Why your AP aging doesn't tie to the G/L in CloudSuite

It is day three of close. The Accounts Payable aging says one number, the General Ledger control account says another, and nobody can explain the gap. If that sounds familiar on Infor CloudSuite Financials, here is why it happens, how to find the difference, and how to keep it tied every month.

The symptom

You run an Accounts Payable aging for period end and total it. You pull the balance of the Accounts Payable control account in the General Ledger for the same period. The two should agree, and they don't. Whether the gap is stable or moves every month, the reconciliation becomes a spreadsheet only one person understands, and the close waits on it.

A common detail makes this worse: the aging you can run easily is a current-date view. Re-running it next week for last month's end does not give you last month's picture, because payments, adjustments and cancellations have happened since. So the "aging as of period end" you are comparing may not really be as of period end at all.

The usual causes

Most differences fall into a handful of categories. Naming the category is half the work.

• Timing and cutoff. Invoices, payments or cancellations dated in one period but posted to the ledger in another.
• Manual journal entries to the Accounts Payable control account. An accrual, a reclass or a correction posted directly in the General Ledger never appears in the Accounts Payable subledger. It is one of the most common causes.
• Interface or posting failures. Transactions that were entered in Accounts Payable but did not post to the General Ledger, or posted with errors, leave the subledger ahead of the ledger.
• Reports run with different dates or parameters. One report run as of the period end, the other run today. One filtered by company or vendor group, the other not.
• Multiple entities or control accounts. If you have more than one company, or more than one Accounts Payable control account, comparing a combined aging to a single account (or the reverse) guarantees a gap.
• Unapplied credits and prepayments. Credit memos, prepayments and partial payments may be treated differently by the aging than by the ledger, depending on how they were entered and applied.

How to find the difference

Work in order. Each step removes a category before you dig into individual transactions.

1. Fix the date and scope. Pick one company, one control account and one closed period. Write them down.
2. Use a subledger report that runs as of a past date. In CloudSuite Financials, Infor's Invoice Accrual Reconciliation can be run as of a past date and ties to the General Ledger. Use it as the subledger side of the tie rather than a current-date aging.
3. Pull the control account balance for the same date. Same company, same account, same period end.
4. Compare the totals and record the difference. If it is zero, you are done for that period. If not, keep going.
5. Look for manual journal entries to the control account. Review General Ledger activity on the Accounts Payable control account that did not originate in Accounts Payable.
6. Check for unposted or failed transactions. Anything in Accounts Payable that has not reached the ledger belongs on the list.
7. Check cutoff. Look at activity dated near period end and confirm which period each side recorded it in.
8. Classify every remaining difference and give it an owner. Timing items clear on their own; journal entries and posting failures need a correction.

Only after the totals tie should you age the subledger. Tie first, then age, so your aging rests on a number you can defend.

How to keep it tied every month

• Write the steps down. A short runbook with the report names, parameters and the order of work means the tie survives vacations and staff changes.
• Use the same parameters every time. Same company, account and as-of date logic, every month.
• Keep a tie log. Record the period, both totals, the difference and how each item was resolved.
• Control posting to the control account. Agree who may post manual entries to the Accounts Payable control account, and review that activity at every close.
• Put the reconciliation where it can be tracked. If you use Infor Reconciliation Management or Close Management, the monthly tie belongs there, with an owner and a due date.
• Do the next one. Once Accounts Payable ties every month, the same method applies to your other subledgers.

Get Accounts Payable tied, and keep it tied

With Report Tie-Out: AP to G/L, your team learns to tie Accounts Payable to the General Ledger control account, trace anything that doesn't tie, and repeat the tie each month, with the ECS Accounts Payable Aging Template, a monthly runbook and a Reconciliation Roadmap for your other subledgers. Your analyst does the hands-on work with an ECS-qualified instructor, using delivered Infor reports, backed by over 20 years of Infor and Lawson experience. Not sure where your gap comes from? Book a free, private 30-minute Private Reporting Review, and we'll talk it through with you.