presents the
The "Out of Balance" Error Message
If you have not already done so, the user needs to run a detailed AR
Open Invoice Report (summarized option will not be selected) so that the “Out
of Balance” error will appear next to the particular Customer or Customers that
the error actually originates from.
The “Out of Balance” error means that the total of the Invoice detail on
the report is different than the amount showing in the Balance field of the
Customer record. In more than 99% of the cases the Customer record is simply
opened and the Balance amount changed to match the total for the Invoices
listed on the AR Open Invoice or Customer Balance reports.
Why two different balances?
What AA does when a new Invoice or Payment is recorded is save this detail to
the AR Open Invoice View (table), and the Payment goes to the Payment History
table. While at the same time the system also sends this information to the
Customer record in order to update the record. When the AR Open Invoice Report
or Customer Balances Report is run, this previously ‘saved’ information is
retrieved from the tables and the Customer records and compared against each
other to see if the Balance amounts are the same from both places.
The intention of the “Out of Balance” error is to detect one of the
following situations having occurred:
1. The Customer record may have intentionally, or unintentionally, been changed by the user. Or, the Customer record may have been “Open” on a user’s system and “Saved” after the system “saved” the update to the Customer record, thus overwriting the system update. Only the user would know. In either case the Customer record can be opened and the Balance field amount simply updated with the Invoice Balance showing on the AR Open Invoice Report. This will cause the “Out of Balance” error to disappear.
2.
There may have been a ‘system crash’ (system error) and the
Customer record was not updated properly when an Invoice was saved or a Payment
applied. In other words this is basically the same situation as 1) above but
the user did not any part to play in causing the error. In any event, the
Customer record can be opened and the Balance field amount can be changed to
match the Invoice Balance showing in the AR Open Invoice
Report and the error will disappear from the reports.
3. There may have been a ‘system crash’ (system error) and the AR Open Invoice View (table), or the Payment History table was not updated properly. For example a missing Invoice or Payment that for some reason wasn’t stored in the proper table. Fortunately this would be a rare occurrence. But, if one wanted to try to track it down, they would have to have a complete set of Invoice and payment documentation of some kind to compare against what is listed on the AR Open Invoice Report or Customer Balance Report.
It is probably worth eliminating the “Out of Balance” error message before running AR Aging as the AR Aging process may make some mention of having to have “fixed something” or “Changed a Customer Balance”. If you don’t want that on the AR Aging report, fix the balance in the Customer record first. However it is worth mentioning that when the AR Aging is run, the errors will be removed from these reports regardless of whether you adjust the Balance amount in the Customer record or not, because part of the AR Aging process is, to update the Customer Balances in the Customer records to match the aging.
End of Article