Cleaning Up AR Statements
A customer recently asked:
“Hey Kevin! I am wondering if you can help me. I remember when you came to our business to train us, you showed us how to clean up customer statements that looked messy with all of the corrections and credits, but I can’t for the life of me remember how to do that. I know the integration needs to be turned off. Other than that detail, I have no clue. Thanks for your help!”
No problem – what you want to do is what I call ‘fooling the date’.
- Let’s say you want to fix a statement by, crediting a invoice you already know is paid. I would turn off the GL (if needed) and make the credit date as close to the item you want to remove. For instance, below is a Statement (simplified) to look at to get rid of a mistake: The day entry is 01/07/2006, not today’s date like I want:
- I make the changes to fix the concern and think do I want it to go to the GL? If not remember to turn off the GL integration. In this example I do want it to go to the GL so my Control Report will stay in balance.
- I make any changes to the error, but I make sure the date is not today’s date, but the one I want to completely ‘remove’.
- Then I would Purge Open Items:
- Select the Customer and the “old date plus one” (notice 01/08/2006)
- After purging you now have a clean looking statement – purging removed any ‘closed’ open items on the statement. And finally, don’t forget to turn your GL integration back on if you turned it off!
Kevin
Senior System Trainer
December 1st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
What does “purging” actually do? Does it remove zeroed items from reports only? Can you still look up these transactions in the history file?
December 1st, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Purge Open Items
Note
BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE PURGING OPEN ITEMS. Once you have purged this information, there is no way to retrieve it without a backup.
This utility will remove all items with a $0 amount remaining. For example, an invoice that was entered and subsequently paid will have an amount remaining of $0. You can review the items with $0 amount remaining by clicking the Aging tab on the AP Vendors window or by running the Aging report.
Once you have purged open items the purged payments will no longer be available for payment correction. If a correction needs to be made and the payment has been purged, you will need to do a balance adjustment in Accounts Payable and then void the check in Bank Reconciliation.
The details of purged items will not be available to view if you select the invoice from the History tab of the AP Vendors window. Keep in mind that when you purge open items, the details for those items are no longer available.
1. Select Purge Open Items from the Period End menu.
2. Select the date for the Purge Up Through This Date end. All items with a $0 amount remaining will be purged up through and including the date you specify.
3. In the Vendor Number boxes, select the Vendor Number range.
4. In the AP Code boxes, select the AP Code range.
5. Select OK to proceed, or Cancel to exit without processing.
This utility is normally run for the last day of the previous quarter, but you can use month-end, year-end, or any other date that is appropriate for your business. . I suggest this be done every 6 months, unless it is an account that is used regular, then at least every 3 months. It does NOT remove the History of the company. To do that Purge History… which is on the lower part of the “Period End.” I teach in class that before doing any History purge a history company should be made.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:51 am
To Cara
There are 2 posted transaction files in AR, AROPN (AR Open) and ARHIS (AR History)
ARopn is used to print statements and is the file used when you do lookup in AR Master or when applying a payment.
ARhis is used accessed through the report menu.
Purging the Open file purges the ARopn file only.
At yearend, we make a copy of all the files in a new company code using ENDOFYR.exe, then purge the ARopn through 9/30/08 and then purge ARHIS through 12/31/06.
I have rewritten the Customer Simplified Statement to automatically suppress fully paid items without purging. This means that you print statements whenever you want and your customer won’t see the paid items which confuses them.
I would be happy to send my simplified customer statement at no charge to anyone who wants it.
Please email me at gschaefer@earthlink.net
GP Schaefer