Handling accounting rules

The accounting rules feature is used with vouchers to automatically apply accounting information to voucher lines based on predefined rule definitions.

Rules are defined and maintained in the Accounting rule criteria and Accounting rule action tables.

To create a rule, you need to define one or more criteria and then specify the corresponding actions to be applied when the criteria match.
Note:

Values suggested by accounting rules will override values interpreted by the mapping and interpretation tool.

See also: Mapping and interpretation tool

Accounting rule criteria

Accounting rule criteria can be defined using supplier, currency, country, amount range, value date range, text matching, VAT rate, credit note indicator, priority, and suspension status, which together determine whether and how a rule is suggested for a voucher line.

The option under Accounting rule processing in the Accounting rule criteria table controls how values from an accounting rule are applied to voucher lines. By default, only empty fields are populated, but by enabling Overwrite already filled values, existing values are replaced by the rule actions. If an action value is empty, the original voucher value is now retained.

The VAT rate field in the Accounting rule criteria table is validated against the Document VAT rate field on the voucher. This value is used when determining the correct accounting rule to apply.

Accounting rules also support documents without VAT by using the Zero VAT rate field, that treats the VAT rate as 0. The Zero VAT rate and VAT rate fields are mutually exclusive, and if neither is set, the rule applies, regardless of the VAT rate on the voucher.

The Credit note field in the Accounting rule criteria table is used to handle credit notes automatically, and to separate rules for credit notes from rule definitions for invoices.

Accounting rule actions

Accounting rule actions that will be applied when the criteria is fulfilled, can be for example accounts, VAT codes or dimensions.

Applying accounting rules

Accounting rules can be applied in several ways:

  • Automatically, by running the Propose from rules processing in the Voucher table

    See also: Propose from rules

  • Manually, by selecting a rule directly in the Accounting rule no. field on a voucher line (criteria are then ignored)

  • Automatically, by running the Process document processing for invoices in the Accounting document table

    See also: Process document

If you run the Propose from rules or Process document processing, and the selected accounting rule has no action defined, you get a notification and the Accounting rule no. field on the voucher line is cleared.

If you re-run the Propose from rules processing on voucher lines where an accounting rule is already applied, you get a notification. To apply rules again, you first need to clear the Accounting rule no. field manually.

Shares

When defining accounting rules with several actions for the same criteria, the Share field in the Accounting rule action must be considered:

  • If there are several action rows and Share is empty, each action is treated as 0 % and amounts are cleared from the voucher lines when the rule is applied.
  • If only one action exists and Share is empty, it's treated as 100 %.

This behaviour applies both to manual processing and automated processing, including using the Process document processing.

Actions with a total share exceeding 100 % can be defined by using the Action group no. field in the Accounting rule action. This allows actions to be grouped and processed independently.