When posting a Journal in Business Central you receive the message “You have one or more documents that must be posted before you post document no..<docno>..according to your company’s No. Series setup”.
In this post we’ll look at why this error occurs and how it can be resolved.
First, let’s recreate the error
Here I have a journal batch for Depreciation. Everything looks fine, I’ve entered a Document Number and the journal balances.
The system will allow me to “Preview Post” however when I try and post the batch I’m presented with the error below:
I’m unable to post the batch?
Before we discuss the solution, let’s take a closer look at the configuration.
Journal Batch Configuration
The error is giving me some clues to the issue. Part of the error is saying “according to your company’s No. series setup”. I know that a No. Series in a Journal comes from the batch itself, so let’s have a look at that.
Below is a screen shot of my “DEPRECIATO” batch when contains my journal.
Here we can see that the batch has been assigned the No. Series “GJNL-GEN” so let’s go to the “No. Series” page and take a closer look at its configuration.
Straight away I’m seeing that “Manual No’s” has been switched OFF on the batch. This means that as this Number Series is assigned to my batch, I can’t enter my own number in journals in this batch.
Going back to my batch, I’ve explicitly given the journal my own Document Number of “NOVDEPREC”. However, as we have seen, the Number Series assigned to my batch doesn’t allow Manual No’s.
Therefore, this must be my issue 😊.
The Solutions
Now we know the issue, let’s think of some potential solutions.
Switch ON Manual Numbers on the Number Series
The most obvious solution is to go to my Number Series and switch ON manual numbers. This would enable me to use my own document number of NOVDEPREC and the journal should post.
However this means that if the number series is assigned to any other batches, users would now be able to enter their own document numbers, and this might not be a good idea.
Remove the Number Series from the Batch
I could also remove the “Number Series” from my batch. I could then use any document number I like on the journal lines.
This would be fine is this is my personal batch, and the controller is happy for manual numbers to be used on journals.
Click “Renumber Document Numbers” on the menu
Finally, I could click “Renumber Document Numbers” from the function menu on the journal page as per below:
This will automatically fetch the next number from the Number Series and the batch should now post
Conclusion
This post has shown why the error “you have one or more documents that must be posted before you post document no..<docno>..according to your company’s No. Series setup” occurs, and gives a number of solutions.
I tend to use the last option when fixing this, as I assume the user what’s a sequential number for their journals. Having that configuration also ensures you always have a sequential journal number which most users want.
A client recently had a situation where they wanted to give a customer a discount as a goodwill gesture for an Item they had previously shipped and invoiced, as the customer wasn’t entirely satisfied with the Item.
However, when raising the Sales Credit Memo, they selected the inventory item and noticed the system had generated Item Ledger Entries to return the item to inventory. This was incorrect because the customer was keeping the item, they were just issuing their customer with a credit note due to an issue with the item and delivery.
In this post, we’ll explore two methods we can use to issue a credit note for an item without returning it to Inventory, and show how using an Item Charge proves to be the most effective.
Scenario
The scenario we have is a client has received delivery of an Item, in this case an Athens Desk, however it arrived late and they have complained and requested a discount for their inconvenience.
As a gesture of goodwill we are going to give them a 10% discount in the form of a Sales Credit Note.
There are a couple of ways we can deal with this. We could create a credit note and post directly to a GL account, or alternatively we could create a credit note and use an Item Charge.
We’ll first work through a scenario using a G/L Account and see why this might not be the best choice for this particular situation.
Credit Memo using G/L Account
First, we will create a Sales Credit Memo using a G/L account.
Below is the Sales Invoice for the Athens Chair that is to be credited.
Importantly, when we posted this Sales Invoice it created the following “Item Ledger Entry” to record the reduction in Inventory. This also shows the “Sales Amount (Actual)” as £649.40 which is retrieved via the Value Entry.
Please note the “Sales Amount (Actual)” shown on the Item Ledger Entry is actually a Flowfield that links (flows) back to the Value Entry. The Item Ledger Entry records the Inventory quantity movement for the transaction, whereas the Value Entry records the Inventory Values for that movement.
Please note the Sales Shipment number associated with the Sales Invoice is recorded on the Item Ledger Entry.
The Sales Invoice has also created the following “Value Entry”, which records the “Sales Amount (Actual)” which is linked to the above Item Ledger Entry
To raise the Credit Note, I’ll go to “Sale Credit Memo” and select the relevant Customer and enter the line as per below.
Here I’m picking up “G./L Account” as the Type and then selecting the relevant GL code and entering the amount.
