Sometimes money moves faster in your accounting system than the transactions of the goods and services related to them—which makes keeping track of that cash challenging.
Here’s several scenarios where “the money gets ahead of the transaction” and how to handle these special cases.
1. Pro-Forma Invoices: Sometimes, for new customers or for very large orders, you might want “money up front.” And in order to pay, your customer would like an invoice, but you haven’t delivered the goods/services yet so you don’t want to realize revenue or impact revenue—so now what?
Acumatica has built-in Pro-Forma invoice functionality in the Project Billing module (see here) or it’s simple to copy the Sales Order report, rename it, and add as an action (see here).
In AccountMate the process is to create a Sales Order and then <Create Advanced Billing>, which pulls the items, quantities, and pricing.
2. Customer Prepayments: When the customer then pays prior to the actual invoice, you’ll want to be sure to record this as a liability—since you technically owe the money back until you deliver the goods/services.
In AccountMate’s AR module, you can tie the Customer prepayment directly to the pro-forma with <Apply Advanced Billing Payment> and you won’t then later have to apply it after ultimately “approving” the advanced billing.
3. Vendor Prepayments: On the other side of the coin, when your vendor requires “money up front” we sometimes see clients enter a regular AP invoice and post a payment—which is a real problem later matching up to a PO or, if it’s a non-inventoried good/service it’s hitting your books before it really should.
AccountMate provides the <AP Prepayment Transactions> screen specifically for this, while in Acumatica you change the invoice “type” in the upper left of the screen. Both systems then properly post this as an asset in your chart of accounts as, until the goods/services are delivered by the vendor technically you’re owed the money back. Later, when that takes place, the prepayment is applied to the actual/final invoice, relieving that asset and clearing it from the <AP Prepayment Invoice Report>.
4. Employee Payroll Advances/Loans: We sometimes see clients allow employee advances or loans in payroll. Rather than try to keep track in an Excel spreadsheet, we recommend setting up an earning code for the payout (wired to an asset account as the employee owes you the money until it’s remitted or “worked off”) and a deduction (wired to the same GL account) to reduce that asset as it’s then paid off on a per-payroll basis.
Those are the most common scenarios we see. Feel free to hit us for more detailed discussion if you encounter them or if you have one we haven’t discussed above.
Regards,
Kevin E. Stroud
kestrou@nexlan.com
NexLAN, LLC
https://nexlan.com
AccountMate: V2 Cloud Hosting Removes Mobility Limits, and More
Is your locally hosted AccountMate system preventing your users from working remotely?
Then check out V2 Cloud hosting. <Slaps roof of car> This baby’s got all the desktop mobility your users need, to run AccountMate from wherever their desktops or laptops are! At home at the kitchen table, at your customer’s site, and in your office too. That’s the top reason that our AccountMate clients use V2 Cloud.
When your AccountMate is in the V2 Cloud, your remote employees still access centralized data on a secure, remote server instead of on your own local server. That means you’re not at risk of data loss if your employee’s laptop isn’t backed up.
Moving to the cloud is also a way to get off the infrastructure update train and avoid having to write a big check. Periodically, we talk to AccountMate clients who haven’t been investing a little every year into keeping servers and desktops up-to-date. Eventually, a major update is required with a substantial cost. (See Are You in Technical Debt? | NexLAN).
Another benefit of V2 Cloud is scalability. It’s very easy to dial up or down the resources when you’re in the cloud. This is fantastic for seasonal businesses who hire temporary workers during their busy season.
And don’t worry about system performance in the cloud—we’ll communicate with your IT folks on the setup to ensure that your AccountMate executable and data will operate at “high bandwidth.”
Bonus: You get daily automated backups with the ability to restore individual files, or restore everything.
To recap, our AccountMate clients move to V2 Cloud Hosting for:
- Desktop mobility for remote work
- Centralized, highly secure data
- Reducing the cost of infrastructure updates
- Scalability
For years now, the team at V2 Cloud has been making NexLAN clients happy. Learn more at V2 Cloud Hosting | NexLAN, and reach out to us with your questions.
AccountMate and Acumatica: You Can Request New Product Features
Have you ever had a brilliant idea pop into your head, for how to make your system better?
Or have you ever wished that there was a different option in a screen or tool that you use often?
Ask, and you just might receive! AccountMate and Acumatica are products where user-requested features are given CLOSE attention by the product development teams, from their VP levels on down. Both companies wholeheartedly encourage new feature requests, from small tweaks to major new functionality.
