ABM Control Accounts Reconciliations

If the General Ledger Debtors Balance does not agree with the Debtors Aged Balance Report, these are the possible causes:

• Debtors/Product Control accounts set up with incorrect GL codes
• Journals entered directly into the General Ledger Control account
• Transactions dated in a particular month but posted into a different period.
• Add on programs that affect transaction posting.

To reconcile back to zero you need to have a starting point when you know the figures were reconciled at a particular date. For example if the figures reconciled at the end of June and are out at the end of July, the procedure to find the difference would be as follows:

1. Print the aged trial balance day by day to get a balance for the day (it would be easier to do this say at 7th, 15th and 25th of the month to isolate the day it went out)
2. Open the relevant ledger trade debtors account and send all transaction (from day 1) to Excel. Sum the transactions up to the day in question. Review the transactions for the day in question and determine if they match what is in the customers account for the transaction balance. This way you would be able to isolate the difference to a particular day and review the transactions between the ledger and debtors for the day it goes out.