Resource Page for Purchase Order Invoicing in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

This blog post summarizes common questions and answers about purchase order invoicing (PO invoicing). The following questions are included:

• Where is the documentation for PO invoicing?
• Why are there extra journal entries for Purchase order expenditure, un-invoiced and Purchase expenditure for product when vendor invoices are posted?
• Why are ledger entries missing after I post vendor invoices? (Hint: They’re not really missing…)
• How does invoice matching work in the Vendor invoices form?
• Can I use invoice matching with service items and category-based items, as well as stocked items?
• What do I do if I get a message about pending invoices not being displayed?
• How do I decide whether to use products or category hierarchies for procurement?
• How do I create an invoice from posted product receipts?
• Where are the "Add another product receipt" and "Retrieve product receipts" buttons in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2?
• How do I post an invoice from the pending vendor invoice list page that originated from the invoice pool?
• Still having trouble? 

 This blog post will be updated with additional questions. Add your question as a comment to the blog, or send email to adocs@microsoft.com.

If you’ve searched online for PO invoicing, you probably haven’t found much official documentation about it. That’s because the terminology changed in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. References to purchase order invoice were changed to vendor invoice. Search for vendor invoice AX 2012 to find the most up-to-date documentation.

Start with the following topics on TechNet:

• Key tasks: Vendor invoices
• Vendor invoice (form)

Amounts are posted to these posting accounts when the product receipt is posted, and are then backed out when the invoice is posted. For more information, see the following white paper and blog posts:

• Accounting for stocked items on product receipts and vendor invoices (White paper)
• AX2012 purchasing posting types “Purchase Expenditure for product” and “Purchase expenditure, un-invoiced” (blog post)
• Two voucher strategy for Purchase Distributions (blog post)

If a subledger journal is posted and the Transfer mode field in the General ledger parameters form is set to Batch or Asynchronous, the ledger entries might not be posted immediately after you click the Post button. For more information, see the following resources:

• General ledger parameters (form)— Synchronous, Asynchronous, and Scheduled batch are the options for the transfer mode. The Asynchronous option transfers when there are resources available. The Scheduled option transfers on a periodic basis, such as daily.
• Vendor invoice (form)— When you click the Post button, the source document line might not be posted immediately if batch or asynchronous posting is set up.
• Batch transfer for subledger journals (form)— If vouchers seem to be missing from the Voucher transactions form, it might be because the batch hasn't been processed yet.
• Dynamics AX2012 Posting and Summarization (blog post)

After invoice matching is set up, invoices are automatically matched when you enter or edit them in the Vendor invoices form. Invoice matching discrepancies are shown in the Invoice matching details form. For information about how to set up invoice matching, see the following topics on TechNet.

• About Accounts payable invoice matching
• Examples: Three-way matching policies
• Set up Accounts payable invoice matching

For information about how to resolve matching discrepancies or make corrections, see the following topics on TechNet.

• About invoice matching and intercompany purchase orders
• Record the receipt of vendor invoices and match against received quantities
• Resolve invoice totals invoice matching discrepancies
• Resolve net unit price invoice matching discrepancies
• Resolve price totals invoice matching discrepancies
• Account for vendor invoice variance due to charges
• Correct a vendor invoice that was matched to the wrong product receipt line

The Financial I training manual explains invoice matching in “Chapter 10: Accounts Payable Daily Procedures.”

You can set up two-way and three-way invoice matching for categories in the Category policy rule form. You might do this if you want to match the expected quantities and costs for services or other items that are not stocked.

1. Click Procurement and sourcing> Setup> Policies> Purchasing policy.

2. On the Action Pane, click Policy to create a new policy.

3. Enter a name and select an organization node.

4. On the Policy rules FastTab, select the Category policy rule type, and then click Create policy rule.

5. In the Category policy rule form, click Add.

6. Select a category, and then select a matching policy in the Category matching policy field. Select from the following options:

• • Company policy
  • Three-way matching
  • Two-way matching
  • Not required

What do I do if I get a message about pending invoices not being displayed?

Sometimes, an invoice might end up in a state where it has unsaved changes and you can’t edit it. If this happens, you’ll get the following message when you try to open the Vendor invoice form:

A pending invoice cannot be displayed because it is in use. If nobody else is working with the invoice, you can delete the unconfirmed changes to the invoice, and then you can modify the invoice. Use the Invoice history and matching details form or the Approval journal history and matching details form to delete the unconfirmed changes.

A pending invoice might be “in use” for one of three reasons:

• Microsoft Dynamics AX stopped responding while you were working with the invoice. This is the most common reason for this message.
• You already have the invoice open in another instance of the Vendor invoice form.
• The invoice is in a batch that is waiting to be posted.

