Discrepancies Within Auxiliaries and the General Ledger

We will describe here how to reconcile auxiliaries and the general ledger. As you know, verifications of the A/R and A/P auxiliaries are required on a monthly basis to ensure that discrepancies are not carried from one month to the next. We therefore propose an approach that allows you to manage discrepancy situations, determine the cause and quickly resolve the problems.

What are the possible reasons for discrepancies between auxiliaries and the general ledger?

You have not printed the correct reports.
The payment or deposit was made before the invoice date.
You have entered a transaction in the general ledger that did not affect the auxiliary. Below are examples of the types of transactions that affect the A/R auxiliary: VEN (Sales) and REC (Receipts) And for A/P: ACH (Purchasing) and DEB (Expenses). All other types of transactions that affect the general ledger are a possible reason for discrepancies.
You have specified, in the breakdown of your transactions, the general ledger account used for accounts receivable (A/R) or accounts payable (A/P) as consideration, rather than an income or expense account, for example.

Below is an explanation of how you should check the auxiliaries against the general ledger:

Summary

Select the correct reports
After analyzing the reports, is there a discrepancy for a specific month?
You still have a discrepancy between the auxiliary and the trial balance. The source of the problem is probably in transactions that affect the auxiliary
You still have a discrepancy and you do not have any incorrect source transactions such as journal entries (JG), a single discount or receipt. The problem is therefore in the breakdown of your transactions
You still have a discrepancy and you've tried all previous steps, but you still cannot find the source? Answer the following questions and then contact Software Support

A. Select the correct reports

You must first take into consideration that there is a difference between A/R reports from the general ledger (month-end date) and those from the Project Receivables module (current date).

To compare with the trial balance, you must print the A/R and A/P reports from the general ledger module, not from receivables.

B. After analyzing the reports, is there a discrepancy for a specific month?

Below are the required verifications :

Are the A/R reports from the general ledger module? If not, follow the instructions in point A. above. We suggest that you print the A/R Control Report, that provides an A/R balance by account in the general ledger at the end of the report.
Determine since which accounting period the discrepancy exists. To do this, you must reconcile every month from the discrepancy, one by one, because errors are carried over to following periods.
When you print the trial balance for the date in the next month, does the discrepancy still exist? If not, it is very likely that you made a deposit on a date earlier than the date of the invoice, which would explain the discrepancy. You can identify these transactions by using the toolbox. To determine which transactions are involved, contact software support so that we can run a program that identifies the transactions.

C. You still have a discrepancy between the auxiliary and the trial balance. The source of the problem is probably in transactions that affect the auxiliary

Print the GL Transaction Report in the general ledger module, (in the Accounting > General Ledger > Reports module). You must specify the period and the A/R GL account that you want to verify.
When the report is displayed on the screen, transfer to Excel and sort the Source column to ensure there are no sources other than VEN and REC. If you find transactions whose source is, for example, "JG", it means you have made journal entries that affect the A/R. These transactions are probably the source of your discrepancies because the auxiliaries have not been affected.
During your verifications, you noticed that there were journal entries. You must determine why the entries were made and reverse them to redo the correction and affect the auxiliaries.

D. You still have a discrepancy and you do not have any incorrect source transactions such as journal entries (JG), a single discount or receipt. The problem is therefore in the breakdown of your transactions

Print the GL Transaction Report from the general ledger module, in the Reports column. You must specify the period and A/R GL account that you want to verify.
Transfer to Excel and sort on the Comments column. You should not see the "Sale" term in the text of the comment.
Below are the source and possible comment combinations. Any other source is incorrect and can result in an error.

Source	Remark
Ven (Sale)	A/R
Ven (Sale)	Hlbk (Holdback)
Rec (Receipt)	A/R
Rec (Receipt)	Hlbk (Holdback)

If you find an incorrect source, you must make the correction by entering a reverse invoice, or by making a journal entry.
Reprint the trial balance and the A/R auxiliary to ensure there are no longer any discrepancies between the trial balance and the auxiliary report.

This procedure also applies to problems with the A/P auxiliary. For point 3, below is a reference table of valid sources for A/P.

Source	Remark
Ach (Purchase)	A/P
Ach (Purchase)	Hlbk (Holdback)
Deb (Disbursment)	A/P
Deb (Disbursment)	Hlbk (Holdback)

E. You still have a discrepancy and you've tried all previous steps, but you still cannot find the source? Answer the following questions and then contact Software Support

Where is the discrepancy?
Since when do you have this discrepancy?
Do the auxiliaries and the general ledger balance as of the end of the first period of the current fiscal year?
Do the auxiliaries and the general ledger balance as of the end of the last opened financial period?
Are there any discrepancies in the GL Transaction Report (Opening Balance vs Closing Balance)?
Is the account balance in the Trial Balance report the same as the one in the GL Transaction Report?
Are the Debit and Credit columns correct in the Trial Balance report?

Last modification: September 19, 2024