Sage Pastel • Differences between Open Item and Balance Forward Processing

Sage Pastel • Differences between Open Item and Balance Forward Processing

Overview of Open Item and Balance Forward Processing

Overview of Open Item and Balance Forward Processing

When you create a customer or supplier account you need to select the processing method.

The method you choose seriously affects the way you process the customer or supplier.

The methods are:

· Balance forward

You simply match a payment to a period. Pastel starts matching payments against the oldest outstanding balance.

· Open item

You must match each payment to an original invoice. Although this means more work, your ageing is more accurate. You can also leave a queried invoice unmatched and it remains in the statement or remittance until it is paid.

You specify the processing method for each customer or supplier in the Edit…Customer… Accounts or Edit…Suppliers menu options respectively.

Processing Journals and Cash Books

You enter values into Pastel by means of transactions. You classify transactions by using entry types, which you create in the Setup…Entry Types menu option.

In the Process…Journals menu option, you enter general ledger, customer, and supplier transactions. In the Process…Cash Book menu option, you enter payments and receipts.

Processing in these options is almost identical, and we use the same set of help topics to cover both options.

Note
When entering or editing data on a line, for the data to be saved you need to navigate off the line.

Note
Cash Books and Journals can have up to 5000 lines entered before processing.

Incomplete Batch Open Item Matching

You can do any of the following:

· Leave the rest as unmatched

Select this option if you wish to leave the remainder of the amount unmatched. Pastel returns you to the batch. You can then later revisit the batch Open Item Matching screen to complete the matching.

Alternatively, you match, unmatch, or rematch the items after updating the batch in the Process…Match Open Item menu option.

· Complete the matching

Select this option to return to the batch Open Item Matching screen, should you wish to complete the matching.

· Adjust the transaction value

Select this option to accept the partial matches made thus far, and change the batch line’s value to be the same as the value you have matched.

Choosing between Open Item and Balance Forward

Comments ( 23 )

  • Pingback:Pastel Payment Terms, Ageing, Open Item, and Balance Forward | Articles on Pastel Accounting Partner

  • Angela McClelland

    I am not an experienced Pastel user so please forgive this question.
    When I automatch amounts up pop the invoices on the screen and they are matched perfectly.
    Problem is: I can’t see a button that will close the screen and when I hit enter nothing happens. If I try to Close the window behind it the machine just beeps. I have to do an emergency statement as our accountant is away unexpectadly.

    Please help!
    Angela

    • Hi Angie. its not a silly question, it has stumped many people. Simply, your screen resolution is not big enough to fit the whole of the Pastel screen. By default Pastel requires a 720pxx1024px to fit everything nicely.
      1.if you are like me and need to lean in a bit to read everything, you would tend to make your screen resolution bigger, leaving areas out.
      2.if you have a older model computer it will do this, and you may not have the option to change the screen res (perhaps there are no graphics drivers for it), which means you may need a graphics card or a new screen or a new pc.
      But hopefully you can just adjust the screen settings and VIOLA! the button is back.
      🙂

  • Vanaessa Fortune

    Good day I have a question regarding open items, if I have credit in the new year and they are to offset invoices in the past year, how do I match these so that it does not just sit on the remittance unresolved?

  • Cedric

    Hie
    Could you kindly assist with the procedure for converting accounts from Balance Forward to Open Item?

    • Hi Cedric
      Thanks for your post.
      Have a look at this link, I think this is what you want.
      Fixing Open Item

  • Good day, I just want to know we started a new company on pastel but the lady that installed it and did the setup company didn’t tell us what the settings were. What I want to know is when I look on my Income statement there is no amounts available, even though we have done a few invoices.

    • Hi Jacky,
      Sorry for this late reply.

      The answer would be that she didn’t link the general ledger accounts to their financial categories.

      Edit… General Ledger… Accounts

      Look for the 1000/000 Sales or whatever number was created.
      It should be an income statement account on the left, and
      Income Financial block on the right, should be linked to sales.

      You are going to have to scroll down the list of G/L accounts, and spot any that have the working UNALLOCATED ACCOUNT next to them, and link them to a Financial Category.

      Best of luck
      Bev

  • Zelda

    Hi
    I am not experienced Pastel user but I am learning,
    My question is that when I took of the accounts it has being one big mess to try and sort out all customers and suppliers to bring them up to date again,
    we have just did year end in March 2017 and I am battling with certain customers still with Invoices that have being allocated wrong to wrong payments, now I need to go back into the previous year 2016 to try and fix it in open match item and I don’t know how to go back into 2016??? Can you help me to go back???

    Thanks
    Zelda

    • Hi Zelda,
      I do apologise for my late reply. I have been training UNISA learners these last few weeks, for their exams, and ended up neglecting everyone on my blog.

      I feel your pain, it is quite challenging to sort out another persons recons.
      Zelda, do you have a multi company package? Like Pastel or Xpress?

      And when the previous person was there, did they run the year end, and give it a new name?
      Then it is easy to add a company.
      It should be sitting in the Parter/Xpress folder

      http://xquizit.co.za/articles/category/adding-a-company-to-pastel

      Just a point here, I notice you state you want to open the previous years data and fix the open item.
      You cant do that there, it is too late.
      You need to do that in this years data.

      kr,
      Bev

  • Leslie

    Hi
    I am very new on Pastel and would like advice on how I view open items (ie unmatched) for a customer since inception.

    Currently I can only do a year at a time. eg If I open 2018 year end the list will still include items matched in 2019.

    So I do I in the 2019 year see all unmatched ?

    Thanks
    Leslie

    • HI there
      You cannot see an account from inception, unless its fairly new still.
      To get to the matching screen, you go to
      Process… Match Open Item…
      Choose the customers…
      Choose until the latest month…
      And hit enter
      This will show a list of invoices, and a section at the top of unmatched items.

      Hope this helps
      Bev

  • Cherry-Lee

    Hi,
    Please advise if it is possible to change the processing method from balance forward to open item if you have already used and allocated transactions to either the customer or the supplier?
    Thank you 🙂
    Cherry

    • Hi Cherry,
      Please see your emails. I replied that way.
      Best of luck
      Bev

  • Nolene

    Hi
    My supplier age analysis is way out, I have one payment reflecting as credits in three separate periods none of which are the invoice period. I cannot figure out how to fix this. Is there a way to “re-age” a supplier payment. To try and match payments to invoices doesn’t work either as none of the payments are unallocated. I really hope my description of the problem makes sense. Any help will be appreciated.
    Thank you 🙂

  • Michelle Van Blerk

    Hi , How do I change the sorting of “open Item Matching” for Suppliers . At the moment it is sorted according to the Invoice Number . I ‘d like it to be sorted according to date .

    • Hi Michelle,

      Regarding your message, which report are you referring to?
      If this is the cash book open item screen, there is no way to change the current view it has. Its always been that way.

      Bev

  • Retha

    HI,
    How do I close the OPEN ITEM MATCHING CB 4 receipts? It’s time consuming for me.

    • Morning Retha,
      As you are getting an open item screen, this means that all your accounts are using open item.
      This means that you will always get the open item screen where you have to match the payments to the invoices. You cannot close this,
      Regards,
      Bev

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