Future dated bills as a way to record proforma purchase invoices

[Oleg M.]

hi guys, i've recently moved from Xero to QBO, hoping my life will become much better Still not convinced.

I have a question, our company is based in the UK, using accrual basis accounting. I need to record estimates and proforma purchase invoices in a way that they don't hit any of the main financial statements, but at the same time I have record of them, and they appear in sales and purchase ledgers (for the purpose of cash flow projections). Is it legal to create an invoice and bill for the delivery/service that is expected to happen soon in the future, and the payments haven't been made to supplier and from the customer, but use the future date (not in the current month), so won't affect current P&L and other important statements. I just want to avoid breaking any laws just for the sake of convenience and (saving plenty of time making cash flow forecasts).

 

[kirby]

Exceptionally bad idea.

 

[Oleg M.]

Exceptionally bad idea.

Thanks, any reason why you think like that? None will ever would ask to provide P&L or Balance sheet for future months (unless it's a forecast which I would do separately from books).

I just think the fact that QB can't accommodate this is a bit a pain, as we rely a lot on our short-term cash flow forecast, which would be a lot easier to make when you have the records of pro-forma invoices in the books (see XERO).

And how would you record a proforma bill from a supplier. I know many would simply create an actual bill and charge their P&L, and the same with sales proforma, but I think this is even worse. (I mean great if you want to inflate your profits and impress your boss/investor/etc., or create only bills to keep your tax low, but if you want to sleep better, and not on the state-provided bed )

 

[kirby]

So let's have fun with this
So you enter fictitious entries into the accounting system. Well for that to be fraud in most countries you need A) fictitious entries -which you did put in so now you are halfway there and b) intent to defraud, which I take that you are not intending.
So, all is well until the covid makes you sick enough so you are laid up at home. Also, your company's sales due to covid are about zero. Company is sad until they see and post the fictitious future dated bills you entered and rejoice as they now have income. Financials get published and soon found to be false.
At your trial, accounting experts testify that what you did is either insanity or fraud because no one would ever do what you did. They testify that this is never how cash forecasts are done.

But, as Dirty Harry said, "Do you feel lucky?"

 

[Oleg M.]

Actually I don't want to argue cause you made a very good point i never though about it - what if I or the person supervising the books become unavailable. I am very convinced now it was a really stupid idea

A question, how do you manage short-term cash flow from technical point of view, assuming your cash flow is very volatile and most of the time really tight. Xero allows entering draft sales and purchase invoices, which allows downloading sales and purchase ledger including those draft entries, and you can use it to build the cash flow. I hate entering manually in excel, simply don't have time and patience and things change daily. I moved to QB Online and it doesn't have this feature, I am devastated. I am literally thinking to spend my weekends transferring data back to xero and say to QB goodbye just because of this. I can't afford more expensive systems such as Microsoft NAV, or Oracle, so have to choose between these two crappy and limited systems.

 

[kirby]

First - need to know your environment: for example - do you issue many small dollar invoices ot a few large invoices? And are the invoices for varying amounts or always the same amount (like a rental or a service business) ? And what are payment terms- due in x days or due immediately? And (!) do your customers generally pay per invoice terms or are generally late?