Blog Post

When your GL doesn’t tie with Sub-Module totals, Who ya gonna call?

Published on

Mar 18

Michelle Taylor

Shawn Slavin

Suggested Articles

Have you ever gotten to the end of the month thinking you have posted your last transaction in the Account Receivable module only to find that the AR Trial Balance doesn’t tie out with the ending balance in your Accounts Receivable GL control account? I don’t know about you but this is the kind of thing that keeps accountants and bookkeepers up at night!


If this happens to you, before you start thinking that a Poltergeist has possessed your computer, let’s check a few of the basics to make sure we haven’t overlooked something easy to fix.

First, let’s go over to the General Ledger module and run the Daily Transaction Register from the Main menu. This will produce a report that lists all un-posted GL transactions created in all sub-modules used in Sage 100. We typically find that most people post the Daily Transaction Register right after updating the Journal that created the GL batch. However, something might have distracted the user or a system problem prevented the update so it’s always a good idea to confirm that nothing is pending for approval and posting. If there is something open, go ahead and post the activity.

Now that we have confirmed that everything processed the sub-modules has also been posted to the GL, pop over to each sub-module and run the General Ledger Posting Recap. Do this for each sub-module that may have posted activity to the control account you are investigating. Record the total debits and credits included on the report for the GL account you are investigating. After doing this for all submodules, get a grand total of the activity coming from all sub-modules to the GL control account and compare them with the total debits and credits shown on the History tab in GL Account Inquiry. If there is a difference between the totals from the sub-module and the activity posted to the control account, it is now time to review the detail activity from the Transactions tab. Look for activity that may have been posted directly to the control account from a module that would not update the sub-module. For example, a general ledger journal entry may have been posted to the account. If this were to occur, the GL balance would be adjusted but no corresponding change would be made to the sub-module.

Checking the detail activity in the GL account is certainly one place to look when trying to reconcile control account balances. However, by checking the simple things first, you can save yourself a lot of wasted time first and then move on to more complex problems.

Written By