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Last modified on 5/24/2016 6:05 PM by User.

AR Month End Procedures & Reports

The following reports are to be run faithfully at the end of each accounting period and KEPT in a permanent binder, or if you have the optional e-mail package, e-mail the reports to yourself & save.   These procedures DO NOT need to be done on the last day of the month.  However, all sales, adjustments, finance charges, inter-company transfers, internal sales and cash receipts from the month being closed must be posted.  Also the “Clear Paid Inv.’s from A/R Open” program (Task 32, Sub-task 4) must NOT be run until these reports and procedures are finished.

NOTE: Balancing A/R daily is strongly recommended.  See the document titled “Balancing Accounts Receivable Daily and Monthly Balancing” and “Balancing Accounts Receivable Daily Spreadsheet Example”.   When balancing A/R daily, the month end procedures go much faster and easier.

NOTE: Run the Open Order Listing (from Order Processing, Task 9 – choose a report that works best for your company) before closing to ensure everything has been invoiced, including inter-company transfers and internal sales, for the month being closed.  At this point if any orders are invoiced for the month ending/balanced, these invoices will need to be moved to the invoiced order holding file & posted all the way to A/R.

A.      Run Finance Charge Program:  This program is run through Task 4 in AR.  See the document:  Task 04 – Finance Charge for complete instructions.

B.     Before beginning month end procedures do the following: 

Ø      Sort the following files: (If any of the following files have zero deleted or unsorted records, skip sorting that file.) 

·        Task #18 - A/R Open Items

·        Task #19 - Sales History

·        Task #20 - Cash/Receipts History

·        Task #21 - Distribution History

·        Task #22 - Batch Control

Ø      Task #5 - Change Adv Collect to Payments

·        Prompt: Skip step 2 (automatic apply-to by order #) Y/N? N

Ø      Task #6 - Recalculate Customer File Aging

·        Prompt: Are you sure you want to do this? (YES/NO): YES

Ø      Note: the program noted in this step- Task 15- should be run at the end of the month, but analyzing the report may be done at a later time.  Task 15 - List Unapplied Open Documents, answer the questions as follows:

·        All customers (Press return or Enter key for ALL)

·        All document dates (Press return or Enter key for ALL)

·        All divisions numbers (Press return or Enter key for ALL)

·        Suppress Detail Records? (Press Return or Enter for NO)

Ø      This will give a printout of all unapplied documents. At this point, if it is known what open invoices the unapplied payments or credits will be applied to, go ahead and do so.  (See documents: “Task 03 – Change Apply To #’s or “Apply a Credit Memo or Unapplied Payment” for complete instructions)

Ø      Also, if a payment or credit memo was applied to something non-existent it will apply it to zero.

 

C.     Generate and Post Interface

  • General Ledger (Module 4)
    • Post interface transactions (Task 2)
      •  Starting date: and Ending date: - use the first and last day of the month being balancing
      • Pay attention, while looking at the screen, for a message like: “Invoice 016099 in distb hist has an invalid G/L account #  CR TO CONTINUE”.  Write down the invoice number and print a Distribution History report for the invoice number.   See Document titledA/R to G/L Interface Invalid or UNKNOWN Account.  Corrections need to be completed before moving on.  The A/R to G/L Interface can’t be posted into the G/L module with any errors.
      •  The bottom line Grand Total on the last page, debits and credits, on the interface, must equal each other.  If they do not, see the document:  AR to GL Imbalances for complete instructions on how to find/correct the error.  This imbalance must be corrected.  The A/R to G/L Interface can’t be posted to the G/L module with an imbalance. 
      • Take the Sales Postings (from Task 1 in AR) and physically add them all up, on a calculator, using the "Grand Total" from the "TOTAL INV" column.  If there are finance charges, add that figure also, which is found on the Finance Charge posting.  IF a spreadsheet is used to balance daily, use the figures from it.  For information on how to set up an A/R Reconciliation spreadsheet, see the document:  A/R Daily Balancing Spreadsheet Example. 
      •  The total of the Sales Postings and Finance Charge posting should equal the first line on the A/R to G/L Interface [to the right of the amount it prints "TOTAL NET SALES (From Sales History)"]. IF a spreadsheet is utilized, use the figures from it for the total of the sales postings. If, you have multiple divisions, go to the page on the A/R to G/L Interface report that starts with “Summary of all divisions’ and look at the first line “TOTAL NET SALES (From Sales History)”.  It should equal the total of the Sales Postings and Finance Charge postings for all divisions.
      •  If the total of the Sales postings doe not equal the A/R to G/L Interface:
    • Verify each amount on the spreadsheet or calculator tape.

