How to correct an out of balance in the Sage 100 General Ledger

Description

General Ledger can become out of balance in two main ways:

  • Debits don’t equal credits
  • Summary and transaction file totals per period don’t match

The steps below explain how to diagnose the issue and provides step-by-step instructions to correct it.

Resolution

Check if Debits Equal Credits

  1. Generate the General Ledger Detail Report for all accounts and the affected period.
  2. Generate the General Ledger Trial Balance for all accounts and the same period.
  3. Compare the totals:
    • Debits must equal credits
    • The Beginning Balance and Ending Balance columns must be zero for all accounts
  4. If the Beginning Balance Isn’t Zero:
    • Run the Trial Balance Report for the previous period
    • Continue until the Beginning Balance Report Total is zero

Identify Non-Balanced

  1. Print the General Ledger Detail by Source Report for all journals, batches, and the affected date range.
  2. Review each entry to confirm it’s a double-sided entry (debits equal credits).
  3. For any one-sided entry, create a correcting entry in General Ledger, Main, General Journal Entry:
    • Enter the source journal, batch number, and posting date from the original register
    • On the Lines tab, enter only the missing lines
    • Click Accept and then One
    • Print and update the General Journal

NOTE: If the ‘One’ button isn’t available, check user role permissions. See Create a one-sided journal entry in General Journal Entry.

Confirm Resolution

  • After corrections, compare the Trial Balance Report and General Ledger Detail Report for the same period
  • Generate the Trial Balance for the next period and repeat until you resolve the issue

Summary and Transaction Totals Don’t Match

  1. Make a copy of the company. See Copy company data into another company in Sage 100
  2. In the copy, recalculate account balances using General Ledger, Utilities, Recalculate Account Balances.
  3. Confirm that all accounts are in balance (Beginning Balance, Debit, Credit, and Ending Balance columns are zero).
  4. If resolved, repeat these steps in the live company after backing up and ensuring all users are out.

Helpful Information

  • Not all out-of-balance postings require a one-sided adjustment
  • Sometimes updates interrupt and later complete, resulting in two separate updates that balance each other
  • In Sage 100, register and journal updates post G/L transactions through GL_DailyPosting.M4T
    • The transactions will finalize later in the General Ledger Daily Transaction Register
  • Sometimes, errors or interruptions during posting can create the appearance of an “out-of-balance” update. However, this doesn’t always mean you need a manual correction — it depends on what caused the imbalance