Invoice date, service date and payment date: which month gets the booking?

Record the relevant dates explicitly

For an incoming invoice, keep the document date, service or delivery date, date received, due date and actual payment date. They answer separate questions:

The service may span several periods. A full-year subscription paid in advance cannot be assigned correctly from its bank date alone. Its treatment depends on the accounting method and the applicable recognition rules.

September: the service creates an expense and payable

A repair is completed on 28 September. The valid €600 invoice arrives on 29 September and is due on 10 October. The company uses accrual accounting.

To isolate timing, this example omits VAT and assumes no additional charges. September records:

Debit repair expense €600; credit supplier payable €600.

At 30 September, the expense is in September’s result and €600 remains payable. There has been no cash outflow yet. A month-end process that waits for payment would omit both the expense and the liability.

The separation of accrual income and expense from payment is anchored in §252 HGB.

October: the payment clears the open item

The company pays €600 on 10 October:

Debit supplier payable €600; credit bank €600.

The supplier balance becomes zero. October contains the cash outflow, while the repair expense remains in September. Recording another repair expense in October would duplicate the cost.

The invoice and payment remain linked across the month boundary. A filter showing October’s bank movements should not require September’s invoice to be moved into October.

November: a new agreement changes the amount

On 12 November, the supplier agrees a new €100 goodwill reduction. Assume this concession was neither owed nor agreed in September; the original €600 charge was correct. The supplier issues the correction and refunds €100.

November records the reduction against the original purchase and a €100 supplier credit, followed by the €100 refund clearing that credit. Across all three months, the net repair cost and net cash outflow are each €500.

This is a new commercial event. If instead the original invoice had been entered incorrectly, the correction would need the appropriate error-correction treatment. Year-end accounts and tax returns can introduce additional requirements; a later date does not itself authorise moving an old error into a convenient month.

Apply the correct framework to EÜR and VAT

For an EÜR, receipt and payment are central to timing, subject to exceptions. §11 EStG includes special treatment for certain regularly recurring items near year end. Asset purchases also need their own rules. “Everything follows the bank date” is therefore too broad.

VAT timing is a separate determination. The company’s Ist- or Sollversteuerung, the transaction type, invoice evidence and any advance or correction matter. Do not infer the input-VAT period from the expense month alone.

Hans uses the client’s accounting and VAT setup when processing dates and settlements. Recurring contracts are supported; the broader scheduling modules for deferrals, accruals and depreciation remain planned.

For a late change to finished books, continue with corrections after close. For the resulting balances, use open-item reconciliation.