Recurring entries and accruals

Some entries always come back the same: a lease every month, an insurance premium every year, an accrued expense at the end of every quarter. Enter them once as a recurring entry: To Bill posts them on each due date, without duplicates.

Before you start

• You need the right to manage the books.
• In the Simple display, Recurring entries is in the accounting menu under More. In the Expert display, under Day to day.
• A recurring entry is entered in accounts, debit and credit. Your fiduciary can prepare it for you.

Invoices and expenses are not concerned

Rent that your landlord invoices you is entered as an expense, with its voucher. A recurring entry is for entries that have no document on each due date: a lease direct debit, an annual premium, an end-of-period accrual.

The list

Open Accounting › Recurring entries. Each line shows the name, the frequency, the accounts, the amount and the next due date.

• Due since …: the due date has passed and the entry is not yet in the journal. Book posts it.
• Run now (2) posts everything that is due in one go, across all entries.
• reversed on the 1st: the entry is an accrual, reversed automatically the following month.
• Paused: the entry is no longer posted. Pause stops an entry that has already been used; Delete removes an entry that has never posted anything.
• The Name, account, amount… field, the Status and Frequency filters, and the Due, To book this month and Paused views find an entry.

To Bill also posts the entries that are due automatically, every night. If a due date is refused, for example because the financial year is closed, the line shows Stopped at … with the reason: correct it, then click Book.

Create a recurring entry

1. Click New recurring entry (1).
2. Give a Template name, for example “Van lease”, and the Entry text that will appear in the journal. The Reference is optional.
3. Under Lines, choose the accounts and enter the amounts under Debit and Credit. The entry must be Balanced: as much on the debit side as on the credit side.
4. Choose the Frequency: every month, every quarter or once a year.
5. Enter the First due date and, if the entry stops, the Last due date. A due date on the last day of the month stays at the end of the month.
6. Check the Next due dates shown, then click Save.

If the first due date has already passed, the entry shows as Due: Book then posts all the overdue instalments, in order.

To change an entry, click its line. The Already booked section lists the entries posted, with their number and their reversal.

Accruals: accrued expenses, accrued income

An expense of the period whose invoice only arrives later must be in the right period: this is an accrual (in Swiss practice, a “transitorische Buchung” or “transitoire”). Turn on Reverse on the 1st of the next month: on each due date, To Bill posts the entry, then the opposite entry on the first day of the following month.

For example, fiduciary fees invoiced after each quarter:

Date	Entry
31.03	Debit 6500 Administrative expenses, credit 2300 Accrued expenses: the expense is in the first quarter.
01.04	The opposite entry: account 2300 is cleared.
On receipt	The invoice is entered as usual, as an expense: the expense comes to zero for April, since the reversal has already offset it.

A one-off year-end accrual

For an expense to accrue on 31 December only, create an annual recurring entry with the same First due date and Last due date, 31.12, and the reversal turned on. The opposite entry is posted on 01.01, in the new financial year.

A recurring entry posted to the journal carries the mention Recurring entry: …, with a link to its template. An entry is corrected by a reversal in the journal, never by deleting it.

Legal basis

• Expenses and income are presented according to the accrual and matching principles: Art. 958b para. 1 CO.
• Accrued liabilities and deferred income appear on the balance sheet under short-term liabilities; prepaid expenses and accrued income under current assets: Art. 959a CO.
• The books cannot be changed without the change being visible: Art. 3 GeBüV, the Ordinance on the Keeping and Retention of Accounting Records (German version: fedlex has no English one).