About Vendor and Vendor Group Statistics

Statistics are automatically accumulated for vendors and vendor groups, and automatically updated when you post invoice batches.

Period Statistics

For each vendor and vendor group, Accounts Payable stores the total amount and number of:

• Invoices.
• Payments.
• Discounts taken.
• Discounts lost.
• Credit notes.
• Debit notes.
• Adjustments.
• Total paid invoices.

Period statistics are reported by the period specified on the A/P Options screen, for as long as you keep transaction details.

Statistics are accumulated into the year and period derived from the document date. Even if you change the year and period to which you post the transaction, the statistics will still go to the period specified by the full document date.

Use the Vendors and Vendor Groups screens to enter, edit, and review statistics. For more information, see A/P Vendors Screen and A/P Vendor Groups Screen.

Activity Statistics

Activity statistics kept for each vendor include the current outstanding balance, year-to-date amounts, amount and date of the vendor's highest balance and largest invoice in the current and previous years, as well as the amount and date of the last invoice, payment, credit note, debit note, adjustment, and discount posted to the account.

Each vendor record also shows the total amount of the invoices paid in the current year, the number of checks, the average payment, and the total and average number of days it took to pay the invoices. Activity statistics for the previous year are cleared at year end.

No activity statistics are kept for vendor groups.

Options for Keeping Statistics

On the A/P Options screen, you can set the following options for vendor and vendor group statistics:

• Allow Edit Of Statistics. Specify whether or not statistics can be manually edited.
• Include Tax In Statistics. Specify whether or not to include tax amounts in statistical totals.
• Accumulate By. Specify whether to accumulate statistics by calendar year or fiscal year.
• Period Type. Specify the length of period by which to accumulate and report statistics.

For more information about these options, see A/P Options Screen.

Changing the Method of Reporting Statistics

If you change the type of year and period (by which Accounts Payable reports all three types of statistics), such changes will distort the figures in past periods.

For example, if you update statistics quarterly for nine months, then change to monthly updating, the totals for the first three quarters become the totals for the first three months. The result is overstated totals in each of the first three months, and zeros in the following six months.

If you need to change the type of year or period by which Accounts Payable reports statistics, you should either do so after running Year End, or edit the statistics for the earlier periods in the year to correct distortions.

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