Discrepancy between account balance showing in Balance Sheet and Find Transactions

[J_M_Bell]

Good day MYOB Data Services

Trust this email finds you all well?

Following the conference call with Shree, your Product Specialist, on Wednesday 23rd June 2021, he had advised us to enter the same opening balances in the 2017 Company File (library) in the 2018 Company File (online).

I have already performed the roll over for 2017 in the 2017 Company File (library).

However, before I entered the opening balances in Setup >> Balances >> Account Opening Balances (all balance sheet accounts’ opening balance are zero per screen-shot below ) in the 2018 Company File, I generated the Balance Sheet Report as at 01/01/2018 to verify the balances. The attached “Balance Sheet” Report showed one figure, but the closing balances on most of the balance sheet accounts from the “Find Transaction” query are different though the to date (01/01/2018) is the same.

For example, in the Asset Account under Plant & Equipment:

						2018 MYOB CoF Find Transaction Ending Balance as at 01/01/2018	2018 MYOB CoF Balance Sheet as at 01/01/2018
1-2210	Plant & Equipment - At Cost	K953,390.44		K0.00	K0.00	K0.00	K60,452.33

With the discrepancies in the balances I also noted in some accounts there are no transactions showing in the Find Transaction window.

Hence, my question now is; Where did the “Balance Sheet” Report pick up its balances from?

I would also like to email you an excel spreadsheet for your evaluation that shows balances from the following;

1. 2017 MYOB CoF (library) Balance Sheet Report as at 31/12/2017
2. 2018 MYOB CoF Opening Balances as at 01/01/2017 (Setup >> Balances >> Account Opening Balances)
3. 2018 MYOB CoF “Find Transaction” window Ending Balance as at 31/12/2017
4. 2018 MYOB CoF “Find Transaction” window Ending Balance as at 01/01/2018
5. 2018 MYOB CoF (online) Balance Sheet Report as at 01/01/2018

May you kindly assist and advise why these discrepancies have occurred and how to rectify this.

We await your prompt response.

Thank you.

Regards James

[Steven_M]

Hi @J_M_Bell 

The Find Transactions window will showcase the total numbers of transactions in that window. Whereas the Balance Sheet would showcase the total balance of the account.

In your case, I understand from your history that you have purged data in the AccountRight Classic range. This would have removed the transactions from the Find Transaction window, thus there would be no transactions listed in the window hence the balance is $0.00. However, as those transactions have been impacting that balance of the account you have an impact on the Balance Sheet.

[J_M_Bell]

Good Day Steven_M

Apologies for the long delay. 

This may to true with the purged data from our old AccountRight V19 to this now current AccountRight Live Subscription -  however your statement below as "However, as those transactions have been impacting that balance of the account you have an impact on the Balance Sheet" does not asisst me with any solutions on how to fix this issue. 

Would this mean that ourData File is corrupt and needs to be repaired?

I am desperate to get my 2018 Financials on track for taxation matters.

Regards James

[Steven_M]

Hi @J_M_Bell 

Based on the situation and what I can see on your history on this situation, there doesn't appear to be any repair needed on the company file. It is designed to achieve what you are describing. The key thing to note is that the Find Transactions window will only look for transactions that are within the current company file. If the individual transactions have been purged, the transactions are no longer in the company file and thus as individual transactions are not listed when reviewed.

Here is a real-world explanation of what has occurred within your file: If you go down to the shops and you bought something with your bank card and you get a receipt. Your overall bank account is impacted by that change as you brought something. If you lose the receipt and go hunting for that receipt in your receipt pile you would not be able to find it as it's lost but the transaction still has occurred.

If we apply the same logic to your situation, you have processed a transaction to the Plant & Equipment (Bank account in the example). That transaction has impacted the overall account balance as shown on the Balance Sheet (bank statement in the example). However, if you solely look at the Find Transactions (your receipt pile) that transaction is not listed.

To showcase what occurred here is what is actually going on with a test file:

I've recorded two transactions to the account, that equal $101. As these transactions are still available in the file they are listed in the Find Transactions window:

The total of these transactions equal $101 that is the balance of the account listed on the Balance Sheet:

Now, I've gone ahead and purged those transactions out of the company file. This has removed the individual transactions from the Find Transactions window (as they have been purged). As they are no longer available in the file they no longer appear in that window thus there is no balance for that account in the Find Transactions window.

There is still a balance on the Balance Sheet as the balance doesn't get removed by that purge, only the individual transactions. This does mean that you have $101 still listed as a balance on that Balance Sheet.

To get to where you want to be with those transactions listed back into the Find Transactions window and thus have a balance it would involve going back to a backup before the company file was purged. You would then be looking at re-entering all transactions in the company file since the date of that backup. 

Just to repeat, there doesn't appear to be any repair needed on the company file as those transactions have been purged and the software is doing what we would expect to see with purged transactions.

[gavin12345]

Hi @J_M_Bell 

As @Steven_M explains, there is unlikely to be a corruption in your file that is causing what you are seeing, if I read the history correctly, the problem is you are trying to reconcile or adjust figures in one file based on what has happened in another file. This requires a good understanding of what exactly has happened in both files.

To answer your question about where MYOB gets its figures from, for each account MYOB stores a monthly activity total, it also stores the account balance as a running balance - this is used for Account List display and for Reconciliation purposes only. To get the Balance Sheet as at any point in time, MYOB adds all of the monthly activity totals up until the period concerned, for example to 30 June 2018.  An adjustment is then made for any Opening Balances set for that account. 

When data is purged, monthly activity totals are NOT changed, and this is what @Steven_M is trying to explain. Purging does not change any balances. It simply removes those transactions, and so when you look at a Find Transaction window for a purged period, you may see an opening balance of 10, a closing balance of 50 and no transactions - this is normal.

I suspect you are unlikely to resolve your issues without someone looking internally at what the file is doing and where it is getting its figures from. If you need help with this, I can provide contact details for an external MYOB specialist who can first check the file for any data integrity issues (this is just in case the cause is an error in the file), check where exactly MYOB is getting its figures from, and how to get the figures you need. Send me a private message if you want contact details. There would likely be a fee.

As this is more of an accounting/bookkeeping issue, it is unlikely MYOB repair services would do this type of work, however they should be able to check the integrity of the file.

Regards

Gavin

[J_M_Bell]

G'day Gavin 

Thank you for your lengthy explaination. It makes alot of sense now however I do have another question.

Since we have two company files under one serial number , does the balances in the 2017 Company File (which is in Library and which we rolled over with) have an effect on the Account list balances of the 2018 Company File (Which is Online/Live)?

May you privately message me the contact details of the External MYOB Specialist as well?

Thank you.

Regards James

[gavin12345]

Hi @J_M_Bell 

I have sent you a private message with contact details.

As for your question, no the 2 files are completely separate. Online file is one file, offline file is another.  It's like having 2 word documents or text files on 2 different computers. The files might have the same filename, however they are 2 separate and distinct files.

In the past MYOB allowed users to  'CheckOut' their online file (the file was blocked so no-one could modify the online file), you could work on it offline, and then check it back in. The online file was updated or synced with the offline file. This feature stopped around version AR2020.2.  

Now you need to backup your online file, restore it offline, work on it offline, make a new backup of the offline file, and restore that backup online. This will replace the online file with the offline one. Simple enough if there is only one user. However a nightmare if there are multiple users - you might make a backup and work on the file offline,  then another user enters transactions online (as there is nothing to stop or warn them that you might be working on the file offline). When you restore your copy online, it replaces the online file, and any work done by the other user is lost!

FYI by offline I mean in your local Library.

Regards

Gavin