How do I adjust an invoice when the Total Amount is different from the Total Invoice Lines Amount?
Answer
When manually creating an invoice that contains tax, you will sometimes find that, even though you’ve included the correct amount of tax, the invoice Total amount differs from Total invoice lines amount. You might also find that the percentage of the tax (VAT %) does not result in the correct Amount, and vice-versa.
There are a couple factors that result in these discrepancies:
- Alma might round the percentage differently than it should, resulting in a total that is off by a few cents.
- The Amount field does not operate as you might expect. Alma translates this amount into a percentage and applies it. It’s best not to rely on entering an absolute amount as appears on the vendor invoice. Instead, calculate the fractional percentage to get the correct amount.
Follow the steps below to calculate the precise tax rate (VAT %) and resolve the error:
1. Delete the values in the VAT fields.
Click on the Invoice Lines tab, then back to the Summary tab to see the changes to the Total invoice lines amount.
2. Calculate the tax amount in dollars.
Total invoice amount - Total invoice lines amount = Tax amount
In the sample invoice, the tax amount is calculated 1045.11 - 969.94 = 75.17
3. Calculate the tax rate (VAT %).
Tax amount / Total invoice lines amount = Tax rate
In the sample invoice, the tax rate is calculated 75.17 / 969.94 = 0.07749964
Move the decimal two spaces to the right to get the correct VAT % value.
0.07749964 = 7.749964 %
4. Enter the number you got in step 3 into the VAT % field.
Click on the Invoice Lines tab, then back to the Summary tab to see the changes to the Total invoice lines amount. Note that when you return to the Summary tab, Alma will display only two decimal places, even though you entered several more.
The Total amount and Total invoice lines amount should now be the same.
