Managing Accounts Payables

Accounts payable are amounts a company owes for purchases of goods or services from a supplier or vendor. The Accounts Payables transactions and reports in DEACOM allow users to track and manage various levels of tasks such as issuing Credit Memos, reviewing GL entries resulting from AP transactions, and review of the AP ledger of AP transactions by supplier. For information on Credit Memos and expense Purchase Orders, refer to the Entering Purchase Orders Using the Order Entry Function, Using Expense Purchase Orders, and Processing Expense Purchase Orders Best Practice pages and for information on generating more Accounting reports, see Accounting and Finance Reporting.

Configuration

Proper Accounting security access to AP is required for users to complete the various AP processes. For more configuration information, refer to Managing Users and User Security.

Process

Understanding the AP Ledger

The AP Ledger Report Type in Accounting Reporting is a sub-ledger report containing accounts payable information by Vendor including starting balance, payments applied, and payments voided. The starting balance of the AP Ledger report will match the balance on the Purchase Order Summary report for orders received prior to the starting date specified on the pre-filter. 

Diagnosing why the ledger and sub-ledger are out of balance

The GL and the AP sub-ledgers should be in balance. The GL balance can be viewed as of any  period ending date by running a General Ledger Summary report. AP sub-ledger reports where balances can be viewed are:

  • Accounts Payable - Payables Summary report in Accounting > Accounting Reporting.
  • Receivables Details - Receivables Detail report in Accounting > Accounting Reporting. This report can be used to verify that the total of the receivables detail for all customers equals the total AR balance on the trial balance. Drill down capability is available on both the Receivables Detail and Trial Balance reports.
  • A/P Suspense Account - Order Summary report in Purchasing > Order Reporting. Use the pre-filter options with the "Status" set to "Received", the "Date Based On" set to "Received", and the end date of the end of the month. After running the report, you may use an advanced filter option to view Invoiced > End of Current Month or Invoiced < 01/01/1900.

If any of these ledgers are out of balance, follow the steps bellow to diagnose the problem:

  1. Verify that the reports are being run with the correct dates and that the currency shown in the reports are consistent. The currency shown in the report is set through the "Currency" pre-filters.
  2. Verify that the entire GL is in balance by running a Trial Balance report from Accounting > Accounting Reporting.
  3. Find the last time that the GL and sub-ledger were in balance. If the ledgers were in balance at the end of the prior month, validate that they are still in balance by changing the end date on each of the reports. Then work forward in time to find the point where they became out of balance.
  4. After determining the last time both ledgers were in balance, review GL and sub-ledger transactions in the  reports. Look for entries that match the variance amount. Keep an eye out for multiple postings that may have occurred for the same transaction. Utilize the drill down capabilities within DEACOM to research as necessary. Also review for unusual transactions such as journal entries and postings references that should not have been posted to the general ledger account.

FAQs & Diagnostic Tips

What if the GL Entry needs to be coded to multiple GL accounts?

If there are multiple GL account codes that an invoice needs to be coded to, either because of distinct kinds of expenses, or different division or departmental allocations, enter as many additional lines as needed. Each line refers to the correct GL account, has a quantity of 1 and a unit price of the dollar amount to be charged to that specific GL account. When all lines are added, the total order amount should match the total amount of the invoice.

If a Vendor has their name/address changed in the system, does the system store the historical data of how the check/payment was printed/received before the name/address change?

Yes, in the system the ca_name, ca_street, ca_street2, ca_city, ca_state, ca_zip are available to the dtcash table so that the original name and address that a payment was from can now be accessed.