Costs that cover another period

A purchase is booked on its delivery date when the supplier delivered before invoicing, else on its invoice date. So December's rent or accounting fee invoiced on 3 January is a December cost once you give it its delivery date, 31 December: that's also what puts it on December's VAT return, if the invoice reaches you before that return is filed. Only the delivery date does this. The service period below never moves the booking or the VAT. A cost that spans the year end is different: a year's insurance, hosting or software licence invoiced in December is mostly next year's, and the annual report has to put each part in the year it belongs to.

For such a purchase, set its Service period on the expense's page: click the pencil next to it in the details, enter the first and last day the cost covers, and save. You can do this for a draft or a finalised expense, at any time until the year's annual report is prepared, and change or remove it. Nothing else about the purchase changes: it, its VAT and its payment stay where they are booked. The service period doesn't replace the delivery date: record when the supplier delivered there. At the year end Arvello splits it by days in the year-end checks:

• Accrued expenses. A €620 invoice (without VAT) dated 20 January 2027 for consulting from 1 December 2026 to 15 January 2027, delivered at its end, is booked on 15 January 2027. Its service period of 1 December–15 January puts 31 of its 46 days in 2026, so the 2026 year end books €417.83 as the expense on 31 December against accrued expenses (2300), reversed on 1 January. December's rent invoiced in January needs none of this: its delivery date already books it in December.
• Prepaid expenses. A €1,200 insurance policy (exempt from VAT) invoiced on 15 December 2026 for 1 January–31 December 2027 is all next year's. The 2026 year end moves €1,200 from insurance to prepaid expenses (1300), reversed on 1 January, so the cost lands in 2027. A policy from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 is split by days: 181 of 365 days fall in 2027, so €595.07 is deferred.
• Long-term prepaid expenses. A three-year software licence for 2026–2028 at €1,096 (1,096 days) is deferred by €731 at the 2026 year end. €365 of it is for 2027 and stays a current asset (1300). The €366 for 2028 falls more than twelve months after the year end, so it goes to long-term prepaid expenses (1600), which Arvello creates the first time it's needed.

A supplier credit note follows its original's service period. The year-end checks also list purchases from the first 60 days after the year end that have no service period, as a reminder to check them.