Mysql – Advice on table processing for invoice-allocation-payment structure for invoices of zero amount

MySQL

Please may I have some advice/opinions on the best process to use in the following situation.

To deal with subscription payments in a small charity I use a cash matching system comprising

Table invoice PK invoice_id;

Table cash_payment PK cash_payment_id;

and linking Table payment_allocation PK allocation_id, FK invoice_id, cash_payment_id.

This gives me a many to many relationship between invoice and payment. (the invoice table is only used for admin, no real invoices are sent out)

All is good except for the following situation.

Some members are honorary and do not have to pay subscriptions. Hence there is no requirement to create a record for them in the invoice table. If they don't pay then all is OK.

However, some of these members choose to pay the subscription anyway, resulting in a record in the 'cash_payment' table that does not have a corresponding invoice record or one in Table 'payment_allocation' (as there is no invoice to allocate it to) .

I therefore have two choices. Either

Generate an invoice for everyone, including those for whom the amount will be zero and record all payments made, linking them to the appropriate invoice.
This will result simply in an over payment being recorded for those honorary members who choose to pay unnecessarily.
Do not generate an invoice for any zero amount. When an unnecessary subscription payment happens I insert a record in Table cash_payment with a new payment_type of contribution but without any corresponding record in the payment_allocation table,
This will avoid zero amount invoices but might make it more difficult to report on cash flow and things like over/ under payment.

I'm tending towards choice (1) Does anyone have any hints regarding which might be the better method?

Best Answer

In the end I went with option 1. That way it copes with people paying unnecessarily as there is an invoice against which to place the payment. It also allows for refunds to be made against zero amount invoices if someone pays unnecessarily but then wants a refund. The payment / refund can be put in the cash_payment table and allocated to the invoice through the payment_allocation table just like any other invoice.

Related Solutions

Mysql – Generating Invoices and Tracking

Cash matching

This is a cash matching problem. You can track this at one of two levels:

Compare invoiced to cash figures (somewhat sloppy but this is actually how it's done for inwards business by most Lloyd's Syndicates, often called a 'written vs. signed' report).
Maintain explicit cash allocations from cash payments broken down by invoice.

From your question I think you want to do the latter.

Typically this is done by having a separate set of cash transactions, and a bridging table that has the allocation of cash payments to invoices. If the values are equal or the cash payment comes with a single invoice reference you can do the allocation automatically. If there's a M:M relationship between invoices and payments you will need to do a manual matching process (doing this automatically is actually a variant of the knapsack problem).

A basic cash matching system

Imagine that you have an invoice table, a cash payments table and an allocation table. When you issue an invoice then you set up an invoice record in the invoices table and a 'receivable' or 'payable' record in the allocations table.

Invoice #1, $100
Allocation: a record with a reference to invoice #1, 'receivable' transaction type and $100 owing. No reference to a cash payment on this record.

Now, you get a cash payment of $100

Cash payments (chq #12345): $100
Allocation: a record with a reference to invoice #1 and chq #12345, 'cash' transaction type and -100 owing ($100 paid).

You can generalise this to a M:M relationship where you get multiple payments against a single invoice or a payment covering multiple invoices. This structure also makes it quite easy to build credit control reports. The report just needs to find invoices older than (say) 180 days that still have outstanding balances.

Here's an example of the schema plus a couple of scenarios and an aged debt query. Unfortunately I don't have a running mysql instance to hand, so this one is for SQL Server.

-- ==============================================================
-- === CashMatch.sql ============================================
-- ==============================================================
--


-- === Invoices =================================================
--
create table Invoice (
       InvoiceID        int identity (1,1) not null
      ,InvoiceRef       varchar (20)
      ,Amount           money
      ,InvoiceDate      datetime
)
go

alter table Invoice
  add constraint PK_Invoice 
      primary key nonclustered (InvoiceID)
go


-- === Cash Payments ============================================
--
create table CashPayment (
       CashPaymentID    int identity (1,1) not null
      ,CashPaymentRef   varchar (20)
      ,Amount           money
      ,PaidDate         datetime
)
go

alter table CashPayment
  add constraint PK_CashPayment
      primary key nonclustered (CashPaymentID)
go




-- === Allocations ==============================================
--
create table Allocation (
       AllocationID       int identity (1,1) not null
      ,CashPaymentID      int  -- Note that some records are not
      ,InvoiceID          int  -- on one side.
      ,AllocatedAmount    money
      ,AllocationType     varchar (20)
      ,TransactionDate    datetime
)
go

alter table Allocation
  add constraint PK_Allocation
      primary key nonclustered (AllocationID)
go


