Voiding a transaction, including a check, creates a second transaction in the system that has the exact opposite effect as the original transaction and is automatically applied to the original transaction, thus nullifying completely the original transaction but leaves the transaction in the system for future reference.
Typically, Voiding is used when you want to ‘Delete’ a transaction on a different day than when it was originally created. This can happen when financials or aging reports have been shared with outside parties and subsequent changes need to be made to your records without changing the data as it was sent out.
Note: When choosing to Void a transaction, it is important to not delete either the transaction or the reversing transaction. This will ensure that the Void is documented correctly in the system.
Step 1: Decide whether Voiding or deleting a previously entered transaction is best.
Voiding a transaction in Restaurant365 does the following:
- Zero’s out a transaction by creating a reversing transaction, called 'Voiding'
- Voiding un-applies all transactions from the approved transaction being voided. The voiding process also renders both the original transaction and the corresponding reversing (or voiding) transaction un-editable.
There are two main reasons for voiding a transaction instead of deleting it. Restaurant365 does allow you to delete transactions if you prefer as long as your security permissions allow it.
- Voiding maintains a record of the original transaction for audit or research purposes.
- Voiding enables aging & financial reports in prior periods to be unaffected when changes need to be made to transactions in subsequent periods. Deleting transactions will remove them and change any report in which they were included
Step 2: Choose “Void” from the top ribbon of a transaction that has been previously approved. Voiding is only relevant for ‘Approved’ transactions. If a transaction has a status of Unapproved, then it is available to be deleted or simply modified.
When an AP Invoice is Approved, the Ribbon will include a ‘Void’ button. If a transaction has yet to be Approved, you may modify or delete it. If your transactions have other transactions applied to, you will receive a message. For example, an AP Invoice may have other payments applied to it. To void our AP Invoice, we simply click on the ‘Void’ button in the ribbon and a message appears letting me know that transactions are applied and if we proceed, those applied transactions will be unapplied. Click ‘OK’ on this message.
Step 3: A second message is presented that tells us that a second transaction will be created to reverse the original. We have the ability to select the specific date of the reversing entry. Typically the date chosen is either the original transaction date or the current date. Pick the original transaction date if you desire the result to most resemble a ‘delete’ (but leaves you with an audit trail.) Pick a current or future date if you want to make sure the numbers in a prior period are not impacted by this reversal.
Then click ‘OK’ and the original transaction is displayed with a few changes:
- The Ribbon now is modified and all but one of the buttons in the Transaction Actions section of the Ribbon have been removed. It is now effectively un-editable.
- Notice in the Details grid below that the ‘Apply’ tab has been replaced by a ‘Voided By’ tab. Click on that tab to see the voiding transaction that was created behind the scenes for this transaction. You will notice that it’s number is exactly the same as our original invoice except it has a ‘V’ at the end. You can drill down further by clicking on the blue Number field in the grid and the voiding entry will open. Once it opens, you will see that it is already Approved and the Transaction Actions are also limited only to ‘Close’. A comment was also added to it that notifies the user which transaction was voided. Lastly, notice that on this ‘Void’ transaction, the second tab in the grid is labeled ‘Created to Void’. Click on this tab to see the original transaction and once again, you can drill back to it by clicking on the blue letters in the Number field.
You have successfully voided a transaction.
Note: An Approved transaction and its corresponding void/reversing transaction will not appear on a Bank Reconciliation if the original Approved transaction was never included on a Bank Reconciliation. However, if the original transaction had been included in a Bank Reconciliation, then only the new void/reversing transaction will be included on the next Bank Reconciliation. See the Bank Reconciliation Support Article or view the Bank Reconciliation Training Video in the R365 Academy to learn how to account for these voided transactions on a Bank Reconciliation. This also applies to voiding a check.