If the application stopped responding, you can delete the unsaved changes, and then modify the invoice. If you saved an earlier version of the invoice, you won’t have to start over. You will only have to enter the changes that haven’t been saved.

To delete the unsaved changes from a pending invoice, use the Invoice history and matching details form or the Approval journal history and matching details form.

Invoice history and matching details form

1. Click Accounts payable> Inquiries> History> Invoice history and matching details.

2. Select the purchase order, and then click Invoice.

3. In the Invoice journal form, select the invoice that has unsaved changes.

4. Click File> Delete Record.

Approval journal history and matching details form

1. Click Accounts payable> Inquiries> History> Approval journal history and matching details.

2. Select the purchase order, and then click Invoice.

3. In the Invoice journal form, select the invoice that has unsaved changes.

4. Click File> Delete Record.

Recover pending invoices that have unsaved changes 

Beginning with Cumulative update 6 (CU6) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, this message is replaced with a form that lets you delete pending invoices that have unsaved changes, so that you can continue to work with the invoice. For more information about CU6, see https://mbs2.microsoft.com/Knowledgebase/KBDisplay.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b2850972.

You can use categories, products, or both for procurement. To decide what to use, consider whether the product is for internal use or for resale; if you need hierarchical reporting for procurement and sales, retail, commodity codes, or derived financial hierarchies; whether the products will be used in manufacturing, and inventory reporting requirements. You should also be aware of differences in how categories and products are processed on purchase order lines and sales order lines, and how they work with two-way and three-way matching policies. For a detailed list of considerations, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh209418.aspx.

The process depends on which version of Microsoft Dynamics AX you are using.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack: The Add another product receipt and Retrieve product receipts controls are available in the Vendor invoice form. For more information about creating an invoice from posted product receipts in these versions, follow the instructions in the "Enter and match vendor invoices to product receipts" section of Key tasks: Vendor invoices. 

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2: In this release, the Add another product receipt and Retrieve product receipts controls were removed from the Vendor invoice form. To create an invoice that is based on posted product receipts in this version, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts payable > Common > Vendor invoices > Pending vendor invoices.

   - or -

   Click Accounts payable > Periodic > Maintain vendor invoices.

2. On the Action Pane, click From product receipts.

3. In the Select product receipt form, select the Include check box for each product receipt that you want to include on the invoice.

4. Click OK to create the invoice.

In this release, the Add another product receipt and Retrieve product receipts controls were removed from the Vendor invoice form. Instead, you can create an invoice from posted product receipts by using the From product receipts button. For more information, see How do I create an invoice from posted product receipts?. 

The process depends on which version of Microsoft Dynamics AX you are using.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3: In this release, you can post, print or edit the invoice from the Pending vendor invoices list page.

1. Click Accounts payable> Common> Vendor invoices> Pending vendor invoices.
2. Select the vendor invoice to post. 
3. On Action pane, in the Actions group, click Post > Post to post the vendor invoice. 

Additionally, starting in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, vendor invoice workflows will integrate with the vendor invoices listed on the Pending vendor invoices list page. For more information about setting up vendor invoice workflows, see Set up vendor invoice workflows.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 and earlier: In earlier releases, vendor invoices that were created in the Invoice register journal can be posted using the invoice pool form or the invoice approval journal.

To post vendor invoices using the Invoice pool form:

1. Click Accounts payable> Inquires> Invoice Pool.
2. Select the invoice.
3. Click Functions> Purchase order, and then click OK.

To post vendor invoices using the Invoice approval journal:

1. Click Accounts payable> Journals> Invoices> Invoice approval journal.
2. Click Find vouchers. In the Find vouchers form, select a voucher in the List of vouchers list, and then click Select.
3. Click OK to close the Find vouchers form.
4. On the Overview tab, enter an account.
5. Click the General tab and verify that the sales tax and currency information is correct.
6. Click Functions> Purchase order.
7. Optional: Modify the query in the Query used form, and then click OK. The Vendor invoice form is displayed.
8. Click Post> Post. The total invoice amount on the invoice that is calculated is compared to the total invoice amount on the registered invoice. If the amounts are equal, the vendor invoices are posted and printed. If the amounts are not equal, an error message is displayed.

Still having trouble?

If you encounter a problem when invoicing a purchase order, we recommend that you use Issue Search on Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services to research it. Issue Search is a search engine that you can use to quickly search for KB articles, hotfixes, and workarounds for reported issues in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2. You can see which reported issues are in the process of being fixed and see notifications when a hotfix is released for a specific functional area in Microsoft Dynamics AX. You can download released hotfixes, see which code objects are affected, and see the code changes introduced by the hotfix. In order to use Issue Search, you must have a CustomerSource or PartnerSource account, and have created a project. For more information, see the Lifecycle Services User Guide.

This blog post will be updated with additional questions. Leave a question in the comments or send email to adocs@microsoft.com.