Account payable reconciliation

This document lists items to review when the accounts payable aging does not balance to the accounts payable general ledger account.

Best practice dictates that on a periodic basis, at a minimum monthly, the reconciliation should be performed to catch any issues on a timely basis.

If these reviews do not solve the issue, a journal entry should be made to force the reconciliation.  However, this entry should be discussed with your CPA. From a legal perspective, DDI cannot advise specifically how to post entries.

Troubleshooting

• Was the opening balance correct at the go live?  Compare the opening journal entry in the general ledger to the total accounts payable that was converted at the go live.  Compare opening balances by obtaining your conversion A/P Aging Report.  This report is generally available on your DDI program server at D: > IBM > ACCOUNTS > DDI > PRINT FILES.
• How long has AP been out of balance?  Is there a way to narrow it down to a specific period?  If you can specify a particular period it was off, then review the AP account for that period. Compare the end of the month aging report for each month to the G/L balance at the end of the month.
• At the end of the month, AP aging reports are automatically saved in the attachment tab in the end of the month menu or to the server in this folder: DDI (D:) > IBM > ACCOUNTS > DDI > EOM.REPORTS.  Use these reports to tie to the G/L to narrow the scope of when the issue occurred.  If you have the ability to back date an AP invoice, this method may not work.
• If you backdate AP invoices, it will be difficult to go back and reconcile a month since the aging report at the end of the month is stagnant but the G/L will change.  See below for the format of an advanced report writer report to determine AP invoices that were backdated.  The total invoices on this report should be added to the aging total and compared to the G/L account.
• Review the AP account in the G/L.  The only source codes that should be in this account are AP (AP Invoices) and CD (Cash Disbursements).
• Are there any AP invoices that are dated in a future period?  These would be included in the AP aging but possibly not in the G/L for the current period. Review the G/L account in the G/L inquiry screen for the entire year to determine if invoices are dated to a future period.
• Do all invoices have the AP account as the liability G/L?  If you are booking AP invoices to another liability account, the invoices will be included in the aging but not the AP G/L.  Run a G/L Inquiry by AP source code to determine if any invoices with a credit balance did not hit the AP G/L account.  In addition, see below for an advanced report writer report to determine if the correct liability account was not used.
• Remember when running the AP aging report, it cannot be backdated.  The AP aging report will only show what is open as of the time the report is generated. 
• For the month(s) out of balance, run a cash disbursement and purchase journal and tie the totals to the activity in the general ledger for that month.  Cash  disbursement journal totals should agree to the CD source code in the AP G/L account.  Purchase journal totals should agree to the AP source code in the AP G/L account.

Advanced Report Writer layouts