Correct a paid purchase order
When a paid purchase order turns out to be wrong, you don't edit it. You add a correction next to it, and your books, job cost and the vendor's copy follow.
Why a paid purchase order can't just be edited
Once a purchase order has a payment on record, it is part of your accounting record. Its lines, tax rate, vendor, date and status are locked, and so are a paid item's amount, payment, status, vendor and PO number. Its notes, terms, ship-to address and vendor contact can still be changed.
"A payment on record" means at least one item on the order has been marked paid. An older order whose status says Paid but whose items were never marked paid has no payment on record, and is edited the way it always was.
The way to put a paid order right is a correction: one dated line, plus or minus, with a reason and the name of whoever made it. The order, its payment and its original total are never changed. Nothing is overwritten or deleted, so anyone reading the record later can see what was paid and what was corrected.
Who can make a correction
Owners, admins and anyone you have given the Post to the ledger permission can make, void and settle corrections. Everyone who can see financials can read them, but they are not shown the buttons. Approving or rejecting a correction that is waiting for a second person needs the Approve payments permission instead (see When a second person has to approve).
It works on any order that has a payment on record: a Paid order, a Closed order that was paid, or an order that has been paid in part. It doesn't work on a draft or a cancelled order.
Make a correction
Open the purchase order
In Procurement, open the Purchase Orders tab and choose Open on the order. A paid order shows a Corrections card and, for people who may use it, an Adjust this PO button.
Say where it lands
Choose the item the mistake belongs to. The correction follows that item's cost code. If it isn't about one item, choose Not tied to an item and type a cost code. The cost code needs an active line in the project's budget, otherwise the correction would never reach job cost.
Say why
Pick a reason (wrong amount, duplicate, refund, credit memo, tax correction or other) and write what happened, in at least 10 characters. That note is saved with the correction and on its ledger entry. It is not printed on the purchase order PDF.
Enter the amounts
Type the amount before tax and the tax. Use a minus sign for a credit or a refund:
-1000.00takes $1,000.00 off the cost. The tax is suggested from the order's tax rate, and you can change it. A tax-only mistake is an amount of 0 and a tax.Check the confirm step
The next screen says in words what will be posted, for example Debit Accounts Payable $1,080.00. Credit cost 03-30-00 $1,000.00. Credit Sales & Use Tax $80.00. It also shows the adjusted total of the order next to its original total.
Record it
Choose Record correction. The date is always today; it can't be changed. Pressing the button twice records it once.
What a correction changes
| Where | What you will see |
|---|---|
| The purchase order page | The original total is always printed next to the adjusted total. A $10,800.00 order with a credit memo of $1,080.00 ($1,000.00 plus $80.00 tax) shows $10,800.00 and $9,720.00. |
| The purchase order list | A small adjusted badge beside the total. The CSV export has two more columns: the adjusted total, next to the total, and the number of corrections. |
| Job cost, the budget line and work in progress | They count the correction at once. The credit memo above takes $1,000.00 off cost code 03-30-00 and $80.00 off the Sales & Use Tax line. Open a budget line to see each correction as its own row. |
| The ledger | The correction gets its own entry, dated today: here, debit Accounts Payable $1,080.00, credit cost $1,000.00, credit Sales & Use Tax $80.00. The entries for the original order are not touched. |
| The vendor's copy | The PDF you send has a Corrections after payment section with each correction's date, category and amounts, and both totals. It never shows your reason or who made the correction. |
The date, and closed months
A correction is dated today, in your company's calendar (the time zone in Settings). It is never put into a month that has been closed. If the month is closed, ask someone with the Close / reopen periods permission to reopen it, then try again.
A correction that had to wait for a second person takes effect the day it is approved, so its ledger entry is dated that day and not the day it was prepared.
Limits
- A purchase order, an item and the order's tax can each be corrected down to $0.00 but never below it. The form says how much can still be taken off.
- A correction needs an amount, a tax, or both. A correction of $0.00 changes nothing.
- It can't be made on an item billed through a subcontractor pay application. Correct that on the pay application instead; doing both would count it twice.
- A correction can't be edited or deleted. A wrong one is voided and entered again.
Refunds and extra payments
A correction moves cost and what you owe. It moves no cash. When the vendor's refund arrives, open the correction and choose Record refund. When you pay an extra amount, choose Record extra payment.
Pick the day the money moved: today, or an earlier day in a month that is still open, and not before the correction itself. It posts Cash against Accounts Payable, once, for the whole correction.
When a second person has to approve
If your company has set a limit under Payment approval in Settings, a correction at or above it needs a second person. It is saved as waiting for approval: nothing is posted, job cost doesn't change, and it is not in the adjusted total. Everyone who can approve it is told in the app, and the order appears in their My Work. No email is sent.
The person who prepared a correction can never approve it. Someone else who holds the Approve payments permission opens the purchase order, and the waiting correction has two buttons:
- Approve makes it count. It is posted to the ledger dated the day you approve it, in that day's month, and job cost, the budget line and work in progress count it from then on. The line on the page keeps the day it was prepared, and the ledger entry says when it was prepared. If this month is closed, it can't be approved until that month is reopened.
- Reject asks why, in at least 10 characters. The correction stays on the page, marked rejected. It never counted, and the person who prepared it is told.
The person who prepared it has a Withdraw button instead, so a request is never stuck: an owner or admin who holds every permission still can't approve their own correction, but can withdraw it. A withdrawn correction stays on the page, marked withdrawn, and it never counted. Once a correction has been approved it is a normal one: void it if it was a mistake. Everyone else who can see the order sees that a correction is waiting, with no buttons.
Voiding a correction
Choose Void on a correction made in error and say why, in at least 10 characters. The correction stays on the page, marked void. Job cost and work in progress stop counting it at once.
If it had reached the ledger, an equal and opposite entry dated today is posted, and another for its refund or extra payment if you had recorded one. They land in today's month, so a month you have already reported is never changed. If it never reached the ledger there is nothing to reverse.
If the ledger can't take it just now
The correction is always saved first. If your ledger isn't set up yet, the Sales & Use Tax account can't be found, or the month has been closed, you are told, and the correction is listed as Not in the ledger yet. It is posted automatically later. A correction whose month closes before it posts has to be voided and recorded again in the current month.
If the payment itself was wrong
A correction changes what was owed and what it cost. It does not take a payment back. If the payment itself was wrong, for example it went to the wrong vendor or was made twice, use Reverse payment on the same purchase order page. The payment stays on record and the reversal sits next to it, on its own Payment reversals card. A reversal at or above your limit waits for a second person in the same way. See Reverse a payment.