Hi Frank Maranto,

Thanks for reaching out. Just wanted to check that you are using Sage Accounting our cloud-based solution and not Sage 50. If this is for Sage Accounting then please see this article for help on how to edit or void a sales invoice in Sage Accounting:

Frank Maranto said:

way to clean out these old invoices

Hope this helps!

Warm Regards, 
Erzsi

Sorry. It is actually with Sage 50

What strikes me as a possibility is that somewhere along the line, either payments have been posted to the A/P account instead of being applied to invoices owed or and invoice was entered and the expense account was the A/P account.  Another possibility is that the default A/P account was changed at some point in time to something other than the A/P account and then changed back later on.  Any of these things would cause the Aged payables balance to differ from the Accounts Payable ledger account.  Then too, when the vendor beginning balances were put in, perhaps they didn't agree with the ledger balance.  

The Aged AP report is supposed to match the Accounts Payable on the balance sheet. It's quite concerning to me that there are techs who don't understand that.

It's good that the current debit/credit activity looks fine. That indicates that your current procedures are correct and the problem is coming from the beginning balance. Assuming that the Aged Payables report is correct, here are a few things you should check.

• Look to see how far back the problem goes.This will help you narrow down your search for the source of the problem.
• Check to see if you're consistently off by the same amount, or if it varies from month to month. If the balance is off by the same amount every month, then you know everything is working correctly now and you just need to adjust the beginning balance.
• Run an aged AP report. Go into the options and select a filter for AP Account ID, set it equal to the balance sheet account that it is supposed to match. If the report matches the balance sheet after setting the filter, then you know you have transactions with the wrong account in the A/P Account field. That problem will correct itself once all of those invoices are paid. But you need to make sure it doesn't keep happening in the future.
• Run a General Ledger report for the AP account. Normally the "Jrnl" column should only show PJ (purchase journal) and CDJ (cash disbursements journal). One exception would be if you had a refund from a vendor, you may see a CRJ (cash receipts journal) entry. Anything else is probably something that needs to be corrected. As Tom1410 mentioned, if a payment (CDJ) is posted directly to the AP account instead of being applied to an invoice, that will also throw the balance off; in other words, the AP account should never be used on the Apply To Expenses tab of the Payments window.

Those are the most common problem areas. If the problem goes back to a previous year, you will probably need to post a general journal entry to correct the balance of the AP account. I would recommend you talk with your accountant about what the offsetting account should be, since it sounds like it will be a significant amount

StephenC good answer.  Running a vendor ledger report for "today" can also be helpful 1st step to compare them to a summarized a/p aging report.  look for the imbalances and then drill deeper into those vendors. Could be one or more vendor ledgers contributing to the problem.

As Steve said - they should match. (I share his concern if techs truly do not understand this)

I'm encountering an issue with my Sage accounting software, and I'm hoping someone can assist me. The problem lies with the Accounts Payable (AP) module. I've noticed a discrepancy between the AP balance shown on the Balance Sheet and the Aged AP report page. While I understand that the Balance Sheet includes both paid and unpaid transactions, I believe the AP balance should reflect only the outstanding amounts at the given time, excluding already paid invoices.

Both the Aged Payables Report and the accounts payable on the balance sheet should always show the total outstanding vendor invoices. The balance sheet normally displays balances as of the end of the month, so make sure the Aged Payables Report is also set for the same date.

The steps in my previous post will help you narrow down the problem. Have you determined how far back the problem goes?

I have this same issue with Sage 50.  I'm relatively new to this software and my Company (been making it work for a year, but now need to clean up some things).

We have items still showing in Aged Payables from 1997. That just baffles me.  The actual A/P balance on the B/S seems reasonable, but aged payables seems almost infinite.

Just trying to figure out where to turn for a solution.  Is there a Sage tech support or is this it?

Help?!