Customer balances · Supplier bills · Payment controls
Know what customers owe, what suppliers are due and which entries still need an answer. SAIF helps UAE businesses maintain clear AP and AR records, reconcile the detail and give management useful follow-up reports.
The direct answer
Accounts receivable tracks customer invoices, credit notes and receipts until the open balance is explained. Accounts payable tracks accepted supplier bills, credits, deposits and payments. Both require a reliable subledger that agrees with the general ledger—not simply a list of invoice PDFs or bank transactions.
For a business owner, the practical questions are: Which customers are overdue? Which supplier bills have been approved? Was a payment applied to the right invoice? Are disputes, duplicates or missing documents distorting the position? Our service addresses the accounting and reporting around those questions. Management retains commercial decisions, customer relationships and payment authority.
Two connected workstreams
The work can be a focused AP or AR assignment, or part of a wider outsourced accounting service. We agree the transaction boundaries and review frequency before starting.
VAT treatment, e-invoicing transmission, tax-return filing, legal debt recovery and bank payment execution are not assumed to be included in routine AP/AR processing. They can be discussed as separate work where appropriate.
Why reconciliation matters
A useful AP/AR process preserves the full transaction trail. Net settlements, partial payments, credits and timing differences all need to be explained before an aged report can be trusted.
A customer invoice remains open for AED 20,000. The bank shows AED 15,000 from that customer, and a separately approved credit note is AED 2,000. The account should still show AED 3,000 outstanding—not zero simply because a receipt arrived.
First confirm the invoice, remittance reference, credit-note approval and whether the customer disputes the remaining amount. Then present the balance and next action in the customer ageing report. The figures are illustrative and do not determine VAT treatment.
A supplier statement may show a different amount because a payment cleared after the statement date, a credit note was omitted or a deposit was posted to another account. The reconciliation must identify each item instead of forcing the ledger to the supplier’s total.
For card or marketplace sales, gross customer charges can differ from cash deposited after fees, refunds and settlement timing. Reconcile the platform report to invoices or sales records and then to the bank. Treat the tax and accounting presentation as separate review questions.
Controls that protect the business
Clear approval boundaries matter as much as accurate data entry. The company retains ownership of customer terms, supplier selection, bank access and release of funds.
Use a consistent invoice-reference check, correct legal entity, supporting contract or delivery evidence, and review of credit notes and beneficiary changes. Escalate incomplete items rather than posting them as if approved.
The accounting team may assemble bills and propose a payment run; management reviews and authorises it through company-controlled banking. Restrict administrator rights and retain an audit trail of changes.
Reconcile customer and supplier subledgers to the general ledger. Review aged balances, unallocated cash, old credits, deposits, disputed items and transactions posted after month end.
Outputs for management
Instead of a long list of transactions, the monthly pack should identify items that need collection, approval, investigation or a year-end judgement. We tailor the frequency and format to the business and its existing software.
For receivables, management may need to see concentration in a few customers, amounts outside agreed terms and invoices under dispute. For payables, it may need the cash required for approved bills, unexpected supplier changes and deposits not yet applied. These views can feed monthly management reporting and cash-flow planning.
UAE tax and digital records
A correct customer or supplier balance is an accounting control. VAT treatment and electronic-invoice obligations must still be assessed against the relevant transaction and current rules.
Sales and purchase registers should tie to invoices and credit notes, with exceptions available for tax review. The FTA says taxable persons must retain VAT invoices issued and received for a minimum of five years, subject to other applicable requirements or extensions. A missing invoice is not fixed by entering an estimated amount.
FTA record-retention FAQ ↗Structured invoice exchange changes how data arrives, but the company still needs customer and supplier master data, acceptance rules, credit-note links, exception handling and reconciliations. Review the requirements that apply to your business rather than assuming software alone is sufficient.
UAE e-invoicing readiness →Long-outstanding receivables need evidence and management’s assessment under the applicable accounting framework. A proposed impairment, write-off or VAT adjustment is a separate decision; it should not be inferred from an ageing bucket alone.
