Document Date vs Posting Date

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Posted on by Nicky Numbskull

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Hello, I'm new to GP. OK, so GP provides 2 date fields on transactions: document date & posting date. I'm trying to figure out when or why you would ever need to change one date from the other. Can someone please provide an example of when I'd change one date to not match the other? I'm a Numbskull (pun intended :) ) and can't see why. Thanks.

Nicky Numbskull

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Richard Wheeler 75,848 Moderator on at

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Re: Document Date vs Posting Date

The document date is used for aging purposes on your trial balance reports so the report knows which bucket to put the document. The GL posting date is for which fiscal period you want the transaction to occur. These are two separate dates.

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Re: Document Date vs Posting Date

Richard is correct and here is a sample on when the transactions might be different on their dates.

You have a data entry clerk entering all invoices into batches lets say he is entering transactions on may 1st this is your document date, when batch is reviewed by the AP manager lets say 2 days later and post the batch the GL date is that posting date.

Sometimes dates are driven by the batch date instead of the document entry date as well there are many reasons this will not be the same.

have agreat day

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Nicky Numbskull 130 on at

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Re: Document Date vs Posting Date

So if the AP manager left the date as 5/1 what would be the impact? None. So why change it? I’m looking for a concrete example of when these dates would NEED to be changed.

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Richard Wheeler 75,848 Moderator on at

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Re: Document Date vs Posting Date

There are many reasons why you may want to do this. Don't forget you also have the option of posting by batch date or by transaction date. If you post by batch date, you enter one date on the batch and then no matter what dates are on the the transactions the posting date will be the same. As opposed to posting by transaction date where the posting date and the transaction date will always match. One simple example is end of year. Let's say your year ends on 12/31/2011. Now for the first couple of weeks of 2012 you get invoices that belong in 2011 but you want to age them based on the transaction date. So you post by batch date, entering a date of 12/31/2011, but you enter the actual transaction dates and post. This way the expense will post to the fiscal year of 2011 but they will age with the 2012 dates on them. You may be doing this to properly reflect your true profit for the year by increasing your cost since these transaction were incurred in the prior year. No need to give the tax men any more than they already will take.

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Dale Coulthard 3,055 on at

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Re: Document Date vs Posting Date

It depends upon your business processes as stated in the other posts.

We do not use batches so we are always using the two fields/dates. We close our books monthly by a specific workday. If we receive an invoice from a vendor that relates to the month that was already closed, then we still input the document date (which is the invoice date on the vendor invoice for us), but change the posting date to the current month that is open. That way, the invoice is aged correctly but our financials show the transaction occurring in the open fiscal period. So, if May 2011 is already closed and you just received an invoice from a vendor that is dated May 20, then you can enter the invoice with the invoice date of May 20, but use the posting date of June so the transaction will hit the Jun financials, while if you run an A/P aging report, the invoice will show on that report as May 20.

Best regards,

Dale

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Sam Kirstein 100 on at

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Re: Document Date vs Posting Date

This is the best reason to use different dates. Well stated, Dale. It's especially important to do this if you intend to pay your vendors within their stated terms. Without this ability, selecting checks for payment is a much more manual process to pay within terms.

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RE: Document Date vs Posting Date

Hi Richard, I am using NAV. I noticed that document date change automatically and follows the posting date when I enter the posting date. I need to use two dates to differentiate fiscal period and transaction aging. Is there any way to remove the automatic feature?

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L Vail 65,271 on at

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RE: Document Date vs Posting Date

Perfect Guys,

You've got two dates, the document date and the posting date. The document date is used by the subsidiary ledger, while the posting date is used by the general ledger. You can override these dates. If you do post something to the RM module at a different date than the GL module you're still OK, the report has an option for you to print the report according to the posting date. In GP, whenever you see 'Posting' with the 'ing' after it, it means GL transaction date.

Kind regards,

Leslie

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RE: Document Date vs Posting Date

Hi Leslie,

Let me explain.

After I've entered the document date (let's say 5/1/2015) on GL journal line and subsequently the posting date (eg. 30/1/2015), I noticed that the document date that I have entered earlier being replaced by the posting date. The document date automatically change to 30/1/2015). Is there anyway to "turn-off" the automatic change feature? I need to maintain the actual document date.

Good day.

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L Vail 65,271 on at

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RE: Document Date vs Posting Date

Michael,

This is the GP forum. If you have a question that is specific to NAV, you will be better served by posting to the NAV forum.

Kind regards,

Leslie

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