AR: Balancing Accounts Receivable Aging to the General Ledger

It is important that you reconcile the Accounts Receivable balance with the General Ledger balance each month.

1. Make sure that all invoices entered in the system have been printed. Be sure to select Invoices Not Yet Printed and Invoices Marked for Reprinting. If an invoice has not been printed, it will not post to the General Ledger.
2. Update all cash receipts in AR: Payments to the General Ledger to clear any records that have not been updated.
3. Update all invoices to the General Ledger so you do not have any invoices that have been printed but not updated.
4. Use the Invoice Aging Report in Accounts Receivable with a cutoff date through the end of the fiscal period to find all outstanding invoices. For example, use a From date of 01/01/1990 and an End date of the last day of the month you are balancing for. If you have invoices with an invoice date in a different month than the posting month you will need to select the G/L Reconciliation check box (the default setting is cleared) to view items aged by the posting date.
5. Create a GL Report (could be Trial Balance or Balance Sheet) to view the balance of the Accounts Receivable, Trade account using a date range for the period you are trying to balance. The balance on the GL Report for the Accounts Receivable, Trade account should match the ending total on the Invoice Aging Report.

Note:  If you are still out of balance, run the reports without using a cut-off date.

6. Run an Invoice Aging Report in Accounts Receivable using a cut off date through the end of the current fiscal year. This time do NOT select the G/L Reconciliation check box, we want to age off the invoice date. You also want to be sure to use total company information.
7. Create GL Report (could be Trial Balance or Balance Sheet) to view the balance of the Accounts Receivable, Trade account using a date range through the end of the fiscal year. The ending balance on the GL Report for the Accounts Receivable, Trade account should match the ending total on the Invoice Aging Report.

Note:  If you are still out of balance after trying both methods, and you were in balance the previous month, then something else has occurred.

8. Go to GL: Trial Balance and change the Trial Balance Date to the End date you are balancing AR against.
   1. Verify the GL account number for that month. This amount should tie back to the AR: Invoice Aging Report
   2. If not, drill down to the GL: Comparative Analysis screen.
   3. Double-click on the amount for the Fiscal Year you are reviewing.
   4. You will see all the Debits and Credits for the month based on Source: AJE, ARJ, and CPJ.
   5. Drill down on each ARJ: You can drill down to each AR: Invoice posted. Print AR: Invoice Register Report to verify all invoices created, printed and posted for the month are on the list.
   6. Drill down on each CPJ: You can drill down on each AR: Payments created and posted. Print AR: Payments Report to verify all payments records with a Deposit Date range for that month.
   7. Drill down on each AJE: You can drill down on any Adjusting Journal Entry created by a Year End Rollover or other record created. Print the GL: General Ledger Detail Report with created and Posting Source: AJE for that time period.

If you are still out of balance:

1. Check to see if someone entered a Customers Balance Posting record through the Customers Balance Posting default. Customer Balance Defaults DO NOT affect the General Ledger, but do affect aging.
2. Adjusting Journal Entries (or any other type of entry that posts to the Accounts Receivable account that was NOT generated by the Cash Posting Journal (CPJ) or the Accounts Receivable Journal (ARJ)) may also cause you to be out of balance. Verify any AJE created from a year end rollover are correct and tie out to end of fiscal year amount.

Note:  If you reprint the journal and it lists a different Debit account than when you drill down to the Transaction Details log, this means the GL Accounts Receivable Number in AR: Defaults may have changed when the journal was initially posted. The Reprint feature pulls the GL account number that currently exists in AR Defaults. The Drill Down displays the actual GL Account Number that was in the AR Defaults field. To correct, create an AJE for each month that is different to swap out the Debit and Credit to the correct GL Account Number.