Goods and services you have received but not yet been invoiced for are real costs. If they are missing from the ledger at month end, your management accounts understate spend. This guide explains how Business Central handles received-not-invoiced costs, where the gaps are, and how to close them.
What "received not invoiced" means
When you post a receipt against a Purchase Order, Business Central records that the goods or services arrived. The supplier's invoice often follows days or weeks later. Between those two dates the cost has been incurred but not invoiced, and it belongs in the period it was received. That is what an accrual does.
Inventory items: expected cost posting
For inventory items, Business Central can post the expected cost to the general ledger when you post the receipt. Turn on Expected Cost Posting to G/L in Inventory Setup. The receipt then posts to interim accounts, and those entries are reversed when the invoice is posted.
This only covers inventory items. It does not help with the many purchase lines that use a G/L account, such as services, subscriptions, professional fees and maintenance.
G/L account lines: the usual month-end journal
Receiving a Purchase Order line of type G/L Account posts no general ledger entries. The cost reaches the ledger only when the invoice is posted. So most finance teams run a manual routine at month end:
- List Purchase Order lines that are received but not yet invoiced.
- Work out the value of each line and check it with the budget holder.
- Post an accrual journal that debits the cost account and credits an accruals account.
- Reverse the journal at the start of the next period, so the real invoice doesn't double-count the cost.
It works, but it is manual, depends on people remembering to post receipts, and is easy to get wrong when invoices arrive across the period end.
How Cliqo automates it
With Cliqo Requisitions, approved requisitions are created as Purchase Orders in Business Central, and receipts and invoices are managed in Cliqo. When goods or services are recorded as received, the Cliqo Business Central extension posts a G/L accrual for the received cost. That covers G/L account lines as well as items. When the supplier invoice arrives, the accrual reverses automatically.
- No month-end accrual journal to prepare or reverse.
- The ledger shows the true cost as soon as it is incurred.
- Requesters record receipts in Cliqo, without needing a Business Central licence.
See Business Central Requisitions for the full flow, or book a 30-minute demo.