Miscellaneous Charges Entry

From the DockMaster menu, select Accounts Receivable > Charges Menu > Miscellaneous Charges Entry

Purpose The Miscellaneous Charges Entry program is used to create or modify invoices that affect a customer’s account. Invoices may be either debit invoices, or credit memos (negative amounts).

This program is also used to modify invoices created by the Create Finance Charges program.

Accounting Issues

Each invoice entered uses the default Accounts Receivable, Sales, and Sales Tax Payable accounts from the Accounts Receivable Parameters; you can modify these accounts when necessary. If the General Ledger is installed, these accounts will verify against the Chart of Accounts file. Note: Different types of sales transactions will most likely be posted to different General Ledger sales/income accounts; if you are using a default sales account, be sure to change the account if necessary.

All invoices update customer accounts and the subsidiary ledger when the Post Charges program is run; if the Auto Post to G/L option is enabled, the transaction will also post to the General Ledger.

A General Ledger transaction includes at least one debit and one credit. These amounts must be equal to keep the accounting in balance. DockMaster will not allow the user to save or post an invoice if the debits and credits do not balance.

When To Use Miscellaneous Charges Entry

Charge transactions can be entered for any portion of the business: Storage and Billing, Service Department, Ship’s Store, Boat Sales, and Reservations. Below are some examples on using this program.

Sales Invoices

In this example, your business has not yet gone live with the Storage and Billing module.
However, you wish to invoice customers for this month’s storage charges.
This will allow your business to send statements and collect monies.
The invoice entry would be as follows:
- Debit Accounts Receivable: $ 105.00
- Credit Storage Income: $100.00
- Credit Sales Tax Payable: $5.00
This invoice should be entered as a Sales Amount to be included on the Sales Tax Report.

Non-sales Invoice

In this example, you wrote off the balance of a customer's account and purged the invoice file; now you've received a check for the balance.
The non-sales invoice entry would be as follows:
Debit Accounts Receivable: $ 50.00
Credit Bad Debts Recovered: $ 50.00
Now apply the cash to this invoice.

Issue a Credit Memo

In this example, your business has not yet gone live with the Service module and it has been decided to give a customer a credit to discount labor charges booked on a work order in your previous system.
The invoice entry would be as follows:
Credit Accounts Receivable $100.00
Debit Sales Discounts $100.00

Modify or Delete Finance Charge Invoices

Invoice numbers can be found by printing the Charges Edit Listing or pressing F6 at the Invoice Number field.

Invoices may be modified or deleted until they are posted. To modify or delete an invoice, enter the invoice number at the Reference Number field. The invoice is displayed; edit the invoice as needed or delete it.

Location Code: Select the Location from the Location Listing if applicable.
Reference Number - Click the New button or enter N to get the next available Reference Number if you are inputting a new item. Enter the invoice number if you are editing an existing charge.
Charge Type - Click the down arrow to select the Charge Type for the invoice being created. The Charge Type prompt will only be active for new invoices only. The charge type indicates the source module and default description printed on A/R statements. The default description will be overridden if an entry is made in the Description field.

The available Charge Types are shown below:

- M Miscellaneous W Work Order
- S Ship's Store F Late Fee
- D Dockage R Reservations
- E Electric
Customer ID - Enter a Customer ID. If you don’t know the customer ID, type in a backslash "" followed by a name to access the cross-reference.
Charge Date - Enter the Charge Date for this invoice or press Enter to default to the current date.
Due Date - Enter the Due Date for this invoice or accept the default date. If the customer selected has a payment terms code on his file, this code is used to calculate the Due Date. If no payment term exists, the Due Date will default to the current date.
Sales Amount - Enter the Sales Amount for this charge. A positive entry will increase a customer’s balance, and a negative entry (credit memo) will decrease it.
When entering a negative entry, type in the dollar amount with the negative value sign first. For example, -10.00 would be a credit memo for $10.00.
The amount entered in the Sales Amount field creates the required sales tax record for reporting sales tax.
Sales Tax – The Sales Tax will get calculated from a Tax Schema. This field cannot be modified. The Tax Schema can come from one of three places: The Tax Schema on the Customer’s file; the Tax Schema associated with the Postal Code in the Customer File or the Tax Schema associated with the Postal Code in the Location File. If your tax is not calculating correctly, you will want to go back and check your set up. You will also want to check the Tax Code on the Tax Schema to make sure the sales tax percentage is correct.
Note: Miscellaneous Charges will read the Postal Code from the Customer File, if it is blank; it will then use the Postal Code from the Location file for tax calculations if the Tax Information is not in the Customer’s file.

To view the Tax Codes and their calculations, click on the Sales Tax button. The Tax Detail is a read only window. To change the Tax Detail, you must change the Tax Schema.

Note: If the calculated tax amount is wrong, check the Tax Schema in the Customer File, the Tax Schema attached to the Postal Code in the Customer File, or the Tax Schema attached to the Postal code in Location Maintenance.

Tax Schema – The Tax Schema will default from the Customer File. If the Customer File’s Tax Schema is left blank, then the system looks at the Postal Code on the Location File. If no tax is to be calculated, the Tax Schema "notax" can be entered. If the field is left blank, the system will default to "notax". To change the Tax Schema, enter in the Tax Schema Id or press the F6 Key or List F6 from the Command Panel. (This is a required field.)
Non-sales Amount - Enter the Non-taxable Amount for this transaction or press Enter to bypass this field. Charges entered as non-sales transactions will not appear on the Sales Tax Report.
Charges generated by a sale or service should be entered in the Sales Amount field.

Note: A single transaction may include a sales and non-sales amount. The program will differentiate between the two on the Sales Tax Report.

Description - Enter a free-form Description of the charge or press Enter to use the default description on the Charge Type for statement printing. Use this description to specify the nature of the charge: returned check, credit for Inv. # 225, etc. This description will print on the customer’s A/R statement for this invoice and is limited to two lines of free-form text.

-- G/L Account --

The General Ledger account distribution grid will automatically default to the G/L accounts maintained in the A/R Parameters. If you are missing the Receivables Account, Sales Account, or Sales Tax Payable Account, you will have to edit the distribution and make it balance (debits = credits) or exit and maintain the parameters. DockMaster will not allow an invoice to be saved or posted until the debits and credits balance. Note: When adjusting the G/L accounts, the first line of the General Ledger entry should always be the Accounts Receivable account number.

Click in the G/L Account column to enter or modify an account. The number of G/L accounts you can enter in this grid is unlimited. The Balance box must equal zero to Save or Post an invoice.
Click the Print & Post button to both Print and Post the invoice. Click the Post button if you just want to post the charges. You can also click the Save and Clear buttons to post the invoices with other invoices using the Post Charges routine.
If the Account distribution is incorrect (debits don’t equal credits), this message will appear:

Total debits do not equal total credits

You will be required to balance the distribution prior to saving or posting the invoice.

--Completing the Miscellaneous Charge Process--

The following steps should be performed after generating miscellaneous charge invoices.

Print an edit listing through the Charges Edit Listing program to review and verify the invoices and accounting entries.
Select Miscellaneous Charges Entry to modify or delete individual invoices. Use the charge type originally entered on the invoice. If you enter the wrong charge type, the program will correct it upon entry of the invoice number.
Reprint the Charges Edit Listing to review any changes or proceed to the next step if no changes were made.
Select Post Charges to post the invoices to the individual customer accounts.