Have FreeAgent changed the invoice date and retained profit interaction?

[jayn200]

In accrual based accounting you record revenue when it's incurred not when it's due or when you're paid. That is the invoice date for us contractors. It's always been like that, nothing has changed. This is not something freeagent has any say or control over and as far as I know that is pretty universal for any country using accrual based accounting.

[vwdan]

it's always been on invoice raised date for me. That's what invoice accounting is (as opposed to cash accounting - where the profit is available when teh cash is received).

Have you changed your type?

Not in real life, but it's not implausible it has been changed. More likely I've just gotten confused/mixed up at some point, though, to be honest.

[Lance]

Just a sanity check on my part - I'm sure at some point in the past it used to be that Invoices didn't hit your Retained Profit balance until they were due. To counter this and make it easier for me to track, I'd normally just use Due on Receipt, especially for self billing.

Anyway, I'm invoicing direct at the minute so need to be a little more professional but I noticed the Retained Profit updates even on my 45 day invoices.

Did it change, does anybody know?

it's always been on invoice raised date for me. That's what invoice accounting is (as opposed to cash accounting - where the profit is available when teh cash is received).

Have you changed your type?

[jamesbrown]

Should be invoice date (has always been).

Only potential wrinkle is when you enter the invoice in FA before the invoice date. Then it won't update your retained profit until the invoice date is reached (e.g., say you entered in FA today with an invoice date of tomorrow, marked it sent, and then actually sent it tomorrow).

[adubya]

It's always worked like this for me i.e. retained profits updated as soon as invoice submitted.

[vwdan]

I highly doubt this is something FreeAgent would change. I think perhaps your previous thoughts re how it operates were wrong.

The date of the invoice is the date the income is recognised, not whatever you set as the due date, or the date it's actually paid. If you previously set due date to be "on receipt", that means same date as the invoice date...so I think that would be why it appeared that the income was generated on the due date.

You might be right - I think I may have confused myself with invoice dates vs date due.

Oh well!

[Maslins]

I highly doubt this is something FreeAgent would change. I think perhaps your previous thoughts re how it operates were wrong.

The date of the invoice is the date the income is recognised, not whatever you set as the due date, or the date it's actually paid. If you previously set due date to be "on receipt", that means same date as the invoice date...so I think that would be why it appeared that the income was generated on the due date.

[vwdan]

Just a sanity check on my part - I'm sure at some point in the past it used to be that Invoices didn't hit your Retained Profit balance until they were due. To counter this and make it easier for me to track, I'd normally just use Due on Receipt, especially for self billing.

Anyway, I'm invoicing direct at the minute so need to be a little more professional but I noticed the Retained Profit updates even on my 45 day invoices.

Did it change, does anybody know?