Just double checking.  There is only one answer to this in the forum and it is from 10 years ago.  Is the high balance lifetime?  It looks like it.

Based on the help files it says:  

The updated balance is an assessment of all open invoices, future transactions, and payments prior to the date entered in the date field that appears after selecting the Only Recalculate Customer High Balances option. If you do not enter a date, the Accounts Receivable module date is used.

You can specify a date earlier than the current period; however, the high balance reflects the most current period for which Period End Processing has been run.

I'm guessing it is looking at the Open Invoice table and it looks at all invoices whether they have been paid or not.  And the only way to change the outcome of the recalculation is for paid invoices to drop out of the table, based on the settings in the AR Options screen.

What does everyone think?