Year-end financial statements →Starting the engagement
Tell us the legal entities, invoice volume, currencies, number of active customers and suppliers, accounting platform and desired reporting cycle. Share a recent trial balance and ageing report, sample invoices and credit notes, bank or gateway statements, payment terms, and any existing approval matrix.
If the books are months behind, catch-up bookkeeping may need to establish a dependable opening position first. If the issue is mostly software configuration, assess accounting-system setup or migration. We will separate project clean-up from recurring processing in the proposal.
Frequently asked questions
Practical answers on supplier bills, customer balances, payments, collections and the boundary between accounting support and business decisions.
Accounts payable (AP) is the money a business owes suppliers for accepted goods or services. Accounts receivable (AR) is the money customers owe the business for sales made on credit. The balances are useful only when invoices, credits, receipts and payments are recorded and reconciled to the correct counterparty.
An agreed scope may include invoice capture, coding, customer and supplier ledger maintenance, receipt and payment allocation, statement reconciliations, ageing reports, exception logs and management follow-up lists. Payment release, commercial decisions, tax advice and legal collection action are separate responsibilities unless expressly included and appropriate.
We can prepare a reviewed payment schedule or supporting pack under an agreed scope. Company management should retain control of bank credentials, beneficiary changes and final payment authorisation. Duties should be separated where practicable; an accounting service is not permission to move money without approval.
We can help establish an agreed reminder and escalation process, prepare customer statements, track promises to pay and report disputed items. The tone and authority of customer contact must be agreed with management. Legal recovery, litigation and a guarantee of collection are not part of routine AR accounting.
We compare the bank or payment-gateway receipt with customer details, remittance advice, invoices and open balances. If it cannot be matched reliably, we keep it visible as an unallocated item rather than applying it to the oldest invoice merely to clear the account.
We compare invoice and credit-note references, cut-off dates, payments, deposits and disputed charges. The result is a reconciliation showing agreed items, timing differences and exceptions that require the supplier or company to resolve.
Credit notes need a supported reason, approval and link to the original transaction where relevant. A dispute may affect collection expectations but should not be hidden by deleting an invoice. Accounting entries and VAT treatment are reviewed separately for the facts and period.
We can prepare an aged-debt schedule, identify long-outstanding balances and gather subsequent receipts, correspondence and dispute information. Management decides commercial action and estimates; an impairment allowance under the applicable accounting framework is a separate year-end judgement, not an automatic percentage applied to every old invoice.
Yes, if included in the scope. A platform may deposit the net amount after fees, refunds and timing differences. We reconcile orders or invoices, gross sales, deductions and bank settlements so cash received is not mistaken for the whole customer transaction.
No. AR management maintains the ledger, supports routine communication and gives management visibility of overdue items. Debt collection, legal notices or court action require separate specialist authority and should not be implied by an accounting engagement.
Accurate sales and purchase records, credit notes and reconciliations give a better starting point for VAT review. They do not by themselves determine every tax treatment or submit a return. A VAT specialist should review exceptions and the relevant invoices and periods.
No. Structured electronic invoices can improve the document exchange, but the business still needs to match accepted invoices to contracts or orders, allocate payments, resolve credits and disputes, and reconcile the subledgers to the general ledger. We assess e-invoicing readiness separately.
SAIF can assess workflows in Zoho Books, Odoo and other accounting or ERP platforms such as Xero, QuickBooks, Tally and Sage. We agree access, data exports, user roles and integrations before promising a particular automation. SAIF is an authorised Zoho Books and Odoo partner, but those are not the only systems we support.
A current trial balance, customer and supplier ageing reports, sales and purchase ledgers, sample invoices and credit notes, bank and gateway statements, significant contracts, payment terms, and a list of unresolved items are useful. Share sensitive financial records through an agreed secure channel rather than an open enquiry.
Fees depend on the number of entities, monthly invoice volume, customer and supplier counts, currencies, payment channels, reconciliation frequency, dispute workload, software access and reporting requirements. We review a representative sample before quoting and separate historical clean-up from recurring support.
Bring clarity to the balances
Tell us whether the issue is invoice volume, overdue customers, disputed balances, supplier approvals or a broken reconciliation. We will review the starting point and propose a defined scope.
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