.co.uk/community/ideas/20520/extra-column-in-aged-debtor-creditor-reports-to-show-vat-included-in-balances-to-help-reconcile-vat-cash-control

I see thanks Paul - in a similar sort of way I would like to see our VAT return 'excluded transactions' report improved. However, I will find out if this can be added to the Aged detail report for now.

I would like to see the option of selecting by overdue date too.

John,

Apologies for delay in answering

I have created an anonymised version of our current report. As this forum only accepts images I show below a section in jpg format which may or may not be readable on this screen. I will send a spreadsheet version to you. A date range requires to be set. Not illustrated in this example is that we pay in various currencies and would wish to see any bills in the currency they were issued in (or both) and not just the converted to sterling amounts.

Appreciate this may not be a simple matter but a payables report is a standard report for most accounting suites and is a glaring omission . It may help attract more customers to ClearBooks as well as helping us. The pure accounting side of ClearBooks appears scalable it is the reporting side that becomes the increasing issue as a business grows.

No worries Andy - thanks very much - I've just replied to your email too.

Just a quick question though - in the 'invoice No.' column you mention you use the summary field for the supplier invoice number - could you not use the reference field instead?

Hi Rob - thanks for your feedback. Do you mean you would like to see the due date as an extra column and filter by that?

John, We also use POs and generate the bill from the PO so the reference field gets filled with the PO number. If we were to write over the reference field we would lose the ability to quickly see which POs we had received bills for and which not (I have tried it). It would be another logical improvement for you to have a separate field for the supplier's invoice number - which again is what many accounting systems do. It does raise the question as to how you can prepare a working payables report without creating a separate field for this. In our case and probably many SMEs, we deal with big suppliers and are required to provide a remittance advice that includes the suppliers invoice number and or any credit note number applied within the payment.

John, yes that'a right. Rob

Thanks, Rob.

I see thanks Andy - I completely understand now - I shall keep you updated with all changes.

Is it me?

I just clicked on the (unpopular) detailed aged debtor report and get the same report by just clicking on the total debt figure on the popular standard report?

If that's the case, why do you need a separate detailed report hidden away in All Reports?

Hi Paul,

You are indeed correct, however, looking back at previous ideas, it seems as though many users were not aware of clicking the total debt figure to view all outstanding debt. In addition, based on user feedback, we were missing some essential columns.

As a result, we have decided to add a clearer navigation step for those that may not have been aware of the total debt 'report', granted, there will always be the old-time customers who are aware of the previous method and are free to use the navigation step of their preference. We have added a few extra columns and based on the feedback on this thread, we are missing a few more things. We will review this very shortly and decide what we can and cannot add.

Tommy

Hi Tommy - yet another example of amateurish and disjointed development in that, instead of asking users (or any sensible person) how they'd like to use a feature, a random developer has a guess, and, in this case, causes confusion by building two reports where only one is necessary and relegating the new report from "popular feedback" to the unpopular All reports.

Worse, unless all users visit this thread (and I doubt many do) how do they know the new report exists, in fact a search on the guides for aged debtors brings up nothing.

As an old-time customer, when I accidentally discovered four years ago that you could get the invoice breakdown by clicking on the total, I suggested adding a tip at the bottom of the page "click on the total for invoice detail", or, as Xero does, provide a tick box for "show invoices".

How much development time would this have saved?

Hi Paul,

As previously stated, we added a new navigation step and did not 'build' two reports. The report had already existed but we have added a few extra columns and filters as stated in the initial post, as per customer requests and our own assessment.

We can't see any downsides to having two navigation steps to something which previously was going unnoticed for a large proportion of our users. As you may have noticed, we have included a new in-software notification box which we hope to increase community engagement as well as awareness for new features and improvements. We have some tracking tools which seem to show some results and hopefully can be optimised in the future.

We appreciate your feedback.

Tommy.

Just a quick update on this - we have added sortable column headers to this page now, and a due date column (journals, credit notes and payments all currently use the same accounting date here, as they do not have due dates).

Andy - The PO reference field is a bit more of a complex situation and may take a bit more time to come up with a solution, however, I will update you when we make any progress on this.

John

Thats Great, Thank you.