How to fix a journal imbalance on the Pre-approval summary2 or Xero/Quickbooks/Freeagent. #

If you add a new pay definition, there is a possibility that your journal will not balance. Journal imbalances are common once you start adding new pay definitions. Please follow the steps to configure and balance the journal for a particular pay frequency.

Pre-approval summary2 #

In the case of an imbalance, the software will usually detect the pay definition that is the cause of the problem just below the journal on the journal sheet of the Preapproval 2 summary. We recommend you balance the journal first by configuring the Pre-approval summary 2 report before attempting to balance bookkeeping journals in the bookkeeping reports e.g. Xero. This is because you can more easily check the resulting journal in the Journal sheet on the Pre-approval summary2 report.

Xero/Quickbooks/Freeagent. #

The process must be repeated for the bookkeeping reports using the same steps. For example, after you’ve balanced the Pre-approval summary2, you will still have an error in your bookkeeping report until that’s been balanced.

Process #

Her is the process following an unapproved pay run, which does not balance.

1. My documents > Pre-approval summary2 > View the Journal sheet on the Pre-approval summary2 report. If the software can detect a probable cause of the imbalance, it will be listed, however, this is not always possible. Review the journal and the imbalance worker pay items to Identify the imbalance. In the example below, a DWP deduction is the cause of the 286.18 imbalance:
   
   
2. Next, decide where to insert an amount into the journal to balance. What changes need to be made to the Debit or Credit side? For example, if a new pay amount should be added to the Credit accounts to balance. if you are paying Net pay expenses, you’ll need to add these at the point where net pay appears in the Credit journal because the current net pay figure is lower. In our example, the DWP DEA value of 286.18 needs to be added to the credit side to balance.
3. Go to Company set up > Report Definitions > Pre-approval summary2 and click Update to edit the report settings
4. Select the relevant Pay frequency tab – for example m1 monthly below
   
   
   
   
5. Notice there are two different Add buttons at the bottom of the the Debit items and the Credit items.
6. Add a new journal row entry in either Credits or Debits using the row alogn the Add button:
   • Select the Account (e.g. 900 -Deductions). If the account does not exist, you will need to type it in first in the Account section. In our example here we have added “; 900 – Deductions“)- note the semicolon “;” separator
   • Select the Narrative. The Narrative includes all Pay Definitions and also all busses – you may wish to select a single Pay Definition but at other times, it will be more convenient to select a Buss which includes all Pay Definitions connected to that Buss. (In our example we select DWP DEA.
   • Click Add.
   • Sometimes it will be necessary to switch plus values to minus and vice-versa by ticking the Negate box as some values are held as negative and some positive. In this case click Negate
7. When you have finished adding new Debit or Credit lines, click Update
8. Test your new journal configuration with a Pay Run Redo.
9. Journals are tricky to balance and so It is not unusual to repeat and correct the above steps.
10. However, depending on whether the values are recorded as positive or negative it may be that the imbalance is now double. If this is the case, update the Pre-approval summary2 as above to un-tick the Negate tick box and click Update. If the resulting numbers look like they’re out by twice the amount (Debit or Credit) you originally intended, you probably need to click the Negate box to turn a positive into a negative or negative to a positive.. Check with a pay run redo that the journal balances.
11. Once your journal balances, you are done.
12. Repeat the above steps for bookkeeping reports (Xero, QuickBooks, and Freeagent). These would also have the same imbalance issue and should be corrected at the same time.

If you make any changes in the future, repeat the above process.