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I am working with GP 10.
When I enter a Quick Journal with a Control Balance of 0.00 and balance of 0.00 and save; the error message" The balance is zero. Do you want to save with errors?"
Am I missing something in the set up or does one always have to have a value, other than zero, going to the Offset-account?
Thanks in anticpation?
Philip
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LOL! I always thought developers (not accountants) put the tables together and just put these in alphabetical order. But I like Frank's explanation better.
I'm guessing the person who developed GP was a dyslexic ex-accountant who got fired from his accounting job because she/he kept getting their debits and credits backwards! LOL If you look at GP tables, they all (or at least nearly all) put the credit column before the debit column. Go figure . . .
Victoria
Funnily enough, I had just been 'playing around' with Smartlists and had not yet noticed the point you made about credits in front of debits - perhaps they should order columns in reverse alphabetical order in future, or alternatively, the people who set them up may be bankers!
Thanks for your input - appreciated
Philip
Phillip,
Yes, there are things that I come across that go against the 'accountant' in me, too. Like why is credit in front of debit on all the SmartLists? :-) This is another area, why not just have debits = credits, like all the other GL entries? But once you get used to it, the time savings in using the Quick Journal make it well worth it.
Dear Victoria
Thanks for that. I had subsequently drawn the same conclusion. It was just that initially, it was not what I expected. I had to think outside the box!.
Regards
Philip
Philip,
It's not that the transaction does not balance, it's that you pick one account (typically one that always has an entry) and the rest of the entries have to match that amount. Just a different way of looking at it.
For example, we use Quick Journal for petty cash entries. There will always be an entry to the Petty Cash account, so that's what we use for the offset. Before even starting the entry, we put the total into the control balance, then as we enter the line items the balance is calculated. If it control balance is ($250.00), meaning a credit of $250 to the Petty Cash account and the Balance of all the other lines is not $250.00 (positive, meaning debit), the entry will not post. Hope this helps.
Thanks Ian
As an accountant, I feel queasy when I have a journal that does not balance back to zero! Perhaps I need to be more imaginative (or creative).
Regards
Philip
Hi, you're correct, the transaction balance cannot be zero for a quick journal.
Best regards,
Ian.
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