Accrual Plans & Purchases

Some of the costs that are associated with a particular accrual plan may involve vendor services. For example, you might hire a printer to produce collateral for a marketing promotion.

Additional costs can be assigned to an accrual plan in the form of accrual charges. Accrual charges are used to calculate an accrual plan's estimated accrual amount, which in turn can be used to create an accrual plan schedule.

Accrued amounts must be distributed to one or more payment accounts. This can be according to a payment schedule, or via a manual distribution. It is also possible to enter a specific accrual plan on a purchase document line. This gives you the ability to post purchase invoice amounts to a related accrual plan.

For example, you enter an accrual charge for marketing collateral of $500. If an accrual plan schedule is created for the accrual plan, this charge amount is factored into the accrual schedule. After all of the scheduled accruals have been posted, the full amount of $500 has been accrued. When you receive an invoice from the printer for $500, you can tie the purchase invoice line to the relevant accrual plan. Posting the purchase invoice posts a payment of $500 to the accrual plan, balancing out the accrual amount.

Purchase lines do not have to be posted to an accrual plan in response to defined accrual charges. A purchase line can be created for any existing accrual plan, regardless of whether or not accrual charges have been assigned.