The standard month-end closing procedures should include a reconciliation between the Accounts Payable files and the corresponding G/L Control accounts. Whether you have one G/L account to reconcile or many, the steps to reconcile the accounts are the same. If the reconciliation is done on a monthly basis, it usually balances without any additional effort. The reconciliation will become a problem only if it is not done consistently.
When you enter vouchers into the system in either the Enter A/P Vouchers or Enter PO Vouchers screen, they are held in temporary files until you post them. These unposted vouchers are NOT contained in either the Open A/P files or the G/L. Once you have posted the vouchers, they are recorded concurrently in the Open A/P files and the G/L. The entry made by the posting is a debit to the expense accounts entered on the voucher and a credit to the A/P Acct/Org/Ref1/Ref2 combination assigned to the voucher. This is done with an A/P account description. The description is assigned to a unique Acct/Org/Ref1/Ref2 combination to uniquely identify the combination. You can then enter the description, which is easier than entering the Acct/Org/Ref1/Ref2 combination. The system looks up the Acct/Org/Ref1/Ref2 combination and the description to which it is assigned. Once you have posted the vouchers, the A/P Account usually has a credit balance. This credit is relieved when you post the Cash Disbursements Journal after cutting the check. The Open A/P files are updated as soon as the check is printed, but the G/L is not updated until the Cash Disbursements journal is posted. The Cash Disbursements journal makes a debit to the A/P Account and a credit to the Cash Account. The Cash Account has a description assigned to it using the same method as A/P Account Description.
Because the posting of the Voucher Distribution and the Cash Disbursements journals creates entries in both the Open A/P files and the G/L, these postings keep the two journals in balance. If you make an entry into the G/L using any other journal (e.g., a journal entry from the General Ledger), the two reports are thrown out of balance. For this reason, you should change the balance in the A/P Account only through the use of vouchers.
Post cash disbursements in A/P.
Print the Open A/P report for all the A/P Account/Orgs, selecting the Page Break option to produce multiple reports for all the A/P Account/Orgs in your database. You can run the Open A/P report for any period.
Print the General Ledger Posting Summary report for the same period and compare the balance of the two reports. If the balance does not tie, use the following steps to find the difference.
Check to see whether any unposted Cash Disbursements records were created by another user between steps 1 and 2. A voucher is treated as paid on the Open A/P report as soon as it is printed, but it is not reflected in the G/L account until the Cash Disbursements journal is posted. Post any unposted records and rerun the General Ledger Posting Summary report.
Print the General Ledger Detail report for the A/P account(s) and review the activity in the account(s). Check for journals other than A/P (the voucher distribution) or CD (the cash disbursements journal). Entries from any other journals, such as G/L journal entries, labor, or billing, will have affected the balance in the G/L account but not the Open A/P report, rendering the two reports out of balance. If a non-A/P or non-cash entry is found, it should be reversed and the original entry made through the vouchering process.
Review the General Ledger Detail report for vouchers that were charged to the A/P Account on the expense side of the voucher. You should do this only during Costpoint initialization. If you discover an entry that was charged to the A/P Account, reverse it using either a journal entry or a voucher.
Verify that the reports were reconciled in previous periods. If the reports were out of balance at the beginning of the period you are trying to reconcile, the entry that threw them off is in an earlier period. Perform steps 1 and 2 for earlier periods until you find a period that does balance. Then go through steps 4-6 for the earliest period that is out of balance, working your way back to the present.