Introduction to Trial Balance for Release 10.7 and 11

Phil MerlanoMichael MilanoOracle Corporation

Accounts Payable Trial BalanceOverview

The Accounts Payable Trial BalanceReport is used to verify that the totalaccounts payable liabilities in OraclePayables is equal to those in the GeneralLedger. Before closing a period, youcan compare the cumulative totalliability provided by this report with thetotal liability provided by GeneralLedger to reconcile these balances. InOracle General Ledger, you can retrieveaccount liability information from theAccount Inquiry form, the GeneralLedger Detail report, or from theAccount Analysis Report with PayablesDetail.

Since this Trial Balance report lists youroutstanding accounts payable liabilityinformation, it is only valid for anaccrual set of books. The report lists andsubtotals by supplier all unpaid andpartially paid invoices with a GL date onor before the “As of Date” parameter.The report also lists and subtotals theinvoices by the Accounts PayableLiability account. When you run thePayables Transfer to General Ledgerprocess, the Trial Balance report willreflect the transactions that you havetransferred to GL. It is not until youhave successfully run the Journal Importand posted the resulting Journal Entrythat General Ledger will also reflect thetransactions that you have transferredfrom Payables.

The Trial Balance report prints thedifference between the sum of aninvoice's distributions and the sum of theposted payment distribution, asexpressed in your functional currency.A positive amount indicates anoutstanding accounts payable liability inthe General Ledger if you have postedthe invoice (i.e. run AP Transfer to GLand Journal Import, posting the resultingJournal Entry). This can result fromnonpayment, partial payment, or notcreating a journal entry for the payment.A negative amount can result fromtransferring a payment to your GeneralLedger without transferring the invoice.

The Posted Invoice Register, the PostedPayment Register, and the current andlast period's Accounts Payable TrialBalance reports are used to reconcileyour posted invoices and paymentsto your Accounts Payable Trial Balanceto ensure that your Trial Balanceaccurately reflects your accounts payableliability. To calculate this, you add thecurrent period's posted invoices (totalinvoice amount from the Posted InvoiceRegister) and subtract the currentperiod's posted payments (total cash plusdiscounts taken from the PostedPayments Register) from the priorperiod's Accounts Payable Trial Balance.This amount should equal the balancefor the current period's AccountsPayable Trial Balance.

For example, you are closing youraccounting period for April and youhave just posted your finalinvoice and payment batches to yourgeneral ledger system. To reconcileyour accounts payable activity for April,make the following calculation:

Accounts Payable Trial Balance as of March 31+Posted Invoice Register for the period betweenApril 1 and April 30-Posted Payment Register for the period betweenApril 1 and April 30= Accounts Payable Trial Balance as of April 30

Troubleshooting Guide

1. Prob: I am unable to balance the APsubledger to GL.

Sol: The "Posted Invoice Register","Posted Payment Register", and thecurrent and last period's "AccountsPayable Trial Balance" reports are usedto reconcile your posted invoices andpayments to your Accounts PayableTrial Balance to ensure that your TrialBalance accurately reflects youraccounts payable liability. Add thecurrent periods posted invoices (totalinvoice amount from the "Posted InvoiceRegister") and subtract the currentperiods posted payments (total cash plusdiscounts taken from the "PostedPayments Register") from the priorperiod's "Accounts Payable TrialBalance". This amount should equal thebalance for the current period's AccountsPayable Trial Balance.

For example, you are closing youraccounting period for April and youhave just posted your final invoice andpayment batches to your general ledgersystem. To reconcile your accountspayable activity for April, make thefollowing calculation:

Accounts Payable Trial Balance" as of March 31+ "Posted Invoice Register" for the periodbetween April 1 and April 30 - "Posted Payment Register" for the periodbetween April 1 and April 30= "Accounts Payable Trial Balance" as of April30

2. Prob: My GL liability accountdoesn’t agree with the "AccountsPayable Trial Balance" report. Wherecan I look for help?

Sol: Run the GL "Account Analysis"report for the liability account and forthe date range in question. Look fortransactions with a source other thanPayables. This can quickly pinpoint anytransactions incorrectly charged to theaccount. Make sure that you havenot made manual journal entries to yourliability account in General Ledger.

Are you still in pilot testing? Perhapsyou haven’t converted your outstandinginvoices yet but the GL shows an up-to-date liability total. In this case, youwould need to account for the convertedGL amounts when balancing.

3. Prob: I am unable to identify thetransaction that is causing me to be outof balance.

Sol: Use the "Posted Invoice Register","Posted Payment Register", and thecurrent and last period's "AccountsPayable Trial Balance" reports to gothrough each report's records one-by-oneand find the transaction(s) that is causingthe report to be off. Once you haveidentified the problem record(s), reviewthe list below to see if you have any ofthe problems. If you don’t, you shouldcall Oracle Payables support to helpdebug the problem.

Please provide the following informationfor one of the records that prevents youfrom reconciling:

SELECT invoice_id, invoice_amount,amount_paid, discount_amount_takenFROM ap_invoices_allWHERE invoice_num = '<probleminvoice>';

SELECT accounting_date,accrual_posted_flag,distribution_line_number,amount,base_amount, posted_flagFROM ap_invoice_distributions_allWHERE invoice_id = <invoice_id from1st select>;

SELECT invoice_payment_id,accounting_date, accrual_posted_flag,posted_flagFROM ap_invoice_payments_allWHERE invoice_id = <invoice_id from1st select>;

SELECT payment_line_number,line_type_lookup_code, amount,base_amountFROM ap_payment_distributions_allWHERE invoice_payment_id =<invoice_payment_id from previousselect>;

SELECT *FROM ap_trial_balanceWHERE invoice_id = <invoice_id from1st select>;

4. Prob: I am using Automatic Offsetsand cancelled invoices are showing onthe Trial Balance report.

Sol: Apply patchset S or higher forRelease 10.7 to get version 80.47 ofapxrtb.opc, or apply mini-pack D forRelease 11.0.4 to get

version 110.11 of apxrtb.opc.