    • Make sure there are no missing batch numbers.

    • See document titled: “A/R to G/L Doesn’t Equal Sales and Cash Postings” for further instructions.

      • The amounts of the "Total Change to AR" on the Cash Postings (from Task 2 in AR) should equal the credit to the A/R G/L account (4th line) of the cash section on the A/R to G/L Interface [To the right of the 4th line of the cash section it prints "TOTAL CASH + DISC ALLOWED".]  IF a spreadsheet is utilized, use the figures from it for the total of the cash postings.  If you have multiple divisions go to the page on the A/R to G/L Interface report that starts with “Summary of all divisions” and then go to the cash section.  Find the line that has "TOTAL CASH + DISC ALLOWED" printed to the right.  This should equal the total of all the cash postings, or the total of the cash postings from your A/R Daily Balancing spreadsheet.

      • If the total of the Cash postings does not equal the A/R to G/L Interface:

 

D. Get A/R Totals:

  • Accounts Receivable (Module 2)
    • System Management Functions (Task 32)
      • Display Total Value of A/R Open.(Sub-task 1) enter the following information:
        • Starting date: Use 01-01-70.
        • Ending date: Use the end of the month being balanced.
        • Include Retail Accounts? (Y/N): Answer Y for YES.
        • Date Basis:(1)Due/(2)Document: Use 2 Document.
        • Please enter - Starting division: Enter for ALL divisions.
      • The “TOTAL VALUE” is calculated and displayed. This is the ‘check point’ figure needed for the following step. This figure should also match the A/R Aged Trial Balance that will be printed later on in these instructions.
    • On an adding machine, enter the balance brought forward from the previous monthadd the total amount of sales entered in the current month plus any finance charges, (this is the total of the sales postings just added up on the calculator or that came from the spreadsheet), and subtract the Total Change to AR from the cash postings, (this is the total of the cash postings just added up on the calculator or that came from the spreadsheet).   This number must exactly equal the “TOTAL VALUE” displayed on the screen.

o       NOTE: If balancing A/R daily this is already done on the A/R Daily Balancing Spreadsheet.  So the ending A/R balance on the spreadsheet MUST equal this “TOTAL VALUE” on the screen.  When they balance continue to step F.

If they are not equal, proceed with the following steps to find and remedy the situation:

  • Check addition – either manually or verify the amounts on the spreadsheet were entered correctly
  • Go through the questions on the “Display Total Value of A/R Open” (Task 32, Sub-task 1) again, and check to be sure the prompts were answered correctly.
  • See document titled: “A/R End of Month Display Total Value of A/R Incorrect”.

 

 E. Print checking account report for the current month – IF the “Checking Account” is used to reconcile to the bank statement, then continue.  If not, then skip this step.

·               Accounts Payable (Module 3)

o                Check Account (Task 20)

§                  Print Selected Check Records (Sub-task 4)

Compare the DEPOSITED: total of checking account to the sum of the first two lines of the cash section [TOTAL CASH (From Cash History) and TOTAL MISC CASH (From Cash History) on the A/R to G/L interface report. They should be the same.  This information can also be obtained on the A/R Daily Balancing Spreadsheet.  For further instructions see the document Balancing A/R $ Received with A/P Check Account.

 

F. Aged Trial Balance (Task 9 in AR Module) …a.k.a. ATB

Note: We recommend using Sub-task #3 - Aged Trial Balance (ATB) with Optional Detail for end of the month reports.  IF you don’t want to print the report, because of its size, we suggest you ‘save the report’.  To do this, see the documents titled:  Exporting Data from Profits Plus  and Exporting Trial Balance Reports.   Another option, if you have the e-mailing capabilities available through Profits Plus, is to e-mail a copy of the aging report to yourself and then ‘save’ the report in a file to be printed at a later date, if necessary.  Verify after “saving” any reports, that the saved file is in a secure location, which will be backed up.  It is also a good idea to make sure the appropriate people can easily access these reports.

