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DORVAL · E-2 FIELD GUIDE

How do I reconcile purchase orders, invoices and payments after terms changed?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

Build one schedule listing each order, its invoice, the amount paid, the payment date and the bank line that matches it. Note where the revised terms replaced earlier ones and keep the superseded documents. Explain any deposit that remains refundable, since refundability affects whether the money reads as committed and at risk.

One schedule, every document tied to a bank line

Gaps usually appear where a payment came from a personal account, a family transfer or a credit facility. Trace each one to a lawful origin with statements, sale documents or loan agreements, and identify what secures any borrowing, because collateral affects how borrowed funds are viewed. Where amounts were converted, include the conversion record.

A reviewer should be able to follow one column from source to supplier without asking a question. One further contrast belongs on the schedule: money that has left the account, set against money that is irrevocably committed. Those overlap without being identical.

A wire that cleared last month is spent; a deposit the supplier must return on cancellation is not yet at risk, whatever the bank line shows. Read each agreement for its cancellation clause and record what that clause says beside the payment, because the clause rather than the transfer settles the point. Where an agreement was amended, the operative version is the one in force on the payment date, so keep amendments in date order instead of filing only the most recent one.