Most of you will be familiar with the ban on
set-offs per §246 Abs. 2 S.1 HGB, stating that items on the assets
side may not be offset against items on the liabilities side,
expenses may not be offset against income, property rights may not be
offset against property encumbrances, etc. But what is the legal
situation if the business person acts as both a creditor and debtor
towards a business partner? In this case, §387 BGB (German Civil
Code) applies, according to which the offsetting of receivables and
liabilities is deemed permissible if similar receivables and
liabilities existing against the same person can be offset
against each other (offsetting situation). If so, §246 Abs. 2 S. 1
HGB does not apply.
How to balance correctly in Odoo 17
Offsetting receivables against liabilities and vice versa, even when they are two different balance sheet items, is a straightforward process in Odoo 17. If the remaining value after offsetting is a residual receivable or liability to our business partner, we post the lower value to the opposite account. For instance, if our books show a liability higher than our receivable, we can easily perform a balance transfer via the Odoo posting lines. Here's how: we open the posting lines in the Odoo Accounting menu bar, select the appropriate accounts, and enter the necessary details to complete the offset.
Setting appropriate filters is a crucial first
step in the offsetting process in Odoo 17. For instance, you can set
filters for purchases and sales or receivables and liabilities. The
‘Booked’ filter is preset at the factory. Once the filters are
set, you can then group by customer:
To select the items to be offset, tick the boxes
before the respective posting lines. Depending on the legal
situation, you can offset any number of transactions against each
other. The critical requirement for offsetting is that the services
owed to each other are similar in their subject matter.
If we click the action button in the menu bar, the
transfer wizard opens and shows the value to be transferred
(balance).
We use the drop-down list to confirm the account
and the journal for the balance transfer. In our example, our
liability to the business partner is higher than our receivable, so
we may transfer the receivable to the liability account and then
initiate a payment of our remaining debt. By clicking ‘Create
journal entry,’ we confirm the posting, and Odoo automatically
generates the balance transfer.
The same reconciliation number, P8 (P = partial),
in the partner’s Odoo account sheet, shows that the two documents
are related.
We can now mark the outgoing invoice as paid with
a single click. In the invoice itself, we can see under the invoice
amount that Odoo has already recognized the transfer and suggests an
invoice settlement. We only need to confirm this by clicking on
‘Add.’
The status of our incoming invoice has also
changed. The invoice is set to be partially paid because Odoo has
already credited the balance transfer to our liability. Now, we only
have to pay our remaining liability.
The small information symbol to the left of the
invoice amount provides further information on the settlement
process. Here, we can track the process and recognize how and at what
time the invoice reconciliation has been performed. In addition, we
can even cancel the reconciliation.
Are you interested in using Odoo Enterprise as your accounting software?
We at openfellas have recognized early on that the efficient use of Odoo does not end with accounting; it actually begins there. Our experienced Finance Team can look back on more than 20 years of combined experience with Odoo and Financial Accounting and – like Odoo itself – is becoming more efficient year after year!
Have we piqued your interest in a non-binding initial Odoo consultation? Contact us at [email protected]
Disclaimer:
This blog article presents the exemplary functions of Odoo Enterprise. Any legal texts mentioned in this context or references to them reflect the author’s judgment and should not be construed as legal advice. Consult your tax advisor or accountant if you have any legal questions.
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