Mark Bossanyi (asker) Mar 10, 2020:

@ François Boye In principle the customers have to pay off their debt, but the software allows for recognition of an irrecoverable debt, in which case an entry must be made to bring the credit down to zero, with a counterpart entry elsewhere.

Francois Boye Mar 10, 2020:

Hair spitting!

The software knows the credit facility, i.e., the maximum overdraft granted to customers. So whenever the actual overdraft is greater than the maximum overdraft granted, then the excess Must be repaid by customers.

Daryo has probably never written a program executed by a computer.

Daryo Mar 10, 2020:

Yes, in an ideal world "customers must repay their bills if they exceed the credit facility"

but in the real word:

... unless they (or the seller) do not go bankrupt in the meantime / or ...[hundreds of possible reasons why it wouldn't happen]

+ most importantly HOW an accounting software is going to achieve that???

Francois Boye Mar 8, 2020:

This is what Asker said:

This appears to relate to a client exceeding its agreed credit facility with the supplier (in effect an unauthorised overdraft). But I'm confused about the "alimentation". Does it mean that the credit facility is increased or that partial settlement has been made?

THis is what I said:

The credit facility was granted to customers, So customers must repay their bills if they exceed the credit facility.

Daryo Mar 8, 2020:

@ Mark Bossanyi What does this presentation has to say about "découvert client" and especially about "Comment est alimenté le découvert client ? If explanations under these headings are not a definitive clue, nothing else will be ...

Daryo Mar 8, 2020:

That seems to make sense i.e. "alimenter" would simply mean "to input this value", but there are two small problems:

- the amount of unpaid invoices is not "primary data" - => you don't input the amount directly yourself, it's calculated / derived from from what amounts are due and what amounts have been paid to date.

So "Comment est alimenté le découvert client ?" could not mean "how do you input the value of découvert client"

The "user" is someone doing the accounts for the company that is the seller - from the viewpoint of THAT company "clients" owe money - and sometimes pay late.

Jeffrey Probst Mar 7, 2020:

Which "user" is using the software? From a purely software app standpoint, this excerpt could be taken from a menu, where the user could click each heading ("Consulter"...."Alimenter..."). In which case, "Alimentation" may simply mean to enter additional data, with no specific accounting meaning here. Depends on the user profile though.

Francois Boye Mar 6, 2020:

The credit facility was granted to customers, So customers must repay their bills if they exceed the credit facility.

Daryo Mar 6, 2020:

There must be clues somewhere else in this presentation.

Just on its own "Alimentation du découvert client" would mean finding a source of funding to fill the hole in the coffers left by the unpaid invoices to clients.

The company might dig into its reserves or be forced to take a bank loan to be able to keep paying its own suppliers.

"alimentation de ... " = funding s.t. when it's about money.

or you could look at it from the principle of double entries in accounting - if you record in one account "excessive amount of invoices waiting for payment" (on the credit side) you must find one or more other account(s) to record the same amount on the opposite side (on the debit side).