UK Invoices

[John Hardy]

Hi all,

Hope someone might be able to help.

As a business we pay all invoices via SAGE but I just wanted to know :-

Whats the worst that can happen during an accounts audit; if a paid stamp or authorization stamp is missing from an invoice? Also, if the details on the authorization stamp aren't accurate or missing?

If we can prove the invoice is paid via SAGE, I'm guessing the auditor will just recommend better practice?

Thanks

 

[Werner Reisacher]

John, see my reply under "Paid Stamp" posting

 

[kirby]

Hi John
Yes, bottom line the most an auditor should make of this is to recommend better adherence to your internal control practices. Stamping the invoice as paid with the paid date gives you a lot of useful info immediately rather than you having to go look up if the invoice has already been entered to the system.

One of the main points of using a paid stamp is to prevent double payment of an invoice. You mentioned the use of Sage to prove payment. Sage will HELP to avoid a duplicate payment of the invoice as most systems prevent double payment of the same invoice number for the same vendor. BUT that system protection can get negated if the input person inputs the wrong invoice number by accident.

Instead of having paper invoices flying around the office for approval then back for input - consider going paperless, where the paper invoice is scanned, received, then approval is electronic (via email for example).

Anyway, I hope your auditors apply the correct risk assessment to a missing authorization stamp and not go ape over it.

 

[Chun]

At the end of the day the auditors will have to check the bank statements and ensure the payments on Sage agreeing with the bank and invoices. If there are some missing paid or authorisation stamps on the invoice, it will make this checking more difficult. Remember auditors are doing this sort of jobs on a daily basis for various clients who may have different internal control systems, and they will manage the job easily. They may recommend a better control system if the client has not had a proper one.