How to Fix Out-of-Balance Financials

Overview

This article explains the key financial checks to complete before month-end or EOFY rollover in Jobpac Financials.

These checks help you identify out-of-balance items, confirm control account balances, and understand when a support request may be required.

Rollover checklist

Before processing month-end or EOFY rollover, review the following areas:

• General Ledger Trial Balance
• Balance Sheet
• Accounts Payable Trial Balance
• Accounts Receivable Trial Balance
• Period rollover
• Journal back posting

Quick financials reconciliation reference

Use this table as a quick reference when checking whether key financial reports agree with the related General Ledger balances.

Report	Reconciliation
General Ledger Trial Balance	Total debits and total credits balance.
Balance Sheet	Total debits and total credits balance.
Profit and Loss Report	Net Profit/Loss should agree with Current Earnings on the Balance Sheet.
Creditors Trial Balance	Agrees with the Creditors Control Ledger balance on the Trial Balance.
Creditors Trial Balance — Retention	Agrees with the Creditors Retention Ledger balance on the Trial Balance.
Creditors Trial Balance — Retention	Agrees with the S/C Status Report.
Debtors Trial Balance	Agrees with the Debtors Control Ledger balance on the Trial Balance.
Debtors Trial Balance — Retention	Agrees with the Retention Held Control Ledger on the Trial Balance.
Debtors Trial Balance — Retention	Agrees with the Summary Project Status Report.
Debtors Trial Balance — Uncertified Claims	Agrees with the Uncertified Claims Control Ledger on the Trial Balance.
GST Detailed Report	GST Collected and GST Paid agree with the GST Paid and Collected Control Ledgers on the Trial Balance.
Trial Balance WIP / Work in Progress	Refer to BFM reconciliation.
Trial Balance Payroll / Super / PAYG/PAYE Clearing Ledgers	Refer to Payroll reconciliation.

Check the General Ledger Trial Balance

The General Ledger Trial Balance should always be in balance. Run this report first, as an imbalance here can affect other financial reports.

1	Run the Trial Balance report. Finance > General Ledger > Reports > Trial Balance
2	Check that total debits and total credits balance. If the Trial Balance is out of balance, use the Database Integrity option to identify the affected batches.
3	Run the GL batches out-of-balance check. System Admin > Database Integrity > Check for GL Batches OOB
4	Identify the batches that are out of balance.
5	Review the batches in General Ledger Enquiry. Finance > General Ledger > Enquiries > General Ledger Enquiry
6	Log a support request if the imbalance needs investigation. Include: TB OOB, WorkID, Batch number, and Period.

Check the Balance Sheet

The Balance Sheet should always be in balance. If it is out of balance, first check whether the General Ledger Trial Balance is also out of balance.

Finance > General Ledger > Financial Statements > Balance Sheet

If both the Balance Sheet and Trial Balance are out of balance

Correct the imbalance in the General Ledger Trial Balance first. In most cases this will bring the Balance Sheet back into balance.

If the Balance Sheet is out of balance but the Trial Balance is in balance

This is usually caused by one of the following:

• The opening balance of a General Ledger account is incorrect.
• Net capital does not match net assets.
• The Retained Earnings account balance is incorrect.
• The closing balance for Retained Earnings in one year does not match the opening balance for the next year.

Check the Accounts Payable Trial Balance

The Accounts Payable Trial Balance should always be in balance. The AP and GL modules should be in the same period when completing this check.

Finance > Accounts Payable > Reports > Creditors Trial Balance

Identify the AP control accounts in the General Ledger Chart of Accounts: Trade Creditors Control, Trade Creditors Retention Control, Subcontract Creditors Retention Control, and Subcontract Creditors Control.

Match the AP retention total

The report total retention amount should match the General Ledger retention balance.

If there is a variance:

1	Identify the period when the report last balanced by running the report for prior periods.
2	Run the Status by Job by Accounting Period report. Projects > Subcontracts > S/C Reports > Status by Job by Acc Period
3	Confirm that the retention total in this report matches the retention total in the AP Trial Balance.

4	Use General Ledger Enquiry to check for batches other than A batches.
5	Identify which job or subcontractor retention total is incorrect when compared with the Status by Job by Accounting Period report.

Match creditor and subcontractor balances

The AP Trial Balance totals should match the related General Ledger control account balances. If there is a variance:

1	Identify the period when the report last balanced by running the report for prior periods.
2	Use General Ledger Enquiry to review the Trade Creditors Control Account.
3	Check for batches other than A, C, E, or P batches.
4	Exclude opening balance journals posted during implementation.
5	Untick the Accounts Payable transaction filters at the bottom of the General Ledger Enquiry screen to help identify non-AP postings.

6	Export the Creditors Trial Balance and General Ledger Enquiry to Excel.
7	Compare the total creditor amounts between the reports.

Check the Accounts Receivable Trial Balance

The Accounts Receivable Trial Balance should always be in balance. The AR and GL modules should be in the same period when completing this check.

Finance > Accounts Receivable > Reports > Trial Balance

Identify the AR control accounts in the General Ledger Chart of Accounts: Debtors Head Contract Retention Control, Debtors Control, Uncertified Claims, and Unapplied Cash Control.

Match AR and GL totals

The AR totals should match the related General Ledger control account totals.

Use General Ledger Enquiry to check the following:

• For the Debtors Control Account, check for batches other than D or R batches.
• For the Uncertified Claims Control Account, check for batches other than U batches.

Untick the Accounts Receivable transaction filters at the bottom of the General Ledger Enquiry screen to help identify non-AR postings.

Match the AR retention total

The AR total retention amount should match the Trade Debtors Retention amount.

If there is a variance:

1	Identify the period when the report last balanced by running the report for prior periods.
2	Run the Summary Project Status report. Projects > Job Setup & Reports > Job Reports > Summary Project Status
3	Confirm that the retention total in this report matches the retention total in the AR Trial Balance.
4	Use General Ledger Enquiry to review the Debtors Retention Control Account.
5	Check for batches other than D batches.
6	Untick the Accounts Receivable transaction filters at the bottom of the General Ledger Enquiry screen to help identify non-AR postings.

Check unapplied cash

Finance > Accounts Receivable > General Credits

This screen should be empty, or only contain receipts that have not yet been applied.

If the total unapplied amount is zero but receipts still appear, complete your housekeeping and apply those amounts against available transactions in Jobpac.

Roll the period forward

The Scheduled End of Month option uses From and To period parameters to help prevent a module from being rolled more than once for the same period.

This does not prevent the module from being rolled again on a later day, so always confirm the WorkID, module, and period before processing.

When you are ready to roll the module forward, refer to How do I schedule end of month processing in Jobpac.

Post journals back to a prior period

Journals can be posted back as far as required. Jobpac handles the related Profit and Loss and Retained Earnings adjustments automatically. For detailed steps, refer to How do I post a Prior Year Journal.

Why out-of-balance items occur

Common causes include:

• Journals posted directly into control accounts.
• Transactions posted into AP or AR control accounts or retention accounts.
• Job Costing transactions posted into control accounts.
• Control accounts being flagged in the Chart of Accounts master, such as Balance Sheet, Job, Asset, or Intercompany accounts.
• System dropouts causing transactions to be partially posted.
• Invoices posted to a forward period when Job Costing is still in the current period.
• A Jobpac program error or defect.

You're done when: