What is it?
The
"Out of Balance" error message on a GL Transaction Report indicates
that the difference between the beginning balance and ending balance in the
Account Master does not match the GL Transaction History. This
comparison that the AA system does serves as a built-in system “cross
check”. Error in balance does not necessarily mean that the balance in
the Account is in error. It means the AA program cannot add the
transactions up to get the balance that is on the account for that
period. Or, another way of saying the same thing is: we cannot
"proof" the balance.
If the reader understands this
cross checking process they can skip ahead to When does it occur?
Here's an example of what this
cross-checking process does: Let's say 2 new AR Invoices each totaling $100 are
saved. A Payment of $100 is also received and applied to a third AR
Invoice. This example will also pretend this is the extent of all AR Invoice
activity for the period the GL report is being run, however unlikely that might
be. Running a GL Transaction History Report for just our Accounts
Receivable GL Account would list 3 AR Invoices as the activity. This
activity listed should show 2 Debits of $100 each and 1 Credit of $100.
The summation of our activity will then be a Debit total of $100. This
'activity' is what we refer to as the GL Transaction History. Also shown
on our GL Transaction History Report will be a Beginning Balance amount and
below that an Ending Balance amount. These two balance amounts are pulled
from the Accounts Receivable GL Account master record. If the Ending
Balance is $100 higher than the Beginning Balance then this matches the total
of the activity so no error message will occur. The balances are said to
be "proofed". If activity shown does not total $100, or the
difference between the Beginning and Ending Balances is not $100, then the
"Out of Balance" error will be placed next to your AR account on this
GL Transaction History Report.
When does it occur?
Generally this error occurs when
either the GL Account Master is caused to be incorrect as described in
Situation A or B described below, or The GL Transaction
History is recorded incorrectly to the TRHIST table as described in Situation C. In any case dealing successfully with
this situation means you will need to run the GL Transaction History report to
determine which specific GL Account, and in what period the “Out of Balance”
error shows up. Then, you will know exactly what you are dealing with.
Situation
A:
A user 'opened' the GL Account
F/M Change Mode form and intentionally or accidentally changed the Beginning
Balance or a Period amount. Either would cause the Account balance to
change. Since normally the GL Account Master and GL Transaction History
match each other, such a change would therefore cause the "Out of
Balance" error message to appear on the GL Transaction report. The A remedy is to change the amounts that were
changed, back to what they should be.
Situation
B:
Your system "crashed"
when attempting to update the GL Account Master record as the GL Transaction
History was being created, and the update to the GL Account Master did not
actually take place. A system “crash” refers to a momentary system error
or network error that prevents a transaction from being completed. The GL
Account balance ends up different from the GL Transaction History. The
result is the same as in situation A. The B remedy
would be to 'open' the GL Account F/M Change Mode form for the GL Account
causing the Out of Balance error, and manually key-in the correcting amount in
the proper field.
Situation
C:
Your system “crashed” and GL Transaction
History is not created or is created incorrectly. The total of GL
Transaction History against that GL Account for that particular period would
then not match the GL Account balance and the “Out of Balance” error will be
displayed on the GL Transaction report. Typically there will be some
indication that there was a database problem, such as, an inability to
“Reorganize” the database. However, this situation could be caused by a
sudden power loss, or an error of some kind causing the workstation to shut
down unintentionally.
Determining whether GL
Transaction History is incorrect can include running a Balance Sheet for each
period and for period 13 which would be all inclusive. The Balance Sheet
is created from balances found in the GL Account Master. If the Balance
Sheet is in balance for all periods, then a problem with GL Transaction History
is indeed probably the culprit rather than Situation A or B which relate to GL
Account Balances being off.
The
C Remedy
could include the AA user trying to discover the exact GL Transaction History
that is incorrect and manually entering corrections into their TRHIST table via
MS Access™ program. Great care would be required when entering correcting
transactions to GL Transaction History. In order to determine what
GL Transaction History is missing or incorrect would require going through all
original documents, such as, to look for any kind of possible discrepancy
between hard copy and GL Transaction History. Or, the user can simply do nothing and make a note
as to the amount of the imbalance, to what GL Account, and in what period, so
as not to be confused by this error showing up in later reports. The Out
of Balance error will become a thing of the past when the GL Year End Close
procedure is run at the end of the user’s fiscal year. This process
removes all GL Transaction History from the current database going forward.
There is another Situation that
we could mention:
Situation
D:
This is unlikely to occur but
comes under the heading of ‘user error’. If the Account Type of a GL
Account is changed mid-stream, an Out of Balance error will appear on the GL
Transaction Report upon the very next posting to that GL Account. An
example would be an Asset Type GL Account being changed to a Liability Type GL
Account. In this case the D remedy
would be to change the Account Type back to what it was and then make a series
of manual GL Transaction entries to fix the balances in the required period or
periods.
Summary
The Out of Balance error is
easier to deal with if the GL Transaction Report is run often. UDS
suggests Print Previewing the report after every posting to the General Ledger
or at minimum once a month. Running this report once a year and trying to
determine what happened and then fixing anything at that point can be a “tough
row to hoe” as they say.