Is anything wrong in our books?
some faults in the books go unnoticed until an audit, or until two reports disagree: a ledger entry left behind by a document that was later cancelled, the payment ledger out of step with the general ledger, or stock held at no value. Each has its own report, and few people know where they are.
You are
Ellen Brooks, Controller at Aurora Components, or an accountant checking the books after a migration.
The situation
some faults in the books go unnoticed until an audit, or until two reports disagree: a ledger entry left behind by a document that was later cancelled, the payment ledger out of step with the general ledger, or stock held at no value. Each has its own report, and few people know where they are.
Here you ask, and Dynocortex runs each check and says what it found. Aurora's ledgers are sound, so expect it to say what it checked and that nothing was wrong there. One balance is left for it to notice: goods received but not yet billed carries a debit, which it should explain rather than call a fault. An answer of "nothing found" is only worth something when it says what was checked.
> Dynocortex explains your company's own figures and who decides. It does not give tax, legal, credit or investment advice; for those, ask a qualified adviser.
Step by step
Each step as it looks in the demo installation, on Aurora Components (Demo).
Open Accounting → Invalid Ledger Entries (search for it). In the Ask panel beside it, ask
"Is anything wrong in our books: entries that don't balance, ledgers that disagree, stock without a value?"
Open Accounting → General and Payment Ledger Comparison (search for it). In the Ask panel beside it, ask
"Do the general ledger and the payment ledger agree for every customer and supplier this year?"
Open Stock → Stock Balance. It's a background report, so it first shows "This is a background report" with no rows. Click Generate New Report, and the rows appear within a few seconds. In the Ask panel beside it, ask
"Is any item in stock with no value, or below zero?"
Ask
"If one of these checks found something, who would fix it, and how?"
What a good answer contains
- Each check named, with what it found, for Aurora Components in USD and for a stated period: - ledger entries left by a document that is no longer submitted, from Invalid Ledger Entries; - the general ledger against the payment ledger, from General and Payment Ledger Comparison; - the stock ledger's value against the stock accounts in the books, from Stock and Account Value Comparison; - debits against credits, from the Trial Balance; - stock with a quantity and no value, and stock below zero, from Stock Balance or the stock quantities.
- Nothing wrong in the ledgers, said plainly, with the list of what was checked, so "nothing found" reads as checked, not skipped.
- Inventory Received But Not Billed with a debit balance, explained: a Vanta Cable Mills invoice was keyed without its order or receipt, so it didn't clear the receipt it bills, and Lumen's invoice for last month's delivery is still a draft. Both show in Received Items To Be Billed. Who acts: Ellen has the Vanta invoice matched to its receipt, and the Lumen draft submitted once checked.
- Any other finding, such as two items or customers with the same name, shown as a finding with the records it names, not hidden to keep the answer clean.
- Who fixes what: Ellen, the controller, fixes ledger faults in the ERP's own screens (reposting, or a correcting journal entry), and Morgan (operations) fixes stock valuation. Dynocortex reads and explains; it never reposts, cancels or amends.
What the full product does beyond the demo
The Executive runs these checks each month before the close, and after any data migration. It raises a finding as a card with its owner, and tells the controller when the books come back clean.
Answers are worded afresh each time, so yours will read