Sage 50 Accounting - U.S. Edition

[StephenC]

It sounds like you will need to do a general journal entry to correct your cash balance.  But before you do, you should check a couple of things.

The first thing that concerns me is when you said " I did notice that the beginning balance for the cash account was off so I adjusted that in the chart of accounts."  The only time that would be called for would be if the beginning balance of an account on the general ledger report did not match the ending GL balance for the previous month.  And even then, I would try running the Data Verification before I manually adjusted it. If your adjustment was for any other reason, then you should undo it.

Second, run a general ledger report for the account you are reconciling.  Set the time frame to All.  If you get a GL footing error, then there is an error in the balance that you can correct by following the steps in Answer ID 353.  If you don't get an error, then the balance is calculating correctly.

Third, if I understood your post correctly, you have gone all the back to the Jan 2008 reconciliation to try to track this down.  I would redo each month's bank rec.  If everything is done right for each month, you will be off the same amount at the end of each bank rec.  When that happens, and there is nothing on the outstanding items list that doesn't belong, then you know the problem was in the beginning balance.  Then you can make a general journal entry to correct your cash.

Unless you have not filed your 2008 taxes yet, you will want to make the adjustment in 2009, since the offset to the cash account will probably be an income or expense account.

If you are unsure of what adjustment needs to be made after working through the 2008 reconciliations, I would suggest working with a Peachtree Certified Consultant or your CPA.

[chbchin]

According to your formula, Steve, my GL balance must be incorrect.  

1636.02 (bank balance) + 0 (deposits in transit) - 4346.13 (outstanding checks) does not = 6614.91 (GL balance)

I have gone through the bank statement and clearing everything listed, including interest, service charges, etc. multiple times, and I am certain that I am in the same period I am reconciling.

Is there anything else I can/should do?  Is there something wrong with my Peachtree? 

[StephenC]

Bank Balance + Deposits In Transit - Outstanding Checks =GL Balance.  Or at least it will if your GL is correct and you have correctly cleared everything in the bank reconciliation. As Rick suggested earlier, make sure that the number of cleared items and the dollar amounts of checks and deposits matches the cleared amounts on the bank statement.  And of course your current period needs to be set to the same month you are reconciling.

In Peachtree everything that posts to your cash account will show up in the bank rec, no matter what kind of transaction it is.  So you don't have to worry about transactions affecting your GL balance but not the bank rec.

[chbchin]

Deposits in transit + outstanding checks = 4346.13

This is less than the difference between the cash balance and the GL balance.

Is there something else that factors into the GL balance?

[StephenC]

Your bank balance and GL balance will only match if you have no outstanding items.  What is the total of your deposits in transit and outstanding checks?

[chbchin]

Sorry, but would you mind walking me through this?  I'm not quite sure what you mean.  

My statement ending balance is 1636.02 and the GL balance is 6614.91.

I go to "beginning transactions", then I should make a deposit for the difference so the statement balance equals the GL balance? 

[pguru]

Possibly you need to make a comparable adjustment in the Bank Reconciliation screen as you did to the General Ledger Chart of Accounts opening balances.  Open your Account Rec screen, and then click on the Beginning Balance Icon and make an entry that will allow you to adjust the balance to equal your verified GL balance. Then clear the entry to complete the exercise.  Note - Adjustment to the Beginning Balances in the Account Reconcilation do not affect your General Ledger.

[chbchin]

The current period I'm looking at is Jan 2008; I'm not sure that I can go back to the previous period.  I did notice that the beginning balance for the cash account was off so I adjusted that in the chart of accounts.

I went through and checked, again and again, the deposits and checks cleared (qty and $) to verify that what I entered and reconciled in PT matched what was listed on the bank statement.  I have all the interest, service charges, etc, and the correct entry for the bank ending balance.  It's still the same.... *sigh*

What next, pguru?

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pguru wrote:

Did you reverify that last month's account reconciliation remains balanced?

Check the statistics listed on the current Account Reconcilation, the number of Checks cleared (qty) and dollars, the number of Deposits (qty) and dollars, against those listed on the Bank Statement.  Verify your entries for the Bank Ending Balance along with any Interest, Service Charges as listed on both the Acc. Rec screen and that on the Bank Statement. 

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[pguru]

Did you reverify that last month's account reconciliation remains balanced?

Check the statistics listed on the current Account Reconcilation, the number of Checks cleared (qty) and dollars, the number of Deposits (qty) and dollars, against those listed on the Bank Statement.  Verify your entries for the Bank Ending Balance along with any Interest, Service Charges as listed on both the Acc. Rec screen and that on the Bank Statement. 

[chbchin]

I actually did the data verification this afternoon after seeing it was suggested in other threads here.  Unfortunately, no effect.