Reconciling the Client Disbursements WiP

This guide helps you reconcile your Client Summary report to the Client Disbursement WIP General Ledger account. Depending on your firm settings there may be one or two GLs to combine to get to the value needed. If your account balances aren't matching up, try these steps to troubleshoot.

Understanding Client Cost GL Accounts

The way your unbilled hard and soft client costs are recorded in your General Ledger depends on a specific firm setting.

1. Go to Administrator > Firm > Settings > Features.
2. Look for Separate hard and soft client costs on general ledger.

                Here's how this setting affects your GL accounts:

OFF: All unbilled hard and soft costs will be combined into a single GL account: 1210.

ON: These costs will be separated into two distinct GL accounts: 1210.hard and 1210.soft.

Finding the Difference

1. Check for any Journal entries.
   1. Go to Financials > General Journal.
   2. Click the dropdown arrow to select the view, general.
   3. Leave the dates blank.
   4. Enter the Client Disbursement WIP GL account under GL Acct field. If there are two GLs, then this report will need to be run again with the second GL specified.
   5. If any, add up all values posted to that GL account and see if that is the difference. Please consult with your accountant on how to address it.
      NOTE:  Journal entries posted on controlled accounts only affect the GL and not the sub-ledgers or reports.
      
      

2. Check if the GL Opening Balances were entered correctly and agree with the Client Summary report.

   1. Go to Financials > GL Opening Balance (click Cancel first to refresh the balances). Note the date and balance for the account.

   2. Go to Reports > Contact > Ledger > summary (Client Summary), run it as of the GL opening balance date. 

   3. Confirm that the balances match. If not, please contact us and provide as much details as possible.
      

      NOTE:  If the months have been closed, the GL Opening Balance tab will disappear. Run a General Ledger report as of Legal Accounting start date, the opening balance on that report will show what was entered as GL Opening Balance.
3. Find the first date of the imbalance. 
   1. Go to Reports > Contact > Ledger > summary (Client Summary).
   2. Leave the Start Date blank and set the End Date, start with last year or last month.
   3. Go to Financials > Trial Balance.
   4. Select the Client Disbursement WIP GL and set the same End Date as the Client Summary report. If the Client Disbursement WIP GLis separated into two GLs then either run the report for each GL or leave the GL box blank and all GL values will be returned.
      NOTE:  Run the reports using the binary search approach; divide the period to quickly narrow down the date range to find out the first date of the imbalance. e.g. prior year, prior month, prior week then on each day.
      Report Parameters:
      
      
4. Find the entry or entries in question.
   Once you've identified the date when your balances first went out of sync, your next step is to find the specific entry or entries that caused the problem.
   
   To do this, you'll need to compare the entries shown on your Client Disbursement WIP GLs report with the detailed WIP (Work in Progress) report. You will also need to compare invoices created for that day using the Billings Journal.
   • Run a detailed General Ledger report for the Client Disbursement WIP GL account for that specific date. If you separate hard and soft costs into two GLs, then this will need to be repeated for the second GL.
     Go to Financials > General Ledger > basic (General Ledger).
     
     
   • Run a Work in Progress Detailed report located at Reports > Contact > Ledger > wip detail for that specific date. It is also recommended to only include Hard and Soft Expenses to keep the report as brief as possible.
     
     
   • Run a Billings Journal report located at Reports > Receivables > Receivables > billings for that specific date:
     
     Look for any entries that appear on your AP GL report but are missing from these other reports, or vice-versa. The numbers on all your subledger reports (WIP Detailed and Billings Journal) should be reflected in your Client Disbursement WIP GL report as follows:
     • Any expenses in the detailed WIP report will show as a Debit.
     • Any bills in the Billings Journal will show as a Credit.

Fixing the Entry that Caused the Imbalance

Once the entry or entries have been identified, please consult with your accountant should the entry need to be corrected or deleted, and if it's no longer an option, to create a journal entry to account for the difference.

If all steps and suggestions in this document have been followed and there are still issues that cannot be found/resolved after finding the exact days that the balances go off, please contact us.