5. Prob: A paid invoice is appearing onTrial Balance report and the GL date forthe payment is before the GL date ofthe invoice.

Sol: Apply patchset Q or higher forRelease 10.7 to get version 80.46 ofapxrtb.opc, or apply mini-pack D forRelease 11.0.4 to get version 110.10 ofapxrtb.opc.

6. Prob: The Trial Balance report doesnot print rounding adjustments betweenexchange rates for foreign currencytransactions.

Sol: Apply patchset Q or higher forRelease 10.7 to get version 80.46 ofapxrtb.opc, or apply mini-pack D forRelease 11.0.4 to get version 110.10 ofapxrtb.opc.

7. Prob: I am not balancing and the"Posted Payment Register" is notprinting the functional currency paymentfor checks.

Sol: Apply patchset V or higher forRelease 10.7 to get version 80.21 ofAPXINDTL.rdf and version 80.31 ofAXPTDCR.rdf, or apply mini-pack E forRelease 11.0.4 to get version 110.11 ofAPXPTDCR.rdf.

8. Prob: The invoice amount appears asmany times as it is posted in the "PostedInvoice Register". The total for theliability account is incorrect.

Sol: Apply patchset V or higher forRelease 10.7 to get version 80.28 ofAPXINPIR.rdf, or apply mini-pack E forRelease 11.0.4 to get version 110.6 ofAPXINPIR.rdf.

9. Prob: An Invoice attached to a checkthat was voided and reissued is showingup on the Trial Balance as not paid.

Sol: You will need to delete therounding rows in the paymentdistributions table and then rebuild thetrial balance. Please log a tar withsupport.

To prevent this from happening again,apply patchset U or higher for Release10.7 to get version 85.230 ofAPXPAWKB.fmb and version 80.16 ofapautob.pls. Apply mini-pack D forrelease 11.0.4 to get version 110.73 ofAPXPAWKB.fmb and version 110.6 ofapautopb.pls.

10. Prob: I had a system failure during"Payables Transfer to General Ledger"and now I want to synchronize my APTrial Balance table to the PostedInvoices and Posted Payments inPayables.

Sol: Download the rebuild script patch375496 from Metalink.

11. Prob: The "Accounts Payable TrialBalance" report shows a negative"Remaining Amount". The invoices inquestion have been imported and havebeen posted, paid, and payments haveposted.

Sol: If your "Accounts Payable TrialBalance" report is showing a negativeamount in the REMAINING column, itmay be due to importing invoices withthe POSTED_FLAG,ACCRUAL_POSTED_FLAG,CASH_POSTED_FLAG inAP_INVOICE_DISTRIBUTIONStable set to 'Y'.

This interrupts the logical flow ofPayables Transfer to General Ledgerand, more importantly, the subsequentupdate to the AP_TRIAL_BALANCEtable.

Distributions do not transfer to GeneralLedger if the above named columns havea value of 'Y' because this value tells thepost process that the item has alreadyposted. When an invoice is transferredto General Ledger, theAP_TRIAL_BALANCE table isupdated using the invoice_id and invoiceamount information from the invoices.

When a payment is transferred toGeneral Ledger, the paymentinformation (as it relates to the invoice)is also inserted into theAP_TRIAL_BALANCE table, (againusing the invoice_id). Basicallyreversing the entry made by the invoice.

When you populate the posted flags atthe time you import invoices, you areremoving their ability to naturally updatethe trial balance table. Consequently,when the payment is made normallyusing Oracle Payables, these paymentsupdate the trial balance table. However,because there was no initial entry to thistable from the invoice, the paymententry becomes one-sided. This leavesthe "Amount Remaining" column of theAP Trial Balance Report with a negativevalue.

12. Prob: I’ve tried everythingmentioned. Is it ok to rebuild the TrialBalance table to see if it will fix the TrialBalance?

Sol: Yes, but try to limit the date rangeentered into the script. Download the

rebuild script patch 375496 fromMetalink.

13. Prob: I am experiencingperformance problems running the TrialBalance report.

Sol: You should apply the latest Mini-pack or Patchset. If this does not solveyour problem, you will need to run atrace of the program and log a tar withsupport.

14. Prob: What articles, white papers, ormanuals should I read for moreinformation on Trial Balance?

Sol: AP News Volume 13 Apr 07,2000 Balancing with Accounts PayableTrial Balance, Oracle Payables User'sGuide, Release 11, p 8-138,Oracle Payables Users Guide Release10SC, p 8-127

15. Prob: What are the MetaLinkkeywords I should use when searchingfor Trial Balance on MetaLink?

Sol: Trial Balance, APXRTBYou can also use the ORA and APPerror codes that appear on the screen orlog file, if relevant.

About the Authors

Phil Merlano is a Senior TechnicalAnalyst with Oracle Support. Phil hasseveral years experience withprogramming and technical support.

Michael Milano is a Technical Analystwith an Accounting/Finance backgroundand has worked with Oracle Support formore than two years.