- How did I end up with a positive balance in that subcategory (all of the purchased materials have been received)?
- Is this a common thing?
- Do I do anything about it or will it magically correct itself (it's been two and three months)?
The Distribution Center is Paying Me for Purchases
-
- Member
- Posts: 276
- Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 7:06 am
- Location: Berea, KY, USA
The Distribution Center is Paying Me for Purchases
I have a positive $40.00 balance in my Budget:Distribution Center Charges subcategory. As far as I can tell, there were a pair of $20.00 distribution center charges that got voided and recharged for some reason. I went through and carefully changed the category of each expense to the subcategory of the auxiliary paying for the purchase. After I was done, I had a balance of $40.00.
-
- Member
- Posts: 86
- Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:29 pm
- Location: Salt Lake City, UT
nutterb wrote:I have a positive $40.00 balance in my Budget:Distribution Center Charges subcategory. As far as I can tell, there were a pair of $20.00 distribution center charges that got voided and recharged for some reason. I went through and carefully changed the category of each expense to the subcategory of the auxiliary paying for the purchase. After I was done, I had a balance of $40.00.
- How did I end up with a positive balance in that subcategory (all of the purchased materials have been received)?
- Is this a common thing?
- Do I do anything about it or will it magically correct itself (it's been two and three months)?
I have the same problem. Not sure why it is doing it yet. But it definitely occurs after changing the budget category to a different subcategory.
- aebrown
- Community Administrator
- Posts: 15153
- Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:48 pm
- Location: Draper, Utah
nutterb wrote:I have a positive $40.00 balance in my Budget:Distribution Center Charges subcategory. As far as I can tell, there were a pair of $20.00 distribution center charges that got voided and recharged for some reason. I went through and carefully changed the category of each expense to the subcategory of the auxiliary paying for the purchase. After I was done, I had a balance of $40.00.
As allenjpl mentioned, this is happening because you're not changing the category of all the relevant transactions -- you're just changing the expense side. A voiding of a transaction doesn't remove the original transaction, but creates an additional transfer in the opposite direction in the same category.LakeyTW wrote:I have the same problem. Not sure why it is doing it yet. But it definitely occurs after changing the budget category to a different subcategory.
Let's just look at one of the charges. In MLS you would have originally had something like this:
- $-20 expense in DC category for original purchase
- $+20 transfer in DC category for void
- $-20 expense in DC category for re-charge
- $-20 expense in YW category for original purchase
- $+20 transfer in DC category for void
- $-20 expense in YW category for re-charge
What you probably should have done is just leave #1 in the DC category. After all, that item was not delivered to the YW. Only #3 was actually delivered. So you should edit the first expense to be back in the DC category, and then you will have in MLS:
- $-20 expense in DC category for original purchase
- $+20 transfer in DC category for void
- $-20 expense in YW category for re-charge
Note that MLS won't let you change the category on a transfer. All you can do is create another transfer that subtracts $20 from DC and adds $20 to YW. So trying to change the corresponding transfer to be in the YW category would just make this all a bit more complicated. That's why I recommend changing expense #1 back to DC.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
-
- Member
- Posts: 276
- Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 7:06 am
- Location: Berea, KY, USA
Oddly, in each case, I only changed the category on one of the transactions. Looking at the detail, the transactions look kind of like this
1. $-20 expense in DC category for original purchase
2. $+20 transfer in DC category for void -- second line $-20 expense in DC category (yes, there are two lines on the expense detail)
3. $+20 transfer in DC category
So now that I really think it through, I think I transferred #1 into an auxiliary category, but left #'s 2 and 3 in DC. I'm still a little confuzzled, however, because the transactions shown total to $0, not $-20. Does that sound at all familiar?
1. $-20 expense in DC category for original purchase
2. $+20 transfer in DC category for void -- second line $-20 expense in DC category (yes, there are two lines on the expense detail)
3. $+20 transfer in DC category
So now that I really think it through, I think I transferred #1 into an auxiliary category, but left #'s 2 and 3 in DC. I'm still a little confuzzled, however, because the transactions shown total to $0, not $-20. Does that sound at all familiar?
-
- Member
- Posts: 276
- Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 7:06 am
- Location: Berea, KY, USA
Let's see if this helps.
I've attached screenshots of where I'm getting confused. In this part of the expense detail report, I have four lines for the distribution order. On the surface, it looks like everything should balance properly. But when I click on that first item (blue reference number), I see this. Would deleting the charge to Budget:Administration fix the accounting problem, or would it get me into more trouble?
Any ideas what I did wrong to get myself into this mess? I have this same problem for every single distribution order I've placed this year. But at least I'm consistent!
I've attached screenshots of where I'm getting confused. In this part of the expense detail report, I have four lines for the distribution order. On the surface, it looks like everything should balance properly. But when I click on that first item (blue reference number), I see this. Would deleting the charge to Budget:Administration fix the accounting problem, or would it get me into more trouble?
Any ideas what I did wrong to get myself into this mess? I have this same problem for every single distribution order I've placed this year. But at least I'm consistent!
- aebrown
- Community Administrator
- Posts: 15153
- Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:48 pm
- Location: Draper, Utah
It does look like the net is that your budget has only been charged $74.25, so indeed the overall balance should be correct. But it doesn't look like the subcategory balances are correct. It's not obvious what the "(multiple)" transaction is, but from the other information, it appears that it is a $74.25 credit to DC and a $74.25 debit to Administration. That, in conjunction with the other explicit entries, yields:nutterb wrote:I've attached screenshots of where I'm getting confused. In this part of the expense detail report, I have four lines for the distribution order. On the surface, it looks like everything should balance properly.
-74.25 DC
(multiple) = +74.25 DC and -74.25 Admin
-74.25 Admin
+74.25 DC
That is a total of +74.25 DC and -148.50 Admin. That's what is shown on the expense detail screen (the signs are opposite of what I have written above, since on the expense screen a positive expense is a debit to the account).
So you've somehow done a double correction, which yields a net result of a double charge to admin and a single remaining credit to DC.
You can't delete charges. You can only set them to 0. That action by itself would get you into more trouble. The simplest fix would be to create a single transfer, on the left side would be DC and on the right side Admin (since you need to transfer out your current net credit in DC and also cut your net charge to Admin in half).nutterb wrote:Would deleting the charge to Budget:Administration fix the accounting problem, or would it get me into more trouble?
I'm not sure what you've done to get in this situation. A simple change of category (which is what I do for DC charges) results in a single transfer of net 0, which shows up like "(multiple)". I don't know how those other transactions appeared.nutterb wrote:Any ideas what I did wrong to get myself into this mess? I have this same problem for every single distribution order I've placed this year. But at least I'm consistent!
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
-
- Member
- Posts: 86
- Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:29 pm
- Location: Salt Lake City, UT