Sage Mas 90 / 200 - Accounts Recievable - Balance Forward Issue
The Problem
Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200 allows for both Open Item Customers and Balance Forward Customers. A Customer is an “Open Item Customer” if the Open Item checkbox, in Customer Maintenance is checked, and Balance Forward if the checkbox is cleared.
Open Item Customers allow you to apply cash receipt payments directly to individual invoices. For Balance Forward Customers, cash receipt payments are applied against the entire customer balance. When Accounts Receivable Period End Processing is performed, payments are applied to the oldest customer balances first, and any current period invoices not paid are rolled into a new end-of-month Balance Forward record for aging purposes.
DSD Business Systems, as well as other Sage MAS 90 users have noted, occasionally, an Open Item Customer’s Open Item flag is reset to Balance Forward. When this occurs, cash receipt payments cannot be applied to individual invoices, and a BF Payment record is created for the customer account. When A/R Period End Processing is performed, Balance Forward Balance records are created, identified by the BF transaction type with the Period End date as the description or invoice number.
Sage has “fixed” this bug several times in the past, but the problem still occurs on various levels, indicating there may be an undocumented bug still out there. Here are the usual suspects:
- Under certain situations, when adding a new customer “On the Fly” in Sales Order Entry, S/O Invoice Entry or A/R Invoice Entry, the customer record is saved with the incorrect (Balance Forward) flag.
- One reseller has noted in Customer Maintenance, accepting a new customer without all the required fields can cause the customer to be set as a Balance Forward type.
- In Sage MAS 90 3.20 a bug was fixed where when Cash Receipts were applied to a customer with no open invoices, and AUTO apply was selected, the Open Item flag was changed to Balance Forward.
- A bug was also found in Customizer where the Open Item checkbox was cleared from ‘Initially ON’ (open item) to blank (balance forward) after opening the Open Item Customer checkbox properties.
The above situations do not account for those occasions when a long term Open Item Customer is changed to a Balance Forward Customer.
Possible Solutions
There are three techniques for fixing this problem:
- The first it to use Data File Display and Maintenance (DFDM) to edit the appropriate fields in the Customer Master file (AR1), Open Invoice file (AR4) and Transaction Payment History file (AR6). Sage MAS 90 Repair Utilities should only be used under the supervision of an experienced technical support person. Contact DSD Business Systems for help using DFDM to fix any Balance Forward Customers.
- Second, if the customer has no open invoices, select A/R Options, and change the “Open Item or Balance Forward” flag from “Open Item” to “Mixed”. In Customer Maintenance, change the Open Item Customer flag by checking the checkbox field. Return to A/R Options, and change the “Open Item or Balance Forward” flag from Mixed back to Open Item.
- The third technique is to post all invoices prior to A/R Period End Processing. Next, enter Credit or Debit Memos to bring the customer balance to zero. Perform Period End Processing, which will zero out all invoice, credits, and payments. Now go to Customer Maintenance, and reset the flag from Balance Forward to Open Item. Finally, re-enter the invoices that were credited to bring the customer balance to zero.
The best solution is prevention. DSD Business Systems uses either a Report Master or Crystal Report to print a list of all Balance Forward Customers prior to Period End Processing. This enables you to fix the Open Item flag before the BF and PY balance forward records are created at period end processing.
Balance Forward Customer Report Download Instructions
A. Importing the ‘balfwdet.exp’ Report Master template will allow you to make changes to the report in Report Master Maintenance.
- Download the balfwdet.exp template into the ..\Mas90\RM folder.
- In Sage MAS 90, go to Report Master\ Main \Report Master Import.
- At the ‘Report Name’ prompt, use the F2-List key to find and select the ‘balfwdet’ template file.
- Say ‘YES’ to import the report template.
- Go to Report Master Maintenance, select the BALFWDET report, review and compile the report. Print the report for Report Master Printing menu item.
B. Adding the ‘balfwdet.rm’ compiled report to Report Master Printing, allows you to run the report, but not change or modify the report.
- Download the BALFWDET.RM program file into the ..\Mas90\RM folder.
- In Sage MAS 90, go to Report Master\ Main \Report Master Printing.
- At the ‘ENTER LINE NO. OR REPORT NAME:’ prompt, Type ‘R’ and hit the ENTER key. (This will add the *.RM report to the Report Listing.
- Select, and print the BALFWDET Report Master report.
C. Download the Crystal Reports ‘balfwdcust.rpt’ report program to your custom Crystal Reports folder, and double-click to run, or you can add the report to you’re A/R Custom Reports Menu in MAS 90.
- Download the balfwdcust.rpt Crystal Report to your ..\Mas90\Reports folder.
- In Sage MAS 90, go to Library Master\Utilities, and select Report Manager.
- Select Accounts Receivable at Application.
- Select <new report> at Report Name.
- Select Crystal Report for Report Type.
- Select Import Crystal Report.
- Browse and select the ‘balfwdcust.rpt’ report file.
- Select Menu, and select Add. This adds the report to the A/R Custom Reports menu.
In Sage MAS 90, go to A/R Custom Reports menu, and select the report to print.