Tip: We suggest that you run your feature requests by NexLAN first as a free support question, because more than 50% of the time, user requests turn out to be capabilities that are already in the system; we can show you where. Or they’re a small thing that we can tweak for you quickly, like adding something to a built-in report.
Here’s the process to directly request product enhancements:
- Request new features for AccountMate
From within your AccountMate system, just hit <Help> and then choose <Enhancement Requests>. This will take you to AccountMate’s website, where you can provide the details of your suggestion and the business benefit that it would provide you. The team at AccountMate reviews all user requests as they’re planning new releases.
- Request new features for Acumatica
In the Acumatica Community forums, there’s a big Product Ideas button near the top. Before adding your new request, use the Search to see if someone already submitted a similar request. If they have, then upvote that request and optionally add your comments to the discussion. Feel free to upvote and comment on other users’ requests.
Remember: The next time you think of something that you’d like to see in your system, don’t hesitate to request it.
Acumatica—New in 2025 R1: Correct PO Receipt Errors Without Inventory Adjustments or Cancellations
The 2025 R1 Distribution Edition includes the ability to post a correction to a purchase order receipt even after it has been released.
Before, if you needed to make a correction to a purchase order after it had been received, you either had to make inventory adjustments, or cancel the receipt and re-enter it.
Use the new purchase receipt correction function when:
- You accidentally receive too many or too few items on your purchase receipt
- The incorrect warehouse was selected to receive the inventory items
- The unit cost of the items received was typo’d
- The wrong expiration date was recorded for the batch you received
The purchase receipt correction you create is linked to the original purchase receipt so you have clear visibility to the updates that were made.
To see a highlight of other features added in the 2025 R1 Acumatica release, visit the webpage Introducing Acumatica Cloud ERP: 2025 R1.
Try out this feature when your system upgrades to 2025 R1. Most clients’ systems will update within a few months of the March 20 release date, though if you’re itching to start using the new 2025 R1 features, we can get your update started early! Got questions? Shoot us an email.
Acumatica: How to Start Exploring the Use of AI in Your System
The team at Acumatica has made clear that “AI first” is a theme for development of the product. But they’re not quickly tacking on AI features just to get on board the AI publicity train; they’re taking a methodical, practical approach that prioritizes adding business value for users while ensuring that your data remains your data.
There are a few cool AI capabilities in the product already; several more are coming later this year and early next year; and plenty more are in the queue after that. This pace allows you and your company to get familiar with AI features and adopt them over time. That’s the main point here: Begin now, so that it’s an easy transition, and so you can experience the benefits sooner!
A really good place to start is to experiment
with Anamoly Detection, which is available now. Check out our November, 2024 article, Acumatica 2024 R2: New Anomaly Detection Feature for an overview with examples and first steps. There are refined options in the current 2025 R1 release, which are shown in the linked webinar below, so watch that next. Anomaly detection is where AI serves as an intelligent advisor, bringing to your attention anamolies in your data to review—based on your criteria. For example, you could ask it to monitor your sales order margins weekly, by customer, and alert you (on a dashboard) to any unusually high or low margins for your review.
Now is the time to learn more about Acumatica AI—and we’ll keep you up to date here, step-by-step over time as more capabilities become available. Get started:
- Watch the recorded webinar: Transforming ERP for the Intelligent Business Era (37 min). (Scroll down to mid-page and click the Watch now button.)
- View introductory info about AI on Acumatica’s website:
- Practical AI, Powerful Results—This overview covers how Acumatica is focused on security of your data (e.g. not allowing leakage of your company’s data), and real productivity and performance (not AI hype) to responsibly deliver value to your business.
- AI as an Intelligent Advisor Delivers Insights to Optimize Decision-Making—This blog post describes some of the ways that AI can point out actionable opportunities, forecasts, and visualizations to help you manage your business.
If you have questions about AI in Acumatica, reach out to NexLAN.
AccountMate Tech Note: Reconciling the Inventory Transaction Log with the Inventory GL Account Balance
The Inventory Transaction Log is a helpful tool to ascertain the accuracy of your inventory value and to effectively reconcile it with the Inventory GL Account ID balance.
Article #1193: Reconciling the Inventory Transaction Log with the Inventory General Ledger Account Balance discusses the factors to consider when reconciling the Inventory Transaction Log total cost with the Inventory GL Account ID balance. This document also provides tips for reconciling inventory balances.
AccountMate Tech Note: Understanding the Non-Customer Receipts Feature
Non-customer receipts are payments received from individuals or entities without customer maintenance records in AccountMate. These receipts are usually the results of non-trade transactions.
