I do software work for a few companies, much of which is maintaining their accounting systems. Recently, the banks have started breathing down my customer's necks wanting regular aged debt reports. The problem is that they also want them to 'square' with the trial balance (i.e. aged debt analysis bottom lines should equal debtors/creditors balance in balance sheet).
My question is, are there bookeeping packages which handle this properly ? i.e. Where you can print aged debt reports from 9, 6 and 3 months ago which correctly show the aged analysis at that time and who's bottom line agrees with the period trial balance ?
(The aged debt report has to show the aged balances and also the unallocated cash at that time to reconcile the aged balances with the trial balance).
Thanks
Peter
-- Edited by indigopete on Saturday 5th of March 2011 04:45:54 PM
Dare I say SAGE Retrospective is pretty straight forward - customer / reports / aged debtors - enter the date required to and tick the box exclude later payments.
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Donna Curling - Complete Book-Keeping Ltd (CBKLtd) - 07939 101900
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I noticed that Sage 200 has a 'retrospective' option, however it doesn't really do the job because it can't cope with staggered allocation / payment dates (as far as I understand).
This is exactly the problem I'm looking to solve (it's the usual reason why aged debt reporting doesn't agree with the trial balance). To reconcile the balances, a credit needs to *not* show up if it is dated outside the report period, even if it is allocated inside the report period. Conversely, if it is allocated retrospectively - e.g. a January receipt that was allocated in Febuary, this *does* need to show up on the January ageing report as 'unallocated' cash and in the February one as 'Allocated'.
Peter
-- Edited by indigopete on Saturday 5th of March 2011 06:06:34 PM
you mean a report that has will deal with part allocated invoice's or similar? There is one but will have to come back as I think it is an add on, but definately there is one.
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Donna Curling - Complete Book-Keeping Ltd (CBKLtd) - 07939 101900
This is a basic requirement and most systems should be able to produce this.
Hello Phil
Yes, your right ! - after reading your post and Donna's I tried this in Sage 50 and sure enough it excludes the future payments, even if they are partial. The reason I was'nt sure about this the first place was because I read this article which made a distinction between the receipt date and the allocation date, going on to state that the aged debt and TB balances could potentially disagree . . . . http://www.gccinnova.co.uk/BlogDetails.aspx?id=3&entryid=5
However in trying it in Line 50 I couldn't reproduce the 'disagree' scenario outlined in the Sage 200 article.
'why would you want to print an aged debtors report out from 3, 6 or 9 months ago?'
Good question :)
As background, I am a software developer and have written some accounting modules over the last 20 years as a part of wider business automation systems. When I started out, the main purpose of an aged debt report was to support the credit control processes within the business.
Now I'm finding that the banks are taking a greater involvement in the day to day financial activities of it's customers (who are also my customers). I assume they use (for example) aged debt reports to 'rate' the quality of the current assets (e.g a business with a large trade debtors balance consisting of old debts is not as good as one where everything is in the current or 30 day column and very little in the 60-90 column). I think they look at the pattern over, say a year, to asses how tight the business's cashflow is etc.
That's just my assumption, but I know that they press me for certain reports and that much of that pressure is in turn coming from the banks as opposed to internal management requirements.
I have often been left printing out reports many months after year end as most customers are slow and forwarding credit card and petty cash (despite chasing and pointing out the importance to re-claim the VAT).
There are additional reports for sage and one download are is reconciling reports. I will try and find the actual details but I have personally had to use this in the past as debtors/credits has not matched TB. It was due to future allocated payments against an invoice.
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Donna Curling - Complete Book-Keeping Ltd (CBKLtd) - 07939 101900
It was due to future allocated payments against an invoice.
When I tried this in Line 50 it seemed ok. The future allocated payments were excluded from the aged debt balance (although displayed) and the aged debt therefore agreed with the retrospective Balance Sheet that I printed for comparison (which I assumed is showing the TB figure).
How come your future allocations put your TB out ?
No idea, Im going back around 6 months or so I just remember it happened. If I ran a TB including all transactions (incl future) and a Aged debtors (or creditors) including all payments & future entries it worked. It may have been other way around. Payment in 1 lump sum with allocated invoice's after month end.
no idea - I dont remember yesterday often - but I certainly had the problem and Sage advised me of the additional reports if you have extra cover.
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Donna Curling - Complete Book-Keeping Ltd (CBKLtd) - 07939 101900
Hi I'm wondering if a solution to this issue was found, Pete? I'm having the same issue in Sage 200 and Sage have designed some reports for me to view transactions with a future allocation date but my trial balance still doesn't match the aged reports.
i Carina
Think you will find that Pete hasnt logged on since about 2012. In fact ive not seen Donna around for a while neither. Might be worth re-posting on a new thread - I would suggest you speak to Ian at Onion reporting who posts on here.
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
