I have a strong, almost irrational, dislike of requests for payment. You end up having to chase the supplier for the VAT invoice after payment as they can't be bothered to issue it. If you book the request into the accounting system, you run the risk of claiming VAT too early or booking it without VAT and having to unravel it later. There is also the risk that the invoice gets booked as well as the request for payment. If it is not booked, it can be overlooked for payment and will also understate liabilities if not accrued for.
I can think of a number of ways of booking and controlling these requests but they all have their downsides.
What do others do? I am particularly interested in the context of Xero.
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Thanks. That was about the best solution I had come up with - a liability account for requests for payment.
The problem is that the particular client I have in mind pays from off the Suppliers reports and so would miss the requests. I was thinking of having the requests posted as draft and not approving them until the invoice is received but that too has downsides.
I think I will go down your suggested route and engage in an education process.
I get clients to log the bill with a reference easily identified (e.g. 'PRO FORMA'), then review periodically to request/add in the replacements (at least once per qu.)
P&L / BS then still look OK while the final document is not yet logged.
