Why do my Debtors/Creditors not Agree to my Balance Sheet?
Contents
Summary
The following article explains reasons why, and checks that can be made, if your Aged Debtors or Creditors Lists do not match your Balance Sheet for Sales and Purchase Control centres accordingly.
More Information
Nominal centres 'Z993' and 'Z994' on the Balance Sheet are the control centres for the Purchase Ledger and Sales Ledger. These are fixed codes that cannot be changed.
Each Sales Ledger and Purchase Ledger transaction has a double entry to these nominal centres.
When printing the Aged Creditors and Aged Debtors reports as part of the month end, or to review your current debtors/creditors, you may check the balance against the corresponding nominal centres via Nominal Review. You should enter a suitable end date to ensure you are comparing like with like and should ensure the "Include Preview" flag is set to 'Yes'.
If they do not agree please carry out the following checks (the same instructions apply to either ledger but substitute the Sales Ledger for Purchase Ledger and 'Z994' for 'Z993').
Quick Check
With just yourself logged into Platinum, ensuring your "User Date" is set to today's date, go to " Sales Ledger Customer File Maintenance View Customers".
- Make a note of the value in "Total Balance".
Next
- Go to " Nominal Ledger Nominal Review".
- Enter 'Z994' in "Centre From" and press <Enter>. This will automatically set the "Centre To" to the same code.
- Set "Include preview?"to 'Yes'.
- Press <F2> or [Search].
 | To be sure the the transactions are listed in order, right click onto a column heading, e.g. Date, and select [Reset]. |
- Once the data has been gathered, scroll down to the bottom of the list of items.
- Compare the value found on this line with the value you found previously in " View Customers" - "Total Balance". They should be the same.
If the figures are different, look at this first.
Items Posted Into the Future
- Go to " Sales Ledger Sales Reports Daybook Summary" and enter in tomorrow's date. There should be no forward postings shown. If there are, add or subtract that total amount from the figure in the " Nominal Review", since it only includes transactions up to the date with which you are logged into Platinum.
If the figures are still different, try this.
Items Journaled to Control
| Only in exceptional circumstances should any journals be done to 'Z993/Z994', since this will most definitely cause a mismatch between the ledger balances and the balance sheet. End of year audit adjustments should either be posted against the individual creditor or debtor through the appropriate ledger, or to separate nominal codes for provisions. |
- To check for journals to the controls, go to " Sales Ledger Sales Reports Accounts Report Generator" and search for a report entitled 'Manual Postings to Z993/Z994'. If you do not have this report, please Contact your Platinum dealer or our support team on 0116 230 1500 or by using our website support contact page or click HERE to download and then click here to view help on importing the report. Once you have imported this report, run it. Any total you have on this report, add or subtract it from the balance on the balance sheet.
If the figures are still different, try this.
Invoices/Credits Paid Directly to Z993/Z994
- To check for invoices or credits that have been paid off directly to the control accounts, go to " Sales Ledger Sales Reports Accounts Report Generator" and search for a report entitled 'Inv/Cred Paid off to Z993/Z994'. If you do not have this report, please Contact your Platinum dealer or our support team on 0116 230 1500 or by using our website support contact page or click here to download and then click here to view help on importing the report. Once you have imported this report, run it. Any total you have on this report, add or subtract it from the " Nominal Review" balance.
- This report will need to be run for both the Sales Ledger and Purchase Ledger and for both 'Z993' and 'Z994'.
- Journal any figures returned to the relevant centre to correct.
These checks will make sure that the current up-to-date figures agree. If you are trying to reconcile the figures at month end, make sure that these extra steps have been carried out.
Month End Checks
- Check that the heading on the Aged Debtors/Creditors list includes the words "as at" and the date of the end of the relevant month. If not, you will have an up-to-date list, not one for the end of the month. Re-run the list with the flag in the [Calculational] tab set to exclude transactions beyond the current financial period.
- Check that you have run the Nominal Update for the month in question so that all the transactions in the relevant ledger have made it to the Nominal.
If after performing all of the above, your Aged Debtors/Creditors still do not match the " Nominal Review" for 'Z993'/'Z994', Contact your Platinum dealer or our support team on 0116 230 1500 or by using our website support contact page mentioning that you have performed the above steps.
See also
- How do I print an aged debtor or creditor list?
- What do I do if my Trial Balance Doesn't Balance?
- Recommended accounting routines
- How to process a month end
