Down payments and bills of exchange are the most important special G/L transactions. When you post a special G/L transaction, the system does not post to the normal reconciliation accounts but instead automatically to alternative accounts, that is, special G/L accounts. Consequently, you do not transfer the balances of these accounts either. Instead, the system posts to the appropriate accounts automatically when the open items are transferred.

Down payments can be displayed gross (including tax) or net (without tax) in the customer or vendor accounts. When posting with gross display, you must note certain special features of data transfer.

With gross display, the down payment amount is posted including tax to the customer or vendor account. Tax on sales/purchases is posted to the tax account and also to a tax clearing account (see figures Posting A Down Payment (Gross Display) and Posting A Down Payment Using Batch Input (Gross Display).

When you transfer down payments, you enter the tax code in the customer or vendor item. For the automatic tax postings, you enter the transfer account number (instead of the output tax account number) together with the clearing account number in the system.

When transferring bills of exchange, you should remember not to post discount charges, bill of exchange tax, and tax on sales/purchases again, because you are transferring the balances of these accounts.