Credits incorrectly created in Reckon Accounts, cannot remove

els

I'm using Reckon Accounts Premier 2016.  There are 4 customers in the system that have paid their invoices in full, yet the payments have not been applied in full, resulting in a 'credit available'.  Even though I click to apply credits, the customer invoice still shows an outstanding balance, although the actual customer/job has no outstanding balance and the A/R report shows both a negative and positive outstanding amount.  I have played around with this and cannot remove the 'outstanding balance'.  I have also tried un-applying the payment and re-applying, but it reverts back to the old balance after re-opening.

Kim Chapman - COS Business Solutions

Hello Els

The most likely cause of this is that the invoice/invoices that have been paid contain a negative transaction line.  If you go to the credit, if it takes you to a payment, open each invoice until you find it.  remove the negative line and replace it with an "Adjustment note" and this should solve your problem.  Then reapply the payment and it should fix it.

Hope this helps.

Kind Regards

Kim Chapman

www.chapmanofficeservices.com

Reckon Accredited Consultant/Trainer

els

Thanks Kim, I've tried that with one of the invoices and it has worked nicely.  But is there a reason why only a handful of invoices are affected this way?  Because it is a standard procedure with all our invoicing, where the final invoice is for the total cost of the project, less the progress payments made (which are the negative lines).  Is there an easier way of doing this, so that the end balance of the invoice is the amount still due?  Rather than having to provide both an invoice and an adjustment note?  Really appreciate your help

Kim Chapman - COS Business Solutions

Hi Els

If you are using Premier or above, you will have the ability to do progress billing.  Create the quote, then bill either by transaction line, or percentage. 

Kind Regards

Kim Chapman

els

Thanks so much Kim, this will take a bit of thinking about, but I believe it could help in more ways than one.  Thank you!

John Graetz

Hi Els and Kim.  There is another possible reason as well.  This annoying problem can also happen with Accounts Payable when entering and subsequently paying bills.  When I raised this with Reckon last year, I was told that it had something to do with the fact that there was a mixture of NCG and NCF transactions (similar to what you suggested Kim).  They said something along the lines that there was a need to segregate the various transactions and keep them together.  But there was another factor as well which went something along the lines that the problem basically occurred (from memory) when an NCG item was followed by a negative NCF item.  So I put all of the NCF items at the bottom of the list.  If there was a negative NCG item, I deducted it from another positive NCG item and then inserted another NCG item with a zero value with an explanation as to what I had done in the previous line.  I only have this problem with a Telstra mobile broadband bill where there is a large range of positive and negative NCG and NCF items.  The other thing to note though is that whilst these bills show up in lists as having an outstanding value the actual Supplier will have a zero balance despite whatever else may show up.
The main issue though that I have found is not to try and be a purist and try and offset and clear the supposed outstanding credit values the next time around, because that only seems to keep on repeating the problem.  By following the above, steps, my problem now seems to have basically gone away.
I can sympathise with you Els in that there will be a valid reason why you will want a negative line in the invoice.  Yes, Kim's suggestion will fix the problem but from the customer's point of view it probably won't make sense to them when you have to tell them that the reason you have to issue a Credit/Adjustment Note is because the Reckon program cannot handle the transaction like it ought to be able to do.  One can only presume that this is in the "too hard to fix basket", seeing as it has been around for at least a year or more now to my knowledge.
It might be worthwhile following a similar principle with your invoicing as what i have done with bills.  Try keeping your GST and FRE items separate and if necessary separate them by say inserting a GST item with a zero value between them with a narrative of say "Adjustment to follow". 
If you don't try and apply credits, but instead just ignore them, the will disappear as far as having a value in you A/R reports once they get to the >90 days period.  Unfortunately the customer name is still going to show as having a zero balance, probably forever, which is the really annoying part.
John L G 

Kim Chapman - COS Business Solutions

Hello John

This has been the case for many, many years. 

At the end of the day do not use negatives in either bills or invoices, there is a credit or adjustment note for this need.  Then you will not have an issue.

A payment on the invoice will not usually create this issue, as long as it is the last line/lines on the invoice.

I would very much doubt your solution works.  The number one reason is that on a Cash Basis.  You have to have the Payment applied for the GST to calculate correctly on a Cash Basis. You cannot ignore the credits. 

Best Practice is if you must reference the negative put a note in the memo line, but eg.  200 bill less 20 credit as just $180 with notes in the description.  If it is a different tax code that is the negative, enter it as a credit/adjustment note and apply it to the bill. 

I am happy to have the inconvenience of the not being able to use the negatives and have such a flexible, customisable and at times complex reporting ability that comes with Reckon Accounts.

Kind Regards

Kim Chapman