Reconcile control accounts

A control account, such as accounts receivable or inventory, only moves through its documents. Its balance in the ledger should therefore equal what the documents say is open: the invoices still unpaid, the stock still on the shelves. The Reconciliation report compares the two for one control account, and the Close dashboard compares them for all six at once.

Reconcile a control account

Run it when a control account looks wrong, or for each account before you close a period.

1. Pick one subsidiary in the switcher at the top of the screen. The report checks one subsidiary at a time.
2. Go to Finance ‣ Reports and, on the Finance tab, click Reconciliation.
3. Pick the control account in Type, and the As of date.
4. Click Run.

The cards show the GL balance of the account, the Subledger total of its documents and the Difference between them. Reconciled beside the title means they agree to within one cent; Out of balance means they do not.

Type	Subledger total
Accounts receivable	What is still open on posted customer invoices dated up to the As of date.
Accounts payable	What is still open on posted vendor bills dated up to the As of date.
Inventory	The value of the stock you hold.
GRNI (goods received not invoiced)	The value of goods received that no posted bill covers yet.
Tax	The tax on posted documents, sales less purchases. See Book tax to the ledger.
Cost of goods sold	The cost of the goods on posted customer invoices since the start of the fiscal year, against the ledger over the same months.

Note

For a past As of date, the documents are read as they stand today: an invoice or bill counts what it still owes now, and Inventory and GRNI (goods received not invoiced) count today’s stock and receipts. Expect a difference made of what moved since that date.

Below the cards, up to three panels explain the figures:

Panel	What it shows
Posted, missing GL journal	Documents that are posted but have no journal entry. Each one is a gap between the two figures.
Reconciling items	For accounts receivable: how the GL balance becomes the Subledger total, through Unposted invoices, Unapplied receipts and Unapplied credit notes. What is left is Unexplained.
GL by source	The account’s balance split by the kind of document that posted it, adding up to the GL balance.

Example

A wholesaler’s receivables show Out of balance. Under Reconciling items, Unapplied receipts holds the difference: a customer paid on account and the payment was never set against an invoice. Once the payment is applied, the receivables reconcile.

Check the month is ready to close

Before you close a period, check all six control accounts in one go.

1. Pick one subsidiary in the switcher at the top of the screen.
2. Go to Finance ‣ Reports and, on the Finance tab, click Close dashboard.
3. Pick the As of date, usually the last day of the month.
4. Click Run.

Each control account has a row with its GL balance, Subledger total, Difference and Status. When every row is Reconciled, a banner reads Ready to close. Otherwise it reads Not ready to close and counts the accounts that are out of balance. Click Open the reconciliation viewer for detail, and run the Reconciliation for each account that is out.

When the dashboard reads Ready to close, close the period.

Messages you may meet

Message	What to do
Choose a subsidiary to continue.	All subsidiaries is picked. Pick one subsidiary at the top of the screen and run again.