Why is my reconciliation report out of balance?

There are number of reasons why a reconciliation report may show imbalances. 

A lot of the times these are linked to manual journals that have been posted rather than through Navigator processes. 

For 0.0.70.2 and 0.0.60.1 it is important to remember to never post a journal via Nominal > Post Journal. This will always put the Reconcile out of balance for these accounts. 

Note

Any lines on your reconcile that show as blank will be caused by a manual journal to your control account, these need to be reversed. You can find these by running a transaction report and filtering by account number (any blank lines need to be reversed out)

Any Purchase Ledger or Sales Ledger corrections that need sorting - need to be done via the actual physical account or via a SL>NL journal or PL>NL Journal. 

Posting a journal to 0.0.70.2 and 0.0.60.1 will never reflect this change on the actual ledger account. 

This also applies to 0.0.70.8 - again, a journal will not be reflected on the account, which will put the reconcile out of balance. 

The same can occur on a vehicle for *.3*.60.80 - if a journal is manually posted the reconciliation report will go out of balance as it will no longer reflect what is on the cost analysis for the vehicle. The corrections need to be made via the vehicle stock record. 

The figures in *.3*.60.80 should match the amount that is in the cost analysis on a vehicle stock record. 

Note: Closed batches will also appear in *.3*.60.80 so make note of any batches in *.3*.10.30 - these will be the closing and opening of deal transactions. You can then remove these from your calculation when reviewing *.3*.60.80.

When reviewing the imbalance - the first thing to do is to identify when the reconcile went out of balance. 

Rollback through the dates using the <<  >> either side of the date, until it last displayed as zero - I would also note down if there is any differences in the figures as you look back on the dates. 

Depending on when the overnight routine runs, the date that shows, so for example, 13/03/17, could mean that it actually either went out on that exact day or the day before. So for this example, either the 12th or 13th - so be mindful of this. 

The hard part can sometimes be that just because it went out around those dates, doesn't mean the entries have those dates. Entries could be back posted to 2 months prior to that date, but it will only show out of balance on the date the posting was processed.

Note: I would always encourage, at the end of each month when everything has been reconciled - that a back posting prevention date is set so that this cannot be done.

I would also advise (not everyone does) to review the Reconcile Report daily and check that it is still in balance. It is a lot easier to identify a balance straight after it has happened, than it is 3 months down the line when other postings could have been made to put it further out of balance. 

For 0.0.60.1, 0.0.70.2 and 0.0.70.8 : - 

Go to the Nominal Ledger > Transaction Report 

In the Code field enter the required nominal code - i.e. 0.0.70.1, and in Date From enter the date prior to the reconcile going out of balance and in the Date To, enter the date that the Reconcile did go out of balance. And then select Report. 

You can then filter down by the required account that you are looking for (providing you have this setup on your transaction report layout). This will make it easier to filter through the number of transactions that display. 

Refer to the reference column - in most cases, if it is a reversal journal the reference will start with "Reversal". If it is a manual journal, you will need to drill down on these items individually. 

If you find the transaction - simply reverse it, and then make the required corrections via the required Ledger. 

If you do not find the entries - rollback on the transaction report month by month and filter down on the Posting date. You will need to check your setup on the nominal for transaction reports if you do not have the column available.

For *.3*.60.80 - double click on the reconciliation entry to view the last of Stock Numbers. 

Make note of each of the stock numbers (if there is more than one) - and then go to Nominal > Transaction Report. 

Select the tab for "Search" rather than "by Code". 

In the drop down menu select Stock Record and then enter the stock number into the available field. I would recommend not putting the .1 on the end to refer to a branch, as if you have multiple branches - it may have been transferred so you may miss a transaction that is linked to the cause of the imbalance. 

Once the report has ran, filter the report by Nominal Code (drag the column to the grey bar). 

Scroll down to *.3*.60.80 and reverse the nominal entries against this nominal code - and ensure that they match the cost analysis. 

Again, refer to the Reference column, anything that has been reversed usually has a reference starting with "Reversal". You will need to drill down on each of the items to identify if anything was a manual journal.

If there was a reversal or a manual journal - then reverse these via Nominal > Reverse Journal.