About release of prepayments

In Visma.net ERP, if a prepayment has the Balanced status, you can release the prepayment by using one of the following windows:

• Customer payments (AR302000): You release a prepayment and any of its applications by clicking the Release button on the window toolbar.
• Release customer documents (AR501000): You use this mass-processing window to release a particular prepayment or multiple prepayments. For details, see Release a payment document.

When you release a prepayment, the system generates a general ledger batch to update the involved asset accounts with the prepayment transactions. The prepayment includes all the information the system needs to generate the batch. The following two accounts are usually involved:

• The asset account specified in the Customer ledger account field on the Financial details tab
• The cash account specified in the Cash account field in the Summary area

You may record customer prepayments to a designated customer ledger account or to the same customer ledger account to which payments are recorded. In the latter case, the system will generate a general ledger batch with transactions that are similar to payment transactions. For details, see About release of payments.

If you record customer payments and prepayments to separate customer ledger accounts or for the customer, the Customer ledger account and Prepayment account fields contain different accounts on the General ledger accounts tab of the Customers (AR303000) window. The following prepayment transactions will be recorded to the general ledger when the prepayment is released.

You can view the batch details by clicking the link in the Batch no. field on the Financial details tab of the Customer payments (AR302000) window.

If you have recorded bank charges for the payment, the system generates the respective transactions and includes them in the batch with the payment transactions. For details on bank charge transactions, see Finance charge transactions.

In addition to prepayment transactions that update the asset accounts, the batch may contain transactions generated by application records that were released along with the prepayment. For details, see About release of application records.

When you record a prepayment, you may not specify any outstanding documents on the Documents to apply tab of the Customer payments (AR302000) window. Thus, the available balance of the prepayment is equal to the prepayment amount. When you release such a prepayment, the system does the following:

• Changes the prepayment status to Open
• Increases the customer's prepayments balance by the prepayment amount
• Generates a general ledger batch to update the involved asset accounts

In this case, the system generates a General Ledger batch that contains only prepayment transactions and transactions for any bank charges.

When you record a prepayment, you may specify some outstanding documents on the Documents to apply tab of the Customer payments (AR302000) window. The system creates application records for each document listed on the tab; the records include the applied amount. Thus, the available balance of the prepayment becomes less than the prepayment amount. When you release such a prepayment, the system does the following:

• Changes the prepayment status to Open.
• Releases any application records.
• Decreases the balances of the paid documents. If the balance of a paid document becomes 0, the system changes its status to Closed.
• Decreases the customer's balance for by paid amount.
• Increases the customer's prepayments balance by the available prepayment amount.
• Generates a general ledger batch to update the involved asset accounts.

When you release a partially applied prepayment, the general ledger batch may contain, in addition to prepayment transactions, transactions generated by its application records.

If you record prepayments to a designated customer ledger account, which is usually different from the customer ledger account where outstanding documents are recorded, the following prepayment transactions will be recorded to the general ledger when the prepayment is released.

For details on the other application transactions, see About release of application records.

When you record a prepayment you may fully apply its available balance to any number of outstanding documents.

You distribute the entire available prepayment balance among the outstanding documents you add to the table on the Documents to apply tab of the Customer payments (AR302000) window. The system creates application records (which include the applied amount) for each document listed on the tab. Thus, the available prepayment balance becomes 0. When you release such a prepayment, the system does the following:

• Changes the prepayment status to Closed.
• Releases the application records.
• Decreases the balances of the paid documents. If the balance of a paid document becomes 0, the system changes its status to Closed.
• Decreases the customer's balance by the paid amount.
• Generates a general ledger batch to update the involved asset accounts.

If you record prepayments to a designated customer ledger account that is different from the customer ledger account where outstanding documents are recorded, and you release a fully applied prepayment and its application records, the system records the prepayment amount to the customer ledger account specified for the applied outstanding documents. The following transactions are recorded to the general ledger when the fully applied prepayment and its application records are released.

When you release a fully applied prepayment, the general ledger batch may contain transactions generated by the prepayment's application records, in addition to prepayment transactions. For details on application transactions, see About release of application records.