Balancing the Accounts Payable Subledger to the General Ledger

All Vista versions.

Modules: Accounts Payable and General Ledger

Below (in Resolution) are some tips to finding the difference between the balance of Accounts Payable and the General Ledger.

• Determine out-of-balance amount
• Determine whether the source of the out-of-balance is Payments or Transactions
• Use these reports (set to specific parameters as noted in the Details):

AP Open Payables

GL Trial Balance

AP Check Register

AP Batch Transactions

HQ Batch Control

Determine out-of-balance amount

Determine whether the source of the out-of-balance is Payments or Transactions

Use these reports (set to specific parameters as noted in the Details):

• AP Open Payables
• GL Trial Balance
• AP Check Register
• AP Batch Transactions
• HQ Batch Control

1. Ensure that prior month is in balance, or start from the last month that does balance, and that no open batches exist (HQ Batch Control, Grid tab, Filter by Source AP, all batches are status 5 or 6)
   

2. Verify the Out of Balance by running an AP Open Payables report [Accounts Payable>Reports] (recommended when balancing to the GL) and comparing to a GL Trial Balance report [General Ledger>Reports].

   If you're running one of the AP Aged Payable reports, ensure that the report parameters are as follows: 'Select by (M)onth or (I)nvoice Date:' = (M)onth and the 'Through Invoice Date:' is left BLANK. These Aged Payable reports are date driven, so if an Invoice posted to a month is entered with an Invoice Date later than the posted month, it will not populate on these reports, calculating a difference to the GL that may not actually exist.

   Tips & Tricks for finding the cause of an Out of Balance.

3. Determine if the Delta is Transaction or Payment related, or both.

   1. Payments: Run an 'AP Check Register' [Accounts Payable>Reports] launched by 'Paid Month' and 'Print Pay type Recap?' {Do not use the AP Check Register by Date}, and compare to the GL Trial Balance report, launched with the applicable 'Beginning/Ending GL Account(s)'{run separately per Pay Type GL Account}, 'Beginning/Ending Month', 'Source' = AP, 'Journal' = CA (or whatever journal is assigned to payments for this company). [Accounts Payable>Programs>AP Company Parameters>GL Payment Posting>Payments Journal].

      

      

   2. Transactions: Run the 'AP Batch Transactions' [Accounts Payable>Reports] launched by 'Beginning/Ending Month' (this report does not include totals, so Export to Excel to calc total for month), and compare to the GL Trial Balance launched with the applicable 'Beginning/Ending GL Account(s)', 'Beginning/Ending Month', 'Source' = AP, 'Journal' = AP (or whatever journal is assigned to expenses for this company). [Accounts Payable>Programs>AP Company Parameters>GL Expense Posting>Expense Journal].

      

      

4. Once you've narrowed down the source of the Out of Balance, here are a few tricks to help you find the details.

   1. Check HQ Batch Control [Headquarters>Programs>HQ Batch Control] to see if any batches were posted with the interface level set to 0 (turned off). Go to the Grid, use the Filter Bar to condition by 'Source' = AP Payment or AP Entry, 'Status'= 5-Posted Successfully (Drop Down field), and expand the width of the rows (as if in Excel) to show the Payment Interface Levels in the 'bNotes' column, and check to ensure that none are set to zero: 'GL Payment Interface Level set at: 0'/'GL Expense Interface Level set at: 0'. This usually only occurs at Go Live and means that the batch did not update to the GL. If this is in error, you can either delete the payment(s)/transaction(s) with the interface OFF and reprocess with the interface ON, or you can post a GL Journal Transaction Entry to correct the Out of Balance.

      

   2. Also check to HQ Batch Control to ensure that there are no batches that have not been Posted Successfully or Canceled.

      Using the Filter Bar, condition by 'Source'= AP Payment and click on the 'Status' column header to sort the form. If there are any batches with a Status 0-Open, 1-Validation in Progress, 2-Validation Errors, 3- Validation OK or 4-Posting in Progress, take applicable steps to correct - each of these will cause an Out of Balance.

      

   3. If you did not find the cause of the Out of Balance from any of the above, check to see if any other Source posted to this GL Account. i.e., Payroll, Job Cost, etc. Run a GL Trial Balance for the applicable GL Account and Month, launching once for each Source and leaving the Journal blank. If you find transactions posted from another Source in error, make applicable corrections.

      On occasion, there may be the need to post a correction to the Accounts Payable GL Account from Source General Ledger or at Go Live, but if there are entries posted that do not meet those criteria, again make applicable corrections.

      To prevent other Subledgers from posting to the specified Accounts Payable GL Accounts in error, assign the 'P-Payables' Subledger Code in GL Chart of Accounts. [General Ledger>Programs>GL Chart of Accounts].

      This Subledger Code will not, however prevent posting to this Account from Source General Ledger.

      

   4. If you still have an Out of Balance and haven't been able to determine the cause:

      1. If the Delta is in the Payments, you will need to compare payment transactions from the AP Check Register to the GL Trial Balance by Source 'AP' and Journal (i.e. 'CA').

         You can Export both reports to Excel. The sort order to compare is your preference { The AP Check Register does not include the BatchId, so that is not an option for payments.}, and may depend on the GL Description Items and order set up in AP Company Parameters,. i.e. Amount, Vendor, CMRef, etc. (Or you can use 'Text to Columns' in Excel using the Delimiter '/' to allow sorting from any Item in the GL Description). Where there's a difference, this exercise will find it!

      2. If the Delta is in the Transactions, you can compare the Batch Totals by BatchId (AP)/GLRef (GL) from the AP Batch Transactions report to the GL Trial Balance by Source 'AP' and Journal 'AP'.

You can Export both reports to Excel. The sort order to compare is easiest when using the BatchId from the AP Batch Transactions report and the GLRef from the GL Trial Balance. (Requires a Subtotal calc for the GL Trial Balance). This will find which batch is Out of Balance, and from there you can make your corrections. Where there's a difference, this exercise will find it!

Note: when exporting any of the above reports to Excel, if you're not using the Lookup Function, you may need to 'line up' data on a same row for comparison. Use the cell 'delete' and 'move up/down' to accomplish this, and then you can run a formula to calc the delta. See example below...