This will generate the following entries:
As you can see there are no Item Ledger Entries being created, which is great, as we don’t want to adjust Inventory quantities, however there is also no Value Entry.
Therefore although the ledgers are correct, as the GL Entries have hit the relevant accounts, and the Customer Ledger Entry was created, if we look at the original Item Ledger Entry the “Sales Amount (Actual)” is unaffected.
Therefore if we are to use Inventory tables like Value Entries or Item Ledger Entries in reports the values for Sales Amount for this Sales Shipment / Invoice are incorrect.
Credit Memo using Item Charges
Another method we could use to raise the Credit Note is by using an Item Charge rather than a G/L Account.
When using an Item Charge in the Sales Credit Note we can then link (assign) the charge back to the posted transaction(in this case the Sales Shipment associated with the Sales Invoice we need to Credit). This will create a Value Entry and therefore be reflected on the Item Ledger Entry unlike the previous example when using a G/L Account.
Let’s walk through this example below.
First I’ll post another Sales Invoice for an Athens Chair as per below:
This has created a new “Item Ledger Entry” and “Value Entry” however they are the same as the previous Sales Invoice so I wont show these here.
I now want to credit this Sales Invoice, but this time using an Item Charge.
In order to do this I’ll create an Item Charge as per below:
I’ll now create a new Sales Credit Note and pickup the Item Charge and enter the amount.
Finally I’ll link, or assign, the charge to the posted transaction. (in this case the Sales Shipment associated with the Posted Sales Invoice)
This involves selecting the line, clicking “Item Charge Assignment”, finding the relevant Sales Shipment associated with my Sales Invoice, and then assigning the charge to the Sales Shipment.
This clip shows how I do this below:
Now when I post this transaction I get similar entries however I now have a Value Entry
On closer inspection the Value Entry is for £-64.94 and crucially its linked to the Item Ledger Entry
So now when we go look at the Item Ledger Entry for this Sales Shipment the Sales Amount has been reduced.
And if we drill down on the “Sales Amount (Actual)” to the Value Entries we can see the two value entries. One is the original Sales Invoice and the other the Item Charge we just posted:
We now have an accurate “Sales Amount (Actual)” being recorded in Business Central.
Therefore any reports based on the Inventory tables will reflect the accurate values.
Conclusion
In this post, we’ve walked through two methods to issue a Sales Credit for an item in Business Central without returning it to inventory.
We first looked at using a G/L Account, which is straightforward but doesn’t update the Item Ledger Entry’s “Sales Amount (Actual),” which can cause issues with inventory related reports.
We then looked at using an Item Charge, which we linked to the original Sales Shipment. This ensures the Sales Credit is reflected in the Value Entries and accurately adjusts the “Sales Amount (Actual).”
In my opinion this makes the Item Charge approach the better choice for maintaining precise inventory records and reliable reporting.
There are many different ways to post the cash receipts you receive from customers in Business Central.
In this post we’ll explore three methods for posting Cash Receipts, the first two being the most common ways to post Cash Receipts, and finally a method that can be used in combination with the Bank Reconciliation to help streamline the process. When demonstrating this method, we’ll not only post the Cash Receipt, but reconcile it at the same time.
Please note, there are other methods for posting cash such as Payment Reconciliation Journals however that is outside the scope of this post.
Method 1 – Cash Receipt Journal
The first method is using the Cash Receipt Journal. I find this is the most common method, and has been a part of Business Central / Dynamics NAV for as long as I can remember.
To do this you search and then open the “Cash Receipt Journal” page.
You then select the relevant batch you wish to create and post the Cash Receipts in. (I’ve chosen a batched called “CASH”, which I’m balancing to my Bank Account)
Now I’ll enter the Cash Receipt using the following Remittance Advice that the Customer has sent:
Using the information detailed in the Remittance above, I’ll enter the Cash Receipt as per below, entering the Customers Reference, the Amount (as a negative) and ensuring the journal line is balanced to the Bank Account:
Note that entering the Amount on the journal line as I’ve done above, isn’t required at this stage. You can leave the Amount as 0.00 and when you apply the Cash Receipt the amount is updated automatically for you.
I choose to enter the Amount on the journal line because I find it serves as a control when I apply the invoices, allowing me to confirm that when the Balance is zero on the Apply screen, I know I’ve applied everything correctly.
After entering the Amount I’ll click “Apply Entries” and apply the cash to the invoices
Once finished I’ll post the Cash Receipt Journal.
