Investigating Location Differences

Some Of the nominals and ledgers used in this topic may be different to those in your chart of accounts.

For establishment/organisation's consisting of several locations, each location has location code prefix to their nominal codes, e.g. AST, DON, etc.

If a document is posted that debits one location and credits another, this means that whilst the trial balance for all locations combined still balances, a trial balance for each location individually would not balance. This is because one location shows a debit but no corresponding credit, and the other location shows a credit but no corresponding debit.

For example, Academy A provides access to its swimming pool to another academy (Academy B). In return, Academy B pays 50% of the swimming pool running costs. Academy A need to charge Academy B for 50% of the relevant utility costs using applicable invoices.

The invoice created to charge Academy B a debit, then credits Academy A. IRIS Financials identifies that the locations are part of the establishment/organisation (because the document contains a combination of nominals for different locations) and applies an intercompany rule. This rule posts a balancing entry (an INTR document) to the nominal for both locations.

Using our previous example:

The invoice created credits Academy A and debits Academy B.

The balancing entry debits Academy A and credits Academy B.

Sometimes, you may think you have made a typing error and use the change document function to amend the invoice so that all lines are coded to the same location nominals. However, the INTR document that was triggered by the intercompany rule still exists and consequently, the locations do not balance.

It can be difficult to identify and locate documents that are causing intercompany differences, but the following options help to narrow the possibilities:

  • Confirm that the difference is not as a result of transactions being hidden from view due to security restrictions (this would only happen if the trial balance was not run as a System Administrator).

  • A Trial balance is run on one period at a time to identify the time frame during which the imbalance arose. Once you know the period, run an detail enquiry on the nominal for that period only. The INTR transactions display the document number of the original transaction in User Field 2 (grouping by this field provides the total for each document). For more information, please see Running a Trial Balance and Running a Detail Enquiry.

Correcting intracompany/location differences

To correct any differences, amend the applicable INTR document, setting all values to zero, or reverse the INTR using another INTR as the document type. Using an INTR document type stops the system automatically posting any subsequent INTR documents when the reversal is posted.

If you find you have made a mistake when posting, which is likely to affect the intercompany nominals, the best practice is to reverse and repost, rather than change the existing document. This ensures the intercompany postings are also reversed automatically.

It can be difficult to locate the documents that are causing the difference but there are a few things that you can do to narrow down the possibilities.

  1. First, confirm that the difference is not down to transactions being hidden from view via security restrictions. Running the trial balance as the CUSTADMIN user ensures that all transactions are visible.
  2. When running the trial balance, run it for one period at a time to work out when the difference arose.
  3. When you know which period to search in, you can run a detail enquiry on the nominal code for that period only.
  4. On the Detail Enquiry window, the INTR transaction(s) display the document number of the original transaction in User Field 2.
  5. Group the account enquiry by User Field 2 by selecting and dragging the column header to the Drag a column header here to group by that column message, the total for each document that has generated an intercompany posting is displayed.

If you compare the original documents against their corresponding INTR document then this can help identify the differences.

The most common reason is where the original document has been amended after the initial posting. If you change the original document then the INTR document is not automatically updated.

Example scenario:
An invoice document is posted that debits the AST location and credits the DON location.
An INTR document is immediately generated to balance the Trial Balance, posted to .
You then realise a typing error was made and edit the document to amend the invoice so that all lines are coded to DON nominals.
The invoice is no longer an intercompany transaction, therefore the INTR document is no longer required.
The INTR document does not change, so this causes the difference on the Trial Balance.
To correct this, you can either amend the INTR document, setting all values to zero, or reverse the INTR using another INTR as the document type (if you use a general journal, this triggers another INTR posting).

If you find you have made a mistake when posting, which is likely to affect the intercompany nominals, the best practice is to reverse and repost, rather than change the existing document. This ensures the intercompany postings are also reversed automatically. For more information, please see Reversing Journals.

Alternative method

Should you not want to correct the imbalance at an individual document level, you can post a single journal to balance each location's Trial Balance. This method offers less detailed analysis of the interactions between the locations but still balances the Trial Balance.

  1. Logged in as the admin user (CUSTADMIN), run a Trial Balance for all nominals for the full financial year, e.g. period 00 to period 97, and on the Nominal Analysis tab, select Add Criteria, then Location.
  2. If the Location column is not showing, right-select the column header bar, then select Location from the pop-up menu. Select and drag the Location column heading to the Drag a column header here to group by that column message to display the results grouped by location.
  3. Post an INTR document type using a PSFJournal document input form. Select Documents, then select Document Input from the menu.
  4. The Document Input dialog is displayed. Select Drill (...) in Document type, then double-select to select INTR - Intra Company Transaction from the Select a document type dialog.
  5. Next, select Drill (...) in Input form, then double-select to select PSFJournal from the Select an input form dialog.
  6. The Date defaults to today's date. Select Drill (...) in Period, then double-select to select the 97 - Audit Adjustments period for the required accounting year from the Select a Period dialog. Then select OK to confirm your selections.
  7. The PSFJournal document input form is displayed. Post the values for each location from the Trial Balance (in reverse) to the corresponding Intracompany nominal to balance each location to zero. For more information, please see Recording a Journal Entry.
  8. When you have completed all the required adjustment details, press F5 or select POST to post the document.