Managing Payables and Receivables – Help Center

In Springly, you can use accrual accounting: record an entry (accrual) while indicating that you have not yet collected full or partial payment.

Accounts payable and receivable management follows an accrual logic: it allows you to track entries in your books even before payment is made. This is typically used for installment payments or deferred payments.

Accounts payable and receivable management is available only if you have enabled Accrual Accounting under Settings > Accounting (See article).

This article covers the following topics:

How accounts payable and receivable work
Recording a payable or receivable
Tracking payables and receivables
Canceling a payable or receivable

ℹ️ For more information on accrual accounting and how it differs from cash-basis accounting, we recommend consulting resources from your accounting advisor or the IRS website.

How accounts payable and receivable work

What is a payable or receivable?

In both cases, there is an accrual: a commitment by a person or organization to honor a payment owed to a third party, who in turn has the right to demand that payment. Two situations apply:

An account receivable: a third party has committed to making a payment that appears as revenue in your books. As the creditor, you have the right to collect that payment;
An account payable: you have committed to making a payment to a third party that appears as an expenditure in your books. As the debtor, you are obligated to pay that amount.

How the module works

The Accounts Payable/Receivable module involves several steps:

Accrual: an expenditure or revenue entry is recorded with a deferred payment. The entry appears on the Payables/Receivables page for tracking purposes;
Payment: a payment entry reduces the remaining balance due;
Settling the entry: once the total payments equal the accrual amount, the payable/receivable is settled and no longer appears in the module.

Recording a payable or receivable

Springly makes it easy to record payables and receivables as part of your accrual accounting workflow.

Recording a receivable: revenue you are waiting to collect

Revenue not yet received in full

Go to Accounting > Book entry > Record new revenue and fill in the accrual date, description, account, and amount.

Example: You have been awarded a grant that won't be paid out for another 3 months. You want to record it in your books now as an account receivable.

Then, in the Payment section:

Check the Deferred payment box to mark the payment as outstanding;
If you already know the payment details, enter them in the section that appears below: amount, payment method, and associated bank account or petty cash. Otherwise, click Remove to clear the payment details;
Click Save at the bottom of the page.

This will create an account receivable in your books.

If you don't see the Deferred payment option, accrual accounting is not enabled. To turn it on, go to Settings > Accounting.

You can also add multiple payment installments by clicking Add a payment — useful if your grant will be paid in several disbursements.

Partially collected revenue

If part of the revenue has already been collected — or will be collected on a known date — enter that payment in the Deferred payment section with the amount and date.

For example, you are expecting a $1,000 grant. A first payment of $300 will be received on September 30 via wire transfer to your main account, but you don't yet know when the remainder will arrive. You can record that first payment — the balance will remain as an account receivable.

Recording a payable: an expenditure you haven't paid yet

The process is the same for a payable: go to Accounting > Book entry > Record new expenditure to record the accrual.

Example: you've received a computer but haven't paid for it yet. You want to record it in your books as an account payable.

Enter the accrual date, description, account, and amount.

As with revenue, check the Deferred payment box and enter the details of any upcoming payment(s) if known — or click Remove to clear the payment details. The Deferred payment checkbox will remain selected but grayed out, as shown in the screenshot above.

Once saved, the entry will appear on the Payables/Receivables page for tracking.

Tracking payables and receivables

Open payables and receivables

Once recorded, your payables and receivables are available under Accounting > Book entry > Track your payables and receivables.

Only entries created through the standard expenditure/revenue recording flow appear on the payables/receivables tracking page. Entries created via Journal book entry are not displayed.

You can filter entries by:

Age period;
Remaining balance due;
Entry amount (advanced search);
Associated contact (advanced search).

If an entry isn't showing up, make sure you've selected a wide enough age period and click Search.

Settling a payable or receivable

Once you've identified the payable or receivable to settle, click the eye icon labeled "Detail" on the right side of its row.

This opens the entry detail page. Click Add a payment and fill in the payment details (amount, date, etc.) to record the payment.

For installment payments, you can add as many payment entries as needed, one per installment.

When recording a payment, you may see this message: Capture_d_e_cran_2018-10-11_a__19.41.42.png This typically means another payment entry already exists. This safeguard prevents the total payments from exceeding the original expenditure or revenue amount.

When the total payments equal the accrual amount, the payable/receivable is fully settled: the remaining balance drops to zero and the entry will no longer appear on the tracking page upon the next refresh.

Grouping entries

You can group multiple payable/receivable entries and settle them with a single payment.

See the article Grouping payments for more details.

Canceling a payable or receivable

If an expenditure or revenue you recorded was never actually debited or credited, you may want to cancel the accounting entry entirely.

When can I cancel a payable or receivable?

In practice, if you have reliable information confirming that a payable or receivable will not be paid, you can cancel it.

For example, a check that goes uncashed becomes stale after a certain period, but the underlying payable or receivable remains valid. You may also choose to write off a receivable for financial reasons (the payer is insolvent) or as a deliberate business decision.

If you're unsure, consult your accountant.

Accounting logic for canceling a payable or receivable

There are two main approaches:

Reversal entry: you cancel the payable/receivable by posting the opposite entry.
Example: for a payable, you credit the expense account that was originally debited.

Extraordinary income/expense: you record an income or expense entry of the same amount.
Example: for a payable, you credit an other income account.

Recording a cancellation in Springly

The recommended method is the reversal entry: record an opposite entry, then group it with the original payable/receivable to settle it.

Recording the reversal entry

To cancel a payable, go to Accounting > Book entry > Record new revenue. To cancel a receivable, record an expenditure entry instead.

In the Account field, select Refund/credit note (the last option in the list). A new Select field will appear: choose the account associated with the entry you are canceling.

Make sure to check Deferred payment when recording the entry. This creates a receivable (payable to cancel) or a payable (receivable to cancel) that you will then group with the original entry to settle it.

A few key points to keep in mind when recording a cancellation:

Unless it's a partial cancellation, the amount of the reversal entry must match the original entry;
If a contact is linked to the original entry, they must also be linked to the reversal entry;
The account to reverse must be the same one used in the original entry.

Grouping the original entry with the reversal entry

Once the reversal entry is recorded, you need to tell Springly which payable/receivable it cancels. Do this by grouping the original entry and the reversal entry together.