There is one important note to this process. If you want to use the “Bank Reconciliation” feature of Business Central you must balance to the “Bank Account” rather than balancing directly to your Bank General Ledger code. This is because by balancing to the Bank Account the system will create “Bank Account Ledger Entries” that you can reconcile in the Bank Reconciliation.
Method 2 – Register Customer Payments
The next method is “Register Customer Payments”. I’ve seen this used by clients who are used to ticking the invoices when they are applying them. If this is the case, then this method is found to be much more intuitive.
This feature requires a little setup, therefore prior to posting the cash, you must open the “Payment Registration Setup” page and complete the setup.
Therefore I’ll for search for “Payment Registration Setup” and enter the setup as per below:
I’ll now go to the “Register Customer Payments” page and post the payment assuming the same Customer Remittance as earlier.
Note, when you open the page the system will initially list all outstanding transactions. I therefore filter to the Customer and then using the remittance tick the invoices that are being paid before selecting “Post as Lump Payment” to record the cash in Business Central.
You can click into “Amount Received” and alter the amount received if a transaction is part paid
As I mentioned previously, some users love this approach, as it seems quicker and more intuitive.
Method 3 – Post Cash Receipts as part of the Bank Reconciliation
The final method I’ll go through is posting the Cash Receipts as part of the Bank Reconciliation process.
I personally like this method as most customers will pay via bank transfer, therefore you can combine the process of reconciling the bank with posting Customer cash. (and any other cash transaction such as direct debits and standing orders or bank charges as I’ll demonstrate below) .
This method assumes you can import your bank statement into Business Central.
The first stage is to open the “Bank Account Reconciliation” page, and click “New” to create a new Bank Reconciliation, and import the bank statement
After importing the bank statement, we now have our Cash Receipt showing on the bank statement side (the left hand side) however this hasn’t yet been posted in Business Central, so there’s no corresponding “Bank Account Ledger Entry” on the right hand side.
As the cash hasn’t been posted we now have two options.
Option 1: We can exit the bank reconciliation, and use one of the methods we have mentioned previously to post the cash receipt and apply it to the Invoices.
Option 2: Alternatively we can post the Cash Receipt straight from the Bank Reconciliation page by selecting the cash receipt and choosing the “Transfer to General Journal” option.
For this example we’ll choose option 2, and post straight from the Bank Reconciliation. In fact we have two other cash transactions on the bank statement we need to post as well, so we’ll post all three entries on our bank statement.
To do this we’ll select all three entries on the Bank Statement and select “Transfer to General Journal”
After clicking “Transfer to General Journal” the system will ask which batch you wish to transfer the selected transactions into for posting. In this case I’m choosing “General” as the template, as I want to use the “General Journal” page, and “BANKREC” as my batch.
For clarity, you can click on the ellipse button next to “Gen. Journal Batch” and create a new batch. This is how I’ve configured my “BANKREC” batch
After clicking OK on the “Trans. Bank Rec. to Gen. Jnl.” page the system opens the “General Journal” page automatically and its prepopulated with the three transactions we highlighted.
Therefore all we have to do enter the relevant codes for the three transactions 😊.
I’ll therefore enter the relevant details for each line as per below:
As you can see I’m posting my cash receipt from Relecloud by selecting the first line in the journal, choosing “Customer” as the Account Type and then picking up my Customer “Relecloud”. I can even apply to the invoices by clicking “Apply Entries”
What’s amazing about this is I can also enter the GL codes for the other two bank statement entries. I simply pickup the relevant GL codes 😊. (in this example I choose “Banking Fees” for the Bank Charge and “Other Income” for the Rent)
Finally, I can click “Post” to post the journal, and when I exit the “General Journal” page it takes me back to the Bank Reconciliation with both lines reconciled.
I can now continue with my Bank Reconciliation and complete this task as well.
In my opinion this is not only an amazing way to post the Cash Receipts, but its a great way to post all bank related transactions.
Now, rather than splitting the processes of entering Cash and Direct Debits etc, and the bank reconciliation you can combine them. This can potentially save time and errors 😊.
Conclusion
This post shows three ways to enter cash receipts in Business Central. The first two are more conventional ways for posting cash, and are methods I recommend when users are first starting out with Business Central. This is because it gives users a good feel for how the Business Central is working, which is crucial when starting with a new system.
The last method shows how the process can be combined with the bank reconciliation for greater efficiency and I find users do start to use this method once they are comfortable with posting processes in Business Central.
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