Article #1088: Understanding the Non-Customer Receipts Feature discusses how to record non-customer receipts, the journal entries resulting from this kind of transaction, and the affected reports.
Acumatica Technical Tips
Can I Change My Acumatica Homepage?
Q: Can I set a specific page or dashboard as my homepage in Acumatica?
A: Yes. Here are the steps to select a new homepage for your user account.
- On the top right of your screen, click on your user name.
- Click My Profile.
- On the User Profile page, on the General Info tab under Personal Settings, enter the Home Page you would like to see upon logging in.
- Hit Save.
If you are unsure what the page or dashboard you are wanting to set as your homepage is called in the Home Page lookup, open that page or dashboard in another tab in your web browser. In the website URL there will be a screen id number that you can use to locate the screen or dashboard in the Home Page lookup in Step #3. Example: /(W(26))/Main?CompanyID=Sales+Demo&ScreenId=SO301000
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How Do I Filter Data in a Grid?
Q: How do I filter data in a Generic Inquiry grid?
A: Here are three ways to filter the data in a Generic Inquiry grid:
- Click the column header and use the filters available in the pop up sort and filter window.
- In the top right of the screen in the header section of the grid, click the Filter Settings button (shaped like a funnel) and enter the filter rules you would like applied to the grid.
- Click a cell which has a value you want to filter by,and SHIFT + F on your keyboard to apply a “contains” filter for that value.
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How Do I Change the Auto-Logout Time?
Q: Can I extend the time I can be away from my computer before I am automatically logged out of Acumatica?
A: Yes. This setting is system wide and will affect all users.
A user with access rights can make this change on the Security Preferences page in your Acumatica system. Under the Timeout Settings section, click the User Inactivity Timeout dropdown to see the options available. After making your timeout selection, save your changes.
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Can I Change the Columns in a Grid?
Q: Can I add, remove, and rearrange columns in a grid of data?
A: To rearrange the columns, click and hold onto the column header and drag it to the location you want it to be in, and drop it there.
To add or remove columns, click the very first icon on the left in the column header row to bring up the Column Configurator. In the Column Configurator pop up you can add and remove columns by toggling them between the Available and Selected Column fields.
AccountMate Technical Tips
How Do I Create an AR Invoice for a Customized Kit Item?
Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)
Modules: AR, KT, SO
Q: How can I create an AR invoice for a customized kit item?
A: Customized kit items can only be added in the Create Sales Order function. You must create a sales order for the customized kit item, build the customized kit, and ship the sales order (accept inventory, if applicable). If the customer is set to generate invoice upon shipment (or upon inventory acceptance), then the invoice will be automatically created after saving the shipment (or accepting inventory); otherwise, you must generate the invoice from shipment through the Generate Invoice from Shipment function.
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What Is a Prenote Status?
Versions: AM11 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)
Modules: AR, PR
Q: What is a Prenote Status?
A: A prenote is a zero-amount transaction that you transmit to your bank for validation of your employees’ or vendors’ bank account information before actual electronic payments are processed. The Prenote Status is where you specify whether you want to generate a prenote before processing electronic payments.
The default prenote status if you have just set up the electronic payment details for an employee or a vendor is Require Prenotification. This means that you can generate a prenote for the employee or vendor through the Generate Prenotes function. If your bank requires a prenote, then generate a prenote and send the prenote to your bank.
Once you activate the employee or vendor for electronic payment using the Activate Electronic Payment for Employees/Vendors function, the employee’s or vendor’s prenote status will change to Prenotification Confirmed. This means that you can no longer generate a prenote for the employee or vendor. The status will change back to Require Prenotification if there is a change to the employee’s or vendor’s electronic payment details (e.g., bank, bank account #, routing #).
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Why Is the “Paste from Excel” Option Not Available?
Versions: AM11 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)
Module: SM
Q: I want to create transactions (e.g., Create Sales Order, Create Purchase Order) by copying the line items from an Excel file; however, the Paste from Excel option is not available. Why?
A: The Paste from Excel option will appear only after you copied the data from Excel.
To test, perform the following:
- Open Excel with the line items data; then, copy.
- Launch the Create Purchase Order ► Line Items tab; then, right-click.
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How Do I Make a Non-1099 Payment to a 1099 Vendor?
Versions: AM11 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)
Module: AP
Q: Can I create a non-1099 payment for a 1099 vendor?
A: Yes. The invoice must be a non-1099 invoice so that the payment will be a non-1099 payment. To create a non-1099 invoice for a 1099 vendor, select N/A in the AP Invoice Transactions ► Information ► 1099 Type field.
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