How to handle Contra accounts for Suppliers?

Issue

How to handle Contra accounts for Suppliers? (If you have a Supplier who is also a Customer.)

Solution

To handle this in Zumzum Financials, there would be 2 different accounts in the system to reflect one for the Customer debtor account (with its unique customer account number) and another for the Supplier debtor account (with its unique supplier account number).

You would handle the Contra entries via the banking tab. Cash Receipts and Supplier Payments would be handled as transactions via the banking module to each account. You should post a Customer Receipt from the customer and Supplier Payment to the supplier for the same amount. You would then reconcile these transactions on your bank reconciliation. If this happens often, you could create a ‘dummy’ bank account (call it Contras) and post the payment and receipt from this account. The account balance will always end up as zero – you can reconcile it if you wish. This avoids posting non-existent entries to the bank account.

So for example, if you have an outstanding purchase invoice for 5,000 and an outstanding sales invoice for 10,000 (for the same company) then the amount owed to you is 5,000 (since you decide to contra, rather than send the full amounts).

Step 1 (optional) – set up a new bank account and bank account nominal code

Step 2 – Record a payment against the purchase invoice

Step 3 – Record a payment against the sales invoice.

The balance on the contra bank account should remain at Zero. If all invoices are for the same value, no further action is required. If one of the invoices is for a higher value, you would record a payment against this in the normal way on your Bank tab.