Ok, so you’re inherited a disaster. You’ve run the general ledger and the results you are getting are, frankly, ludicrious. Where do you begin?

In CAPITAL your chart of accounts EITHER has the structure of containing opening and closing stock accounts that are postable, OR it is a direct cost of sales chart, where there are no opening/closing stock accounts, and at least one postable Cost of Sales account.

Sometimes an inexperienced user may have tried to set-up both at once. A good starting place to get a background on these issues is to read the General Ledger help topic: Advice On Stock Control.

If you are trying to clean up a mess,  set the chart of accounts up as opening/closing stock for now.  As this is simpler to set-up and manage and less sensitive to configuration problems and issues. You can always switch over to a direct cost of sales account approach (perpetual inventory) later on, but the easier you make things for yourself at the start, the better.

If you find that the postings in your GL are a chaotic jumple, it’s quickest to start over. Which means, starting with a clean slate and reposting for each period in turn.

The procedure is to check off each period, and work forward from there:

(1) Reversing any journals (such as opening balances) found in period 1 or any valid adjusting journals for any other periods. You need to do this so you can repost them again.

(2) Reset the entire period.

(3) Run a trial balance to confirm the period is empty.

(4) Repost any opening balance journals.

(5) Run End Period Wizard and repost activity to the period.

(6) Run trial balance and review results.

Step 6 does not mean that postings are going to the correct accounts! But most of the invalid rubbish found in your system should be removed by this point.

The next step will be to review what is posting where, and make corrections as necessary.

Reversing Journals

To reverse journals you will need to repost later, start the GL and go to Journals|General Journal Batches. Find the journals you want to post again. Press “Post” and then select Reverse – The Selected Batch. Press Post button.

Resetting (Clearing) An Entire Period

To reset (empty) an entire period, select File|Properties, click on Special tab. Enter Period No. (Start with 1.) And press Clear button.