Ø       The “Cut-Off Grand Total” on the ATB report should equal the total value displayed in System Management Function (2/32/1) – Display Total Value of AR Open.  This information can also be obtained on the A/R Daily Balancing Spreadsheet

Ø       Print Sub-task #3 (the recommended option to use)- Aged Trial Balance with Optional Detail (ARTDTN)-  it provides a "Cut-Off Grand Total" and an "Account Grand Total".   Answer questions as follows:

  • Doc cut-off date:  Use the end of the month that is being balancing
    • If using the "cut-off" date of 06/30/xx, the "CUTOFF GRAND TOTAL" on the printout will reflect all transactions up to and including 06/30/xx.
    • Transactions with dates posted after 06/30/xx will print in the "Future" columns, but will be calculated only into the "ACCOUNT GRAND TOTAL”.
  • Date Basis:                  1 Due / 2 Document.  Use "2" for Document date
  • Aging Period:              Enter for All
  • Alpha or numeric:       A or N
  • Account Detail:           Y for Yes
  • Print Future Aging:      Y for Yes
  • Skip Zero Balance Accounts:  N for No (don’t use Yes for month-end balancing)
  • Printer Selection Screen.  Print on paper, Save to disk or Export.
  • Print Customer Address?  Y/N
  • Starting division: and Ending Division: Enter for All.
  • Starting Customer #or Name and Ending Customer # or Name: Enter for all customers.
    • If N was answered for Alphabetically or Numerically, the system prompts for starting and ending customer number.
    • If A was answered for Alphabetically or Numerically, the system prompts for starting and ending customer name.
  • Starting Salesperson #: and Ending Salesperson #: Enter for all.
  • You may see a display of the system processing the customer account #’s (Depending on the speed of your system and the # of active customer accounts.)
  • The top of the screen, highlighted, will be the prompt: “Selecting additional entries, use left arrow to begin printing”.  Press the left arrow to begin printing.  (After the first query of starting and ending division #, customer # and salesperson #, the report will be generated, BUT the system prompts for the starting and ending division again.   If at this point the left arrow key is pressed, the report will print. If the Enter key is pressed, the system prompts for starting & ending, division #, customer # and salesperson # again; when the left arrow key is pressed both reports will print. This allows you to print a second Aged Trial Balance report for a single customer, as an example, while at the same time printing the Aged Trial Balance report for all customers.)

IMPORTANT:

(1) Make sure last month's Aged Trial Balance (ATB) plus Sales plus Finance Charges minus Cash minus Discounts Allowed (from the AR to GL Interface) equals the new ATB cutoff grand total. We suggest stapling the calculator tape to the interface report.  This calculation should have already been done, but now check this calculation against the ATB CUTOFF GRAND TOTAL.

(2) Optional: Verify that retail sales customer (#99999) is $0 (zero dollars). If it isn't, go to A/R Open Items (module 2, task 18, sub-task 4) and print the report for the first week of the month, suppressing detail. If the dollar amount isn't in that week, print the report for the next week, and so on, until the report is narrowed down to one day. When it is narrowed down to one day, look up that day in the cash posting register or your sales posting journal to find the problem. Exception: Some clients take deposits from a 99999 customer; therefore the account should have a negative balance.

Note:  The ATB with No Detail is used as a balancing aid and should be set aside for use as a beginning balance for the following month.

(3) Compare the Display Value to the A/R Aged Trial Balance (ATB) ran above. The totals should be the same.

  • Accounts Receivable (Module 2)
    • System Management Functions (Task 32)
      • Display Total Value of AR Open (Sub-task 1)

 

G. Prepare Monthly Statements (Task #12)

Preliminary steps just before running statements:

o        Change Advance Collections to Payments (changes documents from type 8 to 2) - Task 5.  This should have been done in Step B.

o        Sort the A/R Open File - Sub-task 6, in Task 18 (AR Open Items).  This should have been run at the beginning of these procedures.

o        Clear Paid Invoices from A/R Open -Sub-task 4, in Task 32 (System Mgt. Functions) answer system prompts: - however once this step is processed you CANNOT get an Aged Trial Balance with Detail – if not already done, you may want to print it now.  Without the ATB with Detail it is difficult to reconcile AR imbalances.

