A/P Invoice Post Date

Shelly White · August 2024

Anyone experiencing issues with the post date automatically going back to the date of the purchase order? We have not made any changes to busniess rules, yet in the past couple of weeks, we have had two invoices with purchase orders processed through Webpurchasing, posting with a post date of the creation date of the purchase order. One posted back to September 2023, which is when the PO was created, but the second line item on the PO was not received until June 2024. If you have noticed something similar, how are you managing it?

Jennifer Hughes · August 2024

@Shelly White Yes, we have the same issue. It is highly frustrating to have to spend so much time scrutinizing post dates constantly because the system is set up to populate to defaults based on PO post date. I don't understand the logic as we would never post an invoice on the same date the PO was posted. As an example, it is not unusual to enter a PO for a construction project and then spend the next 2+ years paying invoices associated with the original PO. If we don't manually override the post date every single time, we will end up with invoices being posted in previous fiscal years that are closed and should never be changed. The only option I am aware of is to continually change and double check that a defaulted date doesn't get missed during entry and the result is that it takes our staff a lot more time changing and double checking this every time we enter an invoice associated with a PO.

It isn't just PO's though, the same thing happens with every invoice entered in NXT. Invoice records always default the post date to match the invoice date rather than leaving the post date blank as it does in database view for us to manually enter. Worst case scenario it should default on today's date if it absolutely must default to something. The problem with it defaulting to invoice date is that it is common for invoices to slip through the cracks and unfortunately we receive invoices with previous fiscal year dates all year long. Additionally, for the first two months of a fiscal year most of the invoices we receive has an invoice date from the previous fiscal year. If the post date isn't manually overridden on each of these entries, you will end up posting expenses in a prior fiscal year. I understand that the default can be overridden, but it places an extra burden on staff to catch these each time and with a high volume of activity, serious mistakes occur.

There are many posts in the idea bank requesting that this be addressed but it is frustrating because as you can see on the attached screenshot, at least one of the ideas has been out there since 2020 and still hasn't been addressed. These might seem like minor inconveniences to Blackbaud but they are not to the daily user who depends on efficient and accurate financial information.

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Kevin Brazell · August 2024

@Shelly White I did some testing, and this varies depending on a few business rules that may / may not be on for you. I tested a PO with 2 different line items, with 2 separate post dates on the line items.
When I made invoices for each line item, the Invoice in my database did go back to the PO line items post date since I placed one in June and July. I noticed the Invoice date defaulted to the current date, though I could change that. Now this means that a business rule is off in the General Ledger , Transaction is off and not being enforced in whole database. The rule that says post dates and transaction dates cannot be different. With this rule on, you can't manipulate the post date separately from the Transaction Date. You enter the transaction date and it's copied down to post date.

If this rule is on, then the invoice date you enter from the PO receipt, should follow the invoices transaction date, not the invoice date from the PO line item preventing it from backdating.

Now this rule being on does it for all subledger transactions, not just this situation. It's an all or nothing setting. But should prevent the invoice's post date for the receipt back dating unless you manually change the invoice date to mirror that date.

Brenda Ries · August 2024

@Kevin Brazell thanks for this information. I've been searching for how to allow AP invoices to be posted to a different date other than invoice date and your reference to the General Ledger setting for “do not allow post dates to be different than transactions dates in other Blackbaud systems” seem to have done the trick.

Shelly White · August 2024

@Kevin Brazell I guess I don't understand what you are saying. Our business rules in FE7 (on premise) and what are now in FENXT are identical, so nothing has changed on our end, yet this is a new phenomenon that we have become aware. We are aware that there are some changes with the migration with purchasing in NXT, but again, the issue we are experiencing is not happening across the board, it is happening occasionally. Almost like a system glitch.