Backdating to a Prior Period
There may be occasions shortly after the end of a period when you may want to backdate a new transaction into the prior period. This is usually only needed when there has been a delay in getting transactions entered on time.
Customer Invoices
For example, you may have made a customer shipment on the last day of the prior period, but you haven’t gotten around to creating the invoice until three days later. If you want to backdate the invoice date to the last day of the prior period, you are permitted to do so.
On the Invoicing sub-tab of the Sales Orders screen, before you print/post the invoice, change the Invoice Date in the grid to the prior date, then print the invoice. The invoice will be posted to the prior period.
Supplier Invoices
In the case of supplier invoices, you do not have control over when the supplier decides to send an invoice to you. It is common to receive invoices days or even weeks after the invoice date.
Always enter the Invoice Date as stated on the invoice, without regard to accounting period. Use the GL Post Date field, which can have a different value, to determine which period you want the transaction posted to in the General Ledger. If you haven’t printed financial statements yet, you would normally post into the prior period. If you’ve already printed financial statements, which means you consider the period to be closed, you can post into the current period.
Inventory Transactions
It is never a good idea to be one or more days behind in entering inventory transactions (Order Picking, Job Issues & Receipts, PO Receipts). Even if you do fall behind, however, there is no reason to backdate transactions from an accounting period standpoint. This is because inventory transactions only affect balance sheet accounts and have no effect on your income statement. So whether a date falls into the prior period or the current period has no affect on your bottom line. We do not recommend any backdating of inventory, even if you are days late in making the entries. Inventory Costs are calculated in real-time and are not affected retroactively by backdating.
Stock Counts
If you take a stock count and variances occur, when you update the stock count, the amount of each variance is posted to Inventory Adjustments, which is a Cost of Sales account that does affect the income statement. The posting date in the GL is the date you run the update. No backdating is permitted.
If you are taking a stock count at the end of a period (or your fiscal year) and you want the change in value to effect the prior period, be sure and complete the stock count and update it before the new period begins.
If you happen to update the stock count a few days into the new period and you want the change in inventory value to be reflected in the prior period, a journal entry is required.
First, create a new asset account called Stock Count Variance and locate it adjacent to your Inventory account. Determine the total amount of the stock count variance and make the following journal entries.
Create this journal entry in the last month of the previous period:
Debit Inventory Adjustments (Cost of Sales)
Credit Stock Count Variance (Asset)
Create this journal entry in the fist month of the new period:
Debit Stock Count Variance (Asset)
Credit Inventory Adjustments (Cost of Sales)