Possible causes of out-of-balance conditions in the cash drawer

Was the Sales Cash Drawer Balance Report run while order tendering was occurring?

The Sales Cash Drawer Balance Report is a point-in-time snapshot and may not reflect all transactions if tendering occurred while the report was run. After the transaction is complete, run the report again.

Run this report while no tendering is taking place.

Were monies tendered but not included in the cash drawer count?

If monies were tendered but not included in the cash drawer counts, you must find the money. Recount the money in the cash drawer or check the cash drawer tape. If it still is not found, check with the operators who tendered orders.

Was money collected but not tendered?

Check to see if an operator collected money but did not tender the order. This may happen if the operator was busy and took money but forgot to record the transaction. Once you locate the order, perform tendering on the order and rerun the Sales Cash Drawer Balance Report.

Was an order tendered in error?

Check the orders to see if an order was tendered in error. If so, you must cancel the order by tendering it with negative amounts that match the incorrectly tendered positive amounts. Next, tender again, the order with a zero amount and charge it to the Customer Setup record for that customer.

Do suspense accounts contain a balance?

If your suspense accounts contain balances, perhaps they were updated with a posting that really should have updated the Cash account. The suspense accounts should be cleared on a regular basis to make sure all postings are reflected correctly on the financial statements.

Is a journal open?

Access SA Journal Setup. Clear the Operator field and click Search. Review the list for any journals that are open. If you do find open journals for the period in question, determine why they are still open. Print the journal and try to determine why it was never closed. In addition, a closed journal may have been altered if a tendered order is back ordered.

Is the General Ledger Cash account out of balance?

This occurs when an account’s GL Account Setup period balance does not agree with the sum of its transaction activity for the period in question. This is an abnormal situation and is usually caused when something prevents the complete update process. When this occurs, the GL Transaction Entry transaction file is generally updated with the posted amount while the GL Account Setup balance file is not updated.

To determine if this is the problem, run a GL Transaction Activity Report for the Cash account for the period in question. This may be run by selecting Yes to the Totals Only option. On the last page of the report, a message indicates whether this account is out of balance.

You may need to manually correct the General Ledger Balances information to match the GL Transaction Entry transaction information. This is a unique situation and it is recommended that you contact Infor Support for assistance.

Were direct GL Transaction Entry postings made to the control account?

When a direct GL Transaction Entry posting is made to the Cash account, it causes an out-of-balance condition with the subsidiary ledger (cash drawer tape). To determine whether this is the case, run GL Transaction Activity Report for the Cash account for the period in question. Run this report with the Print Transactions option set to GL and the Totals Only option set to No.

If the system finds GL Transaction Entry journal entries, add the posting amounts together and determine whether this is the cause of your out-of-balance situation.

Was a forced General Ledger posting made to the Cash account?

When posting a journal from any of the subsidiary functions such as Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Order Entry, Purchase Order, Inventory Control, and so on, the system determines the General Ledger updates for the control accounts. At times, the General Ledger Distribution window is displayed during journal postings when a determination cannot be made as to where the offset should be posted. If an operator inadvertently posts an offsetting entry to the Cash account, it becomes out of balance with its subsidiary ledger (cash drawer tape).

Run Sales Entry Journal Print to review Sales Order Entry journals for the time period in question, setting the Print G/L Distrib with Detail Lines option to Yes. This shows the General Ledger transactions associated with each journal transaction.

Be sure that only one posting to the Cash account is made for each transaction. If more than one is made, research it to verify that the postings are correct.