Using the Desktop Reconciliation Tool in Sage Timberline Office 9.7 for Accounts Receivable Reconciliation

By Gary Jacobson, Sage Timberline Certified Consultant

(This is the outline of an April, 2011 seminar presentation by Gary to a group of 23 Timberline Office users in Scottsdale, AZ. I hope you find this useful, Kent)

Common Reasons Why Accounts Receivable and General Ledger Do Not Balance

    1.  Un-posted Entries – Post the Following Modules in this order:

• Service Management (Not Listed on the Reconciliation Tool!)

• Billing

• Accounts Receivable

• General Ledger

    Look for any rejecting entries and fix as needed.

    2.  Entries in General Ledger that originated in applications other than:

• Accounts Receivable

• Billings

• Service Management

     3.  Unapplied Cash Receipts – Most AR Aging Reports include unapplied cash receipts in the totals, but unapplied cash receipts may not be included in the Accounts Receivable balance in the General Ledger. Check your AR Settings to determine your default accounts.

    4.  Default Account Numbers overridden during entry or missing due to changes in interface settings

    5.  Overbilled retainage (see Timberline Knowledgebase Article KB82349 for instructions).

Using the Reconciliation Tools in Sage Desktop:

    Go to: Sage Desktop – Tasks – Sage Timberline Office – Additional Tools – Reconciliation

Reconciliation Steps in the Reconciliation Tool:

    1.  Ensure All Entries Are Posted – Post the Following Modules in this order:

• Service Management (Not Listed on the Reconciliation Tool!)

• Billing

• Accounts Receivable

• General Ledger

    Look for any rejecting entries and fix as needed.

    2.  AR Summary Reconciliation Report

• This report shows Accounts Receivable and Retainage accounts with General Ledger activity compared to the Accounts Receivable activity for the reporting period specified. An out of balance situation is indicated when there are differences between the two activity amounts.

• NOTE: Ignore the Cash account(s) shown on this report, as they will not balance to Accounts Receivable transactions.

    3. Totals by Batch Report

• This step allows you to perform a more detailed analysis of your transactions by reviewing batches to see if any do not balance to GL.

• This report offers drill-down capability into each batch to see the transaction detail.

    4. Unexplained Entries – Accounts Receivable Entries Report

• Use this report to identify entries made to receivable accounts that did not originate in Accounts Receivable, Service Management or Billing.

• How to correct: Reverse the original transaction and enter the correction in AR.

    5. Un-posted Transactions – Un-posted AR Transactions in GL Report

• When AR transactions are not posted or rejected in GL, an out-of-balance situation results. This can happen, for example, when you post to a closed month. This report will help determine if these transactions are the cause of the out-of-balance situation

• You should not have any unposted transactions if you performed step 1 in these instructions properly.

• NOTE: This report is conditioned to show only entries with an application of origin of “AR”. If you use Billing or Service Management, you must change the condition to see entries from “BL” or “SM”.

    6. Wrong Account Override – Account Entry Review Report

• This report helps you identify transactions that posted to the wrong AR account because the account was manually overridden during entry.

    7. Unapplied Cash Receipts – Unapplied Cash Receipts Report

• This report helps you identify unapplied cash receipts that may cause an out-of-balance situation.

Period End Reports

After you reconcile the accounts, run the AR Aging – Detail By Customer, or Period End Report to show the detail of entries that balance with the General Ledger account balances.

For Further Information:

See Timberline Knowledgebase Articles: KB319 and KB320

Gary Jacobson

A new chat support feature is available to customers that subscribe to the Gold plan. If you weren’t familiar with the different maintenance and support plans Sage Timberline offers, there are 3, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Gold already gives subscribers unlimited phone support, but there are some people that prefer to use a chat session rather than picking up the phone to get answers to their questions. Chat seems like a faster  more anonymous method for communicating with a support person than waiting in a phone que.   The support feature is located in the support tab of your customer portal.