Indeed, those two definitions (Invoice ID/Billing ID) are so similar as to be the same thing in probably most cases, especially for Vendors. I could see how they may be different from an AR perspective. (you may be importing invoices generated in an invoicing app that has its own numbering scheme, but want or need to use a different scheme in GnuCash and you import that invoice data into GnuCash for accounting purposes)
One place I can see a Vendor use for both is when something is a bill for a payment with a reference. For example, if you deal with a Vendor that employs a payment Factor, the original supplier will have one invoice# and the Factor might well have another. I guess you could use either field for either number, but by the definition, I’d think Invoice ID would be the original supplier’s invoice# and Billing ID would be the Factor’s invoice#, but that does seem a bit backwards in some respects considering how GnuCash uses them. Personally, for Vendor bills I use Invoice ID as the Vendor’s Invoice# if any, or else let it auto-increment. I then use Billing ID as *my* account number with that Vendor. (since I don’t see any other place to put that info) They are both somewhat free-form and you can use them for whatever real-world (or not) data you like. The Invoice ID can be patterned and incremented according to Book rules. (See: File > Properties > Counters) That’s probably more useful for AR than AP, but I’m sure some use it for that also. This will be the info put into the AR/AP registers as ’NUM’ and will be displayed on the ‘owner’ Report (Customer/Vendor Report or ’Statement of Account’) It is also I believe used to link payments, but I could be mistaken. That might be handled internally via GUID. I also use the Opening Date as the date of the Vendor’s bill. (when they show it was created/opened/etc.) The due date is usually different. The service dates are almost always different or are for a time span, not just a date. I vaguely recall a discussion about getting rid of ‘Opening Date’ as superfluous to ‘Invoice Date’ but I hope that doesn’t happen. With the move to accommodate Quotes in 4.0, I can imagine the need to know when you wrote the quote (Opening Date) and when it is posted as an agreed-to Invoice. (Invoice Date) Regards, Adrien > On Jun 16, 2020 w25d168, at 6:41 PM, Fran_3 via gnucash-user > <gnucash-user@gnucash.org> wrote: > > In 7.10.1 are the field definitions for a New Bill from a vendor... two of > them are... > > Invoice Info - Invoice ID (optional) - the identification number of the > invoice as emitted by the vendor (IE: the vendor’s internal number for this > invoice). > Billing Info - Billing ID (optional) - the vendor’s ID for the bill (e.g.: > their invoice #). > This is confusing to me as follows... > On Bills we receive from vendors we often find a number on the document we > use to identify it...1 - Vendor's Bill Number > > along with the the dates often found on the document... like...2 - Date the > vendor created the Bill3 - Service Period Dates > 4 - Due Date > We consider 4 above to be the Billing ID in 7.10.1 above... aka the vendor's > ID for the bill... aka their invoice # > So what is Invoice Info - Invoice ID in 7.10.1? > Thanks for any clarification. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