§         Special purge of $0 only? (Y/N) N

§         Document cut-off date: Use the end of the month that is being balanced. If balancing July 20xx, enter a date of 07/31/xx.  Even if performing this on August 3, 20xx, still enter 07/31/xx date.

§         Starting customer #: Ending customer #: Enter for ALL

This will remove paid invoices from the A/R Open Items file.

 

IMPORTANT:

If statements are run before clearing invoices from A/R Open Items, each statement will have the paid invoices, the payments, the unpaid invoices, along with system generated credits and debits on it. If the program "Clear paid invoices from A/R Open" is run before statements are generated, only the unpaid documents will be on the statements. Note: If something isn't applied correctly, then it won't clear off the customer’s account and it will appear on the statement.

The options for printing statements are: (1) Standard statement forms [FORSTM]; (2) Standard paper (14” X 11”) and (3) Standard Paper (8 ½ “ X 11”)

 1. Standard statement forms (FORMST):

  • Answer system prompts as follows:
    • E-DELIVERY OPTIONS – Identify how to deliver to each type of customer.
    • E-DELIVERY CUSTOMERS …[N,S,P]:
    • Send “Normal” (email & fax & print) or “Print-all” (N or P)?
      1. P would be used if you want print the E-DELIVEREY customers instead of having the statements e-delivered, (the e-mail server was down and you decided to print all statements), with none being e-mailed or faxed.  
      2. N normal e-delivery of statements. See document titled E-mailing or Faxing Statements. Invoices and/or Statements can be e-mailed or faxed.   To use this optional feature, please contact us at 248-583-4110 or via e-mail.
      3. S Skip e-delivery statements. This will skip all of the e-delivery statements.
    • Paper customers…[N,S]
      1. N = normal print the paper statement customers.
      2. S = Skip the printing of the paper statement customers.   
    • Reprint invoices along with statements (Y or N)?
      • If Y is selected, you will be prompted: “Reprint Current-month only or All invoices (C/A):”,followed by the prompt: “Customer invoicing codes to reprint:  ____”  Here is where you would enter the Invoice Code (found on field #50 on the Customer Master) and just those customers with the code entered at this prompt will have the statement printed/faxed/e-mailed along with the reprinted invoices, whereas all of the other customers will get just their statement..   Note:  If you are currently using field #50 for some other purpose, we suggest you add another code directly beneath the current code (i.e. currently have P for Premier, add Q for Premier Inv.Reprint) then if you need to run reports by Invoice Code or use it in some other manner, you can ‘range’ the Invoice Codes (i.e. select P through Q) to get all of the ‘Premier’ customers.
  • Printer selection screen: select the printer where the physical printed statements will print, as the e-mailed (or faxed) statements use a ‘virtual’ printer.

NOTE: If the e-mail fails, a rejection e-mail will be sent to the e-mail set in the A/R parameter: ESTM’EML’FROM= youremailaddress@yourcompany.com

ADDITIONAL NOTE: If the fax fails, an e-mail can be sent to an administrator. 

 

  • Starting Customer # and Ending Customer #: Enter for ALL. (To assure statements are aligned properly you may first select just one customer #.  Then go back and select ALL customer #’s.)
  • Starting Customer Name: and Ending Customer NameEnter for ALL.
  • Statement Date: Use the end of the month that was just balanced.
  • Customer Type: Press Enter for ALL.
  • Order (N or A): N for Numeric order, A for alphabetic order.
  • Min. Balance $:  Press Enter to default to $.00. A statement will print for all the customers designated to get a statement regardless of the customer balance. It will print credit balances also.  If you don’t want credit and zero balances to print, type in 1 for one cent. If you do not want to print statements for a customer owing $10.00 or less (for example) type 1000 (no decimal pt.), and no statements will be generated for any customers with a balance smaller than $10.00. 
  • Starting & ending division #: Press Enter for ALL
  • Note  if using End of Month Statement Discounts, the following 2 prompts will appear.  See documents titled Statement Discounts and Statement Discounts -Credit Sales Tax & Accrue Discounts and Statement Discounts -How the Discount is Calculated.  For more information on End of Month Statement Discounts, please contact our Support Team at 248.583.4110 or via e-mail
  • Starting/Ending Customer Statement Flag Type:
  • Aging Period:  Press Enter for ALL
  • Please enter – starting billing terms: Press Enter for ALL (This selection is determined by a parameter setting.)
  1. Discount Cut-off Date:  a date must be entered. Documents older than this date are NOT eligible for discounts.
  • Each selection for the statement printing options will appear on the screen, Press enter key to start the printing, emailing and faxing of the statements & invoice reprints
    • Press F1 key to change Date basis
    • Press F2 key to switch Doc Listing order
  • The printer screen appears on the screen again.  This time for printing the End of Month statement discount report, if it is being used.
  • It will show the # of Printed, emailed & faxed statements.

