Invoice date or payment date: which period are you reviewing?

A customer pays a December invoice in January. Your bank shows January income, while the invoice belongs to December in Just Invoice’s invoice-date report. Both observations can be correct. The mistake is treating two different views as interchangeable without telling the accountant which dates selected the documents. Before reviewing tax totals, write down the report basis and the period. That small step prevents a surprisingly common mismatch during year-end preparation.

Start with the question, then choose the dates

Are you identifying invoices issued during a quarter, checking money received, or preparing information for a return? These questions require different evidence. The accountant report selects invoices by invoice date; it is not a bank feed or a payment reconciliation. A purchase receipt has its own purchase date, used by the receipt library. Upload time does not place that purchase into a tax year. Keep these three dates separate when explaining a difference to your adviser.

Work through a boundary example

Imagine an invoice dated December 20, a payment received January 10, and a supplier purchase made December 28 but photographed February 2. A December invoice review includes the invoice. The receipt belongs to the December purchase year when entered correctly. The payment needs January banking evidence outside that invoice-date selection. Do not move the invoice into January just to make an export match a bank statement. Record the discrepancy and ask which treatment applies to your situation.

Make the accountant handoff explicit

Name exports with their period and purpose, such as “invoice-date review, October–December.” Include whether you also checked invoices outside the period that were paid within it. Provide the original PDFs for uncertain items and a short list of boundary transactions. The invoice CSV handoff guide explains how to preserve a usable export. A labelled package is easier to interpret than an unexplained total pasted into an email.

Review differences without rewriting history

A mismatch can reflect timing, deposits, refunds, transactions outside Just Invoice, or incomplete payment information. Start with the underlying documents rather than forcing totals to agree. An invoice status is useful operational context, but it does not replace bank evidence or establish accounting treatment. The unpaid-invoice review gives a method for describing outstanding balances. Keep the questions specific: invoice number, date, amount, and the evidence you actually have.

Agree on a recurring review convention

Ask the accountant which periods and supporting documents they need, especially around fiscal year-end. Calendar-year receipt retrieval is convenient, but a business can have reporting needs that cross two calendar years. Export both purchase years when required, then let the professional select the applicable period. Just Invoice is made in Canada to simplify document preparation; it does not choose your accounting basis or file returns. Repeat the agreed convention each quarter so comparisons remain meaningful.