-- ==============================================================
-- === Scenarios ================================================
-- ==============================================================
--
declare @Invoice1ID int
       ,@Invoice2ID int
       ,@PaymentID int


-- === Raise a new invoice ======================================
--
insert Invoice (InvoiceRef, Amount, InvoiceDate)
values ('001', 100, '2012-01-01')

set @Invoice1ID = @@identity

insert Allocation (
       InvoiceID
      ,AllocatedAmount
      ,TransactionDate
      ,AllocationType
) values (@Invoice1ID, 100, '2012-01-01', 'receivable')


-- === Receive a payment ========================================
--
insert CashPayment (CashPaymentRef, Amount, PaidDate)
values ('12345', 100, getdate())

set @PaymentID = @@identity

insert Allocation (
       InvoiceID
      ,CashPaymentID
      ,AllocatedAmount
      ,TransactionDate
      ,AllocationType
) values (@Invoice1ID, @PaymentID, -100, getdate(), 'paid')



-- === Raise two invoices =======================================
--
insert Invoice (InvoiceRef, Amount, InvoiceDate)
values ('002', 75, '2012-01-01')

set @Invoice1ID = @@identity

insert Allocation (
       InvoiceID
      ,AllocatedAmount
      ,TransactionDate
      ,AllocationType
) values (@Invoice1ID, 75, '2012-01-01', 'receivable')


insert Invoice (InvoiceRef, Amount, InvoiceDate)
values ('003', 75, '2012-01-01')

set @Invoice2ID = @@identity

insert Allocation (
       InvoiceID
      ,AllocatedAmount
      ,TransactionDate
      ,AllocationType
) values (@Invoice2ID, 75, '2012-01-01', 'receivable')


-- === Receive a payment ========================================
-- The payment covers one invoice in full and part of the other.
--
insert CashPayment (CashPaymentRef, Amount, PaidDate)
values ('23456', 120, getdate()) 

set @PaymentID = @@identity

insert Allocation (
       InvoiceID
      ,CashPaymentID
      ,AllocatedAmount
      ,TransactionDate
      ,AllocationType
) values (@Invoice1ID, @PaymentID, -75, getdate(), 'paid')

insert Allocation (
       InvoiceID
      ,CashPaymentID
      ,AllocatedAmount
      ,TransactionDate
      ,AllocationType
) values (@Invoice2ID, @PaymentID, -45, getdate(), 'paid')



-- === Aged debt report ========================================
--
select i.InvoiceRef
      ,sum (a.AllocatedAmount)                 as Owing
      ,datediff (dd, i.InvoiceDate, getdate()) as Age
  from Invoice i
  join Allocation a
    on a.InvoiceID = i.InvoiceID
 group by i.InvoiceRef
         ,datediff (dd, i.InvoiceDate, getdate())
having sum (a.AllocatedAmount) > 0

Mysql – Two nullable columns one required to have value

A version of JD Schmidt's answer, but without the awkwardness of an extra column:

CREATE TABLE foo (
  FieldA INT,
  FieldB INT
);

DELIMITER //
CREATE TRIGGER InsertFieldABNotNull BEFORE INSERT ON foo
FOR EACH ROW BEGIN
  IF (NEW.FieldA IS NULL AND NEW.FieldB IS NULL) THEN
    SIGNAL SQLSTATE '45000'
    SET MESSAGE_TEXT = '\'FieldA\' and \'FieldB\' cannot both be null';
  END IF;
END//
CREATE TRIGGER UpdateFieldABNotNull BEFORE UPDATE ON foo
FOR EACH ROW BEGIN
  IF (NEW.FieldA IS NULL AND NEW.FieldB IS NULL) THEN
    SIGNAL SQLSTATE '45000'
    SET MESSAGE_TEXT = '\'FieldA\' and \'FieldB\' cannot both be null';
  END IF;
END//
DELIMITER ;

INSERT INTO foo (FieldA, FieldB) VALUES (NULL, 10); -- OK
INSERT INTO foo (FieldA, FieldB) VALUES (10, NULL); -- OK
INSERT INTO foo (FieldA, FieldB) VALUES (NULL, NULL); -- gives error
UPDATE foo SET FieldA = NULL; -- gives error

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Mysql – Generating Invoices and Tracking

Mysql – Two nullable columns one required to have value

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