How RM Balance Types “Open Item” and “Balance Forward” affect the Statement.

Hi,

We sometimes receive cases on how Open Item vs. Balance Forward account types affect the RM Statement. In this article, I will give you a high-level explanation of how these two account types function in Dynamics GP and why the data displays the way it does on the Statement.

In Receivables Management you must Choose a “Balance Type” Sales >> Cards >> Customer >> Options button, Open Item or Balance Forward.

The below table outlines the information for each account type and what can be expected for each.

To demonstrate the differences, I created an example of each Account Type.

Open Item:

Enter an Invoice:

Enter a Cash Receipt

Looking at the Summary gives you a snapshot of the customers’ accounts: Sales > Cards > Summary.

Now, create an apply record for Invoice SALES00000001037.

Run Paid Transaction Removal Sales >> Routines >> Paid Transaction Removal

Run the RM Statement Sales >> Routines >> Statements.

The Open Items Statement, displays details the of invoice and apply records for this period.

Balance Forward:

Transaction information is retained only for the current period and is then consolidated into an account total that’s brought forward at the beginning of each subsequent period. The Balance Forward is the remaining balance the customer has after they have run “Paid Transaction Removal (PTR)”.

An account type that records all documents entered during the current period and the balance brought forward amount for prior periods. Cash Receipts are applied to the oldest balance, not to specific transactions.

Enter an Invoice 

Enter a Cash Receipt

Looking at the Summary gives you a snapshot of the customers’ accounts: Sales > Cards > Summary.

If a user tries to apply a payment for a Balance Forward customer, you will run into this message “Please enter an open item customer”. Again, this is because Balance Forward accounts apply payments to the oldest balance, not to specific transactions.

Run Paid Transaction Removal:  Sales >> Routines >> Paid Transaction Removal. Paid transaction removal consolidates all balance forward transaction amounts and adds the total to the noncurrent period amount.

Now, run the RM Statement Sales >> Routines >> Statements.

The Balance Forward statement is displaying only the BFF amount for this period because of running the Paid Transaction Removal consolidation.

Finally, if you run into the message “There are no records to be printed.” When running statements, check to be sure the account type is correct. This message could be due to having the incorrect Account Type selected when for the type of customer.

In the example below, the account type selected is: Open Item and this for customer “BFF” which is a Balance Forward account type customer. The same is true if running a statement using Type “Balance Forward” for customer “Open Item”.

I hope, this helps understanding the differences between Open Item and Balance Forward account types.