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Correct an out of balance job

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Summary

How to correct jobs out of balance when you close the month in Sage 300 CRE Job Cost.

Cause

Records appear on the Close Month Journal when the sum of the transactions doesn't equal the totals stored for that record.

This can occur for many reasons, including unposted transactions, disconnects during posting that didn't update the totals, moved entries, and other issues.

Resolution

It will take roughly 25 minutes to correct each out of balance job.

Review the Close Month Journal

Review the Close Month Journal and identify all jobs with a dollar amount in the Difference column. Note the related Field Out of Balance and Record Type.

The Close Month journal compares the category totals to the totals on each of these records: Job, Job Extra, Job Group Cost Codes, Job Cost Code, Extra, Extra Group Cost Codes, Extra Cost Code. If you don’t use categories, it compares the accumulated cost code totals to the Job, Extra, and Group Cost Codes records.

Post entries in Job Cost

Verify you've fully posted Job Cost and the new.jct file doesn't have the out of balance job. Correcting out of balance jobs only compares posted items in the current/history files to the master totals.

Review the validation reports

The validation report compares the Job Cost transaction totals to master file totals on the Job, Extra, Cost Code, and Category records.

  1. Go to Job Cost, Reports, Reconciliation, Close Month Validation Report.
  2. Select the Amount Type you identified as the issue on the Close Month Journal. For example, if the journal shows Total Estimated Cost out of balance, select the Estimate amount type.
  3. Click Ranges and select the out of balance jobs.
  4. Review the validation report and identify totals that don’t match.
  5. Note which amounts aren’t correct: Transaction, Job, Extra, Group Cost Code, Cost Code, or Category. The totals for each level of the report should be equal.

    NOTE:

    When you use extras, add the amount of the job to the amount of the extra. Compare the combined total to the remaining columns.

Extras

If you use Extras in Job Cost, you can encounter other issues with the report balances. See more information about how the tracking setting can affect your report totals.

Group Cost Codes

Validating group cost codes is a separate process. Always run both validation reports, even if the Close Month Journal doesn't specifically show a group cost code out of balance.

When correcting an item on the close month validation report, it can cause the group to become out of balance.

Estimates or commitments

Estimate or commitment amount out of balance. The amount can consist of an original amount and an approved change order amount. Determine the split between these two amount types.

  1. Go to Job Cost, Reports, Entries, Entries by Job.
  2. Click Ranges and select the out of balance jobs.
  3. Add a condition for the cost code and/or category.
  4. Add a condition of Transaction type EQ Original estimate or Transaction type EQ Original commitment.
  5. Note the total.
  6. Change the condition to Transaction type EQ Approved estimate change or Transaction type EQ Approved committed cost change.
  7. Note the total.

Correct the out of balance

  1. Log into Sage 300 CRE as an application administrator.
  2. Turn on the Audit setup activity task.
  3. Follow the steps below for any records that the journal showed as out of balance.
▼ Record corrections

Job record

Job record out of balance.

  1. In Job Cost, from Setup, select Jobs.
  2. Click List, select the out of balance job ID, and click OK.
  3. Press Tab. Select either the Estimate Totals tab or the Cost Totals tab.
  4. Change the Job to date totals to match the transaction totals from the validation report. Optional fields to change/include are Year to Date, Quarter to Date, and Month to Date totals.
  5. Click Save and Close.
  6. Examine the audit journal.

Extra record

Extra record out of balance.

  1. In Job Cost, from Setup, select Extras.
  2. Click List, select the out of balance job ID, and click OK.
  3. Click List, select the out of balance extra ID, and click OK.
  4. Press Tab. Select either the Estimate Totals tab or the Cost Totals tab.
  5. Change the Job to date totals to match the transaction totals from the validation report. Optional fields you can change include Year to Date, Quarter to Date, and Month to Date totals.
  6. Click Save and Close.
  7. Examine the audit journal.

Group cost code or cost code record

Group cost code or cost code record out of balance.

When cost codes are out of balance, the group cost code is usually also out of balance.

  1. In Job Cost, from Setup, select Cost Codes.
  2. Click List, select the out of balance job ID, and click OK.
  3. If you use Extras, click List, select the out of balance extra ID, and click OK.
  4. Click List, select the out of balance cost code ID, and click OK.
  5. Press the TAB key. Select either the Estimate Totals tab or the Cost Totals tab.
  6. Change the Job to date totals to match the transaction totals from the validation report. Optional fields you can change include Year to Date, Quarter to Date, and Month to Date totals.
  7. Click Save and Close.
  8. Examine the audit journal.

Category record

Category record out of balance.

  1. In Job Cost, from Setup, select Cost Codes.
  2. Click List, select the out of balance job ID, and click OK.
  3. If you use Extras, click List, select the out of balance extra ID, and click OK.
  4. Click List, select the out of balance cost code ID, and click OK.
  5. Click List, select the out of balance category ID, and click OK.
  6. Press the TAB key. Select either the Estimate Totals tab or the Cost Totals tab.
  7. Change the Job to date totals to match the transaction totals from the validation report. Optional fields you can change include Year to Date, Quarter to Date, and Month to Date totals.
  8. Click Save and Close.
  9. Examine the audit journal.

Complete the process

  1. Turn off the Audit setup activity task.
  2. Verify the corrections. Print the same validation reports you printed earlier and compare the totals. Verify the totals are the same.

Transaction-related issues

Sometimes, the out of balance occurs because transactions are missing from the records used when closing the month.

Review these possible causes if you determine that transactions are incorrect on the Close Month Validation report, but the record totals are correct.

  • Unposted transactions in the New.JCT file.
  • There are transactions in the history file, and you only selected the current file on the validation report.
  • Missing transactions for the job in the active data folder. This can occur through a file rename or moving transactions out of the data folder.

While the exact solution can vary depending on your specific issue, possible solutions to correct missing transactions are:

  • Post all New.JCT file transactions related to the out of balance job.
  • Select both the current and history transaction files when printing the Close Month Validation report. See if the transactions balance with the Job, Cost Code and Category records. If it does, consider moving transactions for the job back from history to current.
  • If you archived or moved transactions to another folder recently, check the transaction files in those folders. Confirm if transactions for the out of balance job have moved in error. If so, move them back to the active data folder.

The close month validation and group cost code validation reports will only show cost codes and categories with transactions. If no transactions exist but there’s a total on the master record, that cost code/category won’t show on these reports. When both reports show there are no totals and extras are unused, this can be the issue.

 

 

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