Creditor
A creditor is a contact from whom you receive invoices/statements on a regular (or semi-regular) basis.
A contact becomes a creditor on the first occasion that they are used in that capacity; i.e. the posting of a disbursement journal or creditor journal. There are no special data requirements for a contact to become a creditor. They remain a creditor even if their use is suspended.
In the contact's financial details editor, the credit/payment terms tab becomes available, and can be used to store details to aid in the automation of creditor transactions and reconciliations:
- Preferred payment method - Determines the practice policy on how to pay invoices/statements from the creditor. Shortcuts to reconcile and pay invoices will launch the appropriate payment activity instead of prompting.
- Expense account - Determines the default general account to suggest when posting a creditor journal. Despite the name of the field, other account types (such as income) are permissible too.
- Credit arrangement - Specifies whether to operate on a "pay on statement" or "pay on invoice" arrangement. If the creditor is marked as "pay on statement", attempts to pay invoices directly will be accompanied by a warning. If "pay on invoice", all creditor journals will be automatically marked as payable as they are posted.
- Credit terms - The number of days for which the credit arrangement applies.
- Allow purchase orders - Specifies whether purchase orders may be requested for this creditor.