Check In Balance Procedure

To start closing a period for a company, select Close from your tool bar then do the ‘Check In Balance’. If you have more than one company, each company must be processed individually.

Check In Balance checks for the following:

Sum of debits & credits in monthly transaction file equal zero.

Sum of beginning balances from general ledger Chart of Accounts plus transactions for period equal zero in the Trial Balance.

Accounts Payable Posting Register period total agrees with the Trial Balance for Accounts Payable, general ledger number 21000 period total.

Accounts Receivable Posting Register period total agrees with the Trial Balance for Accounts Receivable, general ledger number 11300 period total.

Verifies transaction records for general ledger numbers with a unit exists in the Unit Chart of Accounts file.

The period ending transaction date should normally be the last day of the previous month. ONLY TRANSACTIONS DATED ON OR AFTER THE BEGINNING DATE AND ON OR BEFORE THE ENDING DATE WILL BE USED IN THIS ROUTINE! All other transactions remain in the Transaction file and are not used. Check In Balance failures and corrective measures will be printed on the printer.

Check In Balance Failures are:

1. Transaction file does not total to zero. If the balance is not equal to zero, your debits do not equal your credits. To correct this problem print your Transaction report for the same dates you are checking the balance. Check each line item to make sure that every transaction has a corresponding credit/debit transaction(s). If the mistake was made while entering the transaction through the Transactions file program, go back there to correct the problem. If the mistake is in a transaction that was written to the Transactions file from Accounts Payable or Accounts Receivable, please go back to the corresponding program and make the corrections.

2. Trial Balance does not total to zero. If the company totals at the end of Trial Balance do not equal zero either:

A) Beginning balances: on the Trial Balance are not zero.

B) Sum of debit & credit transactions are not zero.

If either A or B is not zero it will make ending balance not equal to zero. To correct "A, beginning balances on the Trial Balance are not zero. The out of balance condition is from the Company Chart of Accounts. You either have changed figures in the Company Chart of Accounts, closed a period with a debit without a credit, or credit without a debit.

Print the Company Chart of Accounts to check the out of balance amount.

To correct "B" transactions that are not equal to zero. To correct, print your Transaction listing for the same dates that you are checking the balance. Check each line item to make sure that every transaction has a corresponding credit/debit transaction(s). If the mistake was made while entering the transaction through the Transaction program go back there to correct the problem. If the mistake is in a transaction that was written to the Transaction file from the Accounts Payable or Accounts Receivable programs, please go back to the corresponding program and make the corrections. Correcting "A” or "B” will result in the ending balances on the Trial Balance to equal zero.

3. Accounts Payable Register period total does not equal the Accounts Payable period total of Trial Balance. The most probable cause for this error is that you must have deleted or changed transactions from the general ledger Transactions program rather than the Accounts Payable programs. To correct this problem, print the Trial Balance (Period) for only Accounts Payable (general ledger number 21000) and the Accounts Payable Posting Register for the same dates you are checking the balance condition. If there is a transaction on the Trial Balance that is not on the Accounts Payable Posting Register then you need to delete the transaction from the Transaction file. If the transaction is on the Accounts Payable Posting Register and not on the Trial Balance then you must delete the transaction from the Accounts Payable programs.

4. Accounts Receivable Register period total does not equal the Accounts Receivable period total of the Trial Balance. The most probable cause for this error is that you must have deleted or changed transactions from the Transactions program rather than the Accounts Payable program. To correct this problem, print the Trial Balance (Period) for only Accounts Receivable (general ledger number 11300) and the Accounts Receivable Posting Register for the same dates you are checking the balance condition. If there is a transaction on the Trial Balance that is not on the Accounts Receivable Posting Register then you need to delete the transaction from the Transaction file. If the transaction is on the Accounts Receivable Posting register and not on the Trial Balance then you must delete the transaction from the Accounts Receivable programs.

Add missing general ledger numbers to the Unit Chart of Accounts file.