Vendor payment unexpectedly routed through Prepaid Expenses instead of Accounts Payable

Hello,

We are investigating an unexpected accounting behavior in Zoho Books.

We created vendor bills and vendor payments for two suppliers using what appears to be the same workflow, but the journal entries are different.

Vendor 1 – UZ Store (works correctly)

Bill Journal

• Dr DS - Flat 31

• Cr Accounts Payable

Vendor Payment Journal

• Dr Accounts Payable

• Cr Current Account - Mr. Salem Moosa Jaffar Hassan

This is the expected accounting treatment.

Vendor 2 – Abu Amira International LLC (unexpected)

Bill Journal

• Dr Mutrah Project

• Cr Accounts Payable

However, when the payment is recorded, Zoho automatically generates:

Vendor Payment:

• Dr Prepaid Expenses

• Cr Current Account

Then another journal:

• Dr Accounts Payable

• Cr Prepaid Expenses

Instead of simply:

• Dr Accounts Payable

• Cr Current Account

We have already checked:

• Same payment mode

• Same paid through account

• Same vendor settings

• Same payment workflow

• Same organization settings that we can access

We cannot identify why only Abu Amira is routed through the Prepaid Expenses account.

Could you please explain:

1. What causes Zoho Books to automatically use the Prepaid Expenses account during vendor payment?

2. Is there any hidden configuration, migration setting, or vendor-specific setting that triggers this behavior?

3. How can we make Abu Amira behave exactly like UZ Store, where payments debit Accounts Payable directly?

We will attach screenshots of both journal entries for comparison.

Thank you.