2. Standard paper (14" X 11")

  • This option prints the columns and column headings. It also prints a remittance advice. All the same questions are asked as were asked if Pre-Printed forms were used.

3. Standard paper (8 ½" X 11")

  • This option prints the columns and column headings. All the same questions are asked as were asked if Pre-Printed forms were used.

 

H. (Optional) Print Selected History Records (Sub-task 4, in Sales History -Task 19) Data in Task #19 Sales History may be kept for many years.  As long as the data isn’t purged/erased it may be printed as needed for prior periods many years later.  So it may not be necessary to print this sales history report.   If this report is printed answer the prompts:

·        Press enter for ALL batch #’s

·        Press enter for ALL document #’s

·        Press enter for ALL document types

·        Press enter for ALL total invoice amounts

 There are two choices on how to print the sales history. Choice #1 will generate the report in date order. Choice #2 will generate the report in customer # order. We recommend report #2. Answer system prompts as follows:

  • Starting customer number: Ending customer number: Enter for ALL.
  • Starting date: Ending date: Use the first day of the month thru the last day of the month which is being balanced.
  • Starting Division #: Ending Division #: Enter for ALL.
  • Suppress detail records?(YES/NO): Enter for NO.

The bottom line total should equal the sum of the totals on all sales postings for that date range.

I.                   (Optional) Cash/Receipts History (Task 20) (Sub-task 4, in Cash History -Task 20) Data in Task #20 Cash/Receipts History may be kept for many years.  As long as the data isn’t purged/erased it may be printed as needed for prior periods many years later.  So it may not be necessary to print this cash/receipts history report.   If this report is printed answer the prompts:

·        Press enter for ALL Batch #’s

·        Press enter for ALL G/L account #’s

·        Press enter for ALL transaction types

There are two choices on how to print the cash/receipts history. Choice #1 will generate the report in date order. Choice #2 will generate the report in customer # order. We recommend report #2. Answer system prompts as follows:

  • Starting customer number: Ending customer number: Enter for ALL.
  • Starting date: Ending date: Use the first day of the month thru the last day of the month which is being balanced.
  • Starting Division #: Ending Division #: Enter for ALL.
  • Suppress detail records?(YES/NO): Enter for NO.

The bottom line total must exactly equal the bottom line figure of your checking account file of money that went in the bank. It should also equal the sum total of your daily cash posting journals.

 

J.      (Optional) Print Selected Distribution Records (Task 4, in Distribution History -Task 21) Data in Task #21 Distribution History may be kept for many years.  As long as the data isn’t purged/erased it may be printed as needed for prior periods many years later.  So it may not be necessary to print this distribution report.  

There are two choices of how to print the distribution history. Choice #1 generates the report in G/L account #order, then invoice # order. Choice #2 generates the report in order of invoice #, then invoice date, then G/L account #. Choose the one that suits your company best.

K. (Optional) Sales Analysis (Task 10)

There are many different reports in this task.

  • Reports #1-9 information is generated from Task #17: Customer Master.
  • Reports #9-16 information is generated from Task #19: Sales History.

Choose which reports are needed by your company to print at the end of every month.

L. (Optional) Sales Distribution (Task 11)

There are many different reports in this task.  One or more of these may best suit your company. Answer the system prompts accordingly. 

M.    (Optional) Division summary analysis (Task 13)

There are many different reports in this task.  One or more of these may best suit your company. Answer the system prompts accordingly.