Vendor Balances

Four numbers sit on every vendor and only one of them is what you owe.

Reading them correctly before a payment run is the difference between paying the right amount and paying twice.

The Vendors table with the two balance columns side by side: Payables (BCY) carrying a figure on the vendors that are owed money and 0.00 on the rest, and Unused Credits (BCY) reading 0.00 on every row. — Two of the four numbers are on the list itself. The other two are read from the vendor's own record.

Reading the balance

Outstandingyou owe them: The unpaid total on approved bills. This is the figure in your payables ageing report.
Unused creditsthey owe you: Vendor credits not yet applied to a bill. Apply these before sending money.
Prepaymentsyou already sent: Payments not matched to any bill. Match them before paying again.
Committednot a liability: Issued purchase orders not yet billed. Nothing is owed on these.

Stopping business with a vendor

There is no hold. A vendor is either Active or Inactive, and that is the whole of it.

What you might want	What is available
Block new orders and bills for a supplier in dispute	Not available. Nothing refuses a document because of who the vendor is.
Take a supplier out of circulation	Mark them Inactive. They drop out of the pickers, so nobody selects them by accident on a new document.
Keep the history	Inactive keeps every existing bill, order and payment exactly as it was, and they stay payable and keep ageing.
Stop a recurring profile against them	Stop the profile itself. Making the vendor inactive is not a substitute, and does not reach the schedule.

Statements from your supplier

When a supplier statement disagrees with your payables, work in this order and stop as soon as the difference is explained: bills you have not entered, bills still in draft, credits they have issued and you have not recorded, and payments in transit. Those four cover almost every case.