Which Allocation Markers Must Balance?

The transactions posted to open item accounts remain in SunSystems until they contain a 'matched' allocation marker. Once a transaction is matched it can be removed from the system by Ledger Cleardown (LCL). These 'matched' allocation markers are always applied to a set of balancing transactions. This is to ensure that when the cleardown is run, only balancing transactions are removed from the system.

There are three 'matched' allocation markers: Allocated, Paid, Correction.

Allocated

The Allocated marker applies to a set of balancing payment, invoice and credit note transactions on debtor, creditor or client accounts. This marker indicates that the payment transaction has 'paid' the associated invoice and credit note transactions.

The Allocated marker is set using any of the SunSystems matching functions. The transactions are initially marked as either To Be Allocatedor Split, depending on whether the transaction is to be fully or partly allocated. When the allocations are posted, the allocation marker is set to Allocated.

Paid

The Paid marker also applies to a set of balancing payment, invoice and credit note transactions for debtor, creditor and client accounts. It indicates that the system generated payment transaction has paid the associated invoice and credit note transaction. The payment transaction was generated by Payment Run (PYR) or Payment Collection Run (PYC). This marker is, therefore, only usually set by SunSystems.

Note: The Paid allocation marker can only be removed from balancing transactions using Account Allocations (ACA). It cannot be set.

Correction

The Correction marker is used to identify a set of balancing transactions that were posted in error. It can be used to exclude the transactions from reports, except Journal Listing and Trial Balance. You use the Report Corrections option in Ledger Setup (LES) to determine whether these transactions are included in reports. This marker can be set using Account Allocations.

Updating the Allocation Markers

You can use Account Allocations (ACA), or online allocation as part of Ledger Entry (LEN), to change the allocation marker on the transactions you have selected for matching. If you use Account Allocations to set, or unset, any of the matched allocation markers identified above, each marker must be set on a group of balancing transactions. You can use the Allocation Totals option to view the balancing details for each of these markers individually. See 'Viewing the Allocation Totals'.

Ideally you should use Account Allocations to allocate transactions for a particular reason, by allocating a single type of marker. For example, you should use it to identify corrections, or identify correction transactions, or match payments to receipts. This simplifies the allocation balancing.