Payment sources can trump the normal expense fulfilment order.
Expense > Payment Source is an option on the Expenses screens that you can use to specify a preferred account from which to fund a given expense. Payment sources are merely an option designed to give you greater control, when needed, to specify how an expense will be paid.
Otherwise, the software's default expense fulfilment logic will be used which can be seen from this article; https://support.planwithvoyant.com/hc/en-us/articles/360031936332-Expense-Fulfillment-and-the-Liquidation-Order-In-what-order-are-expenses-fulfilled-and-what-funds-are-used-to-pay-them-UK
An expense payment source can be either:
- A Preferred Payment Sources, meaning that the software will draw funds from the preferred account first before using the usual expense fulfilment procedure outlined above;
In order to do this you would select the relevant Available Payment Source and drag and drop it under the Preferred Payment Sources field as shown in the diagram below, whilst leaving the toggle OFF on the Only Use Preferred Payment Sources;
- The Preferred Payment Sources, meaning that the software will fulfil the expense ONLY using funds from the specified account. If insufficient funds are available in this account, a shortfall will occur.
In order to do this you would toggle ON the Only Use Preferred Payment Sources. Select the relevant Available Payment Source and drag and drop it under the Preferred Payment Sources field as shown in the diagram below;
Tip: If setting a preferred payment source, use the “Preferred Payment Sources” option very sparingly, if at all. When ticked, this setting can create artificial shortfalls if the preferred source is inadequately funded to pay the linked expense. These artificial shortfalls can prevent the software’s need analysers from returning results.
When might you use the “Preferred Payment Sources option? In most cases, we recommend only using this setting in a what-if scenario. For example, suppose your clients are saving for their children’s university fees and you want to run a test to determine if they are saving enough to a particular account.
Even if the account is set as a preferred payment source as long as the toggle has not been set under the Only Use Preferred Payment Sources, income and other assets sources will be used if the account does not have the funds to meet the linked expense
However, by switching ON the toggle to “Only Use Preferred Payment Sources” option, you could in this scenario test the account for adequate funding. Again, we recommend using this setting sparingly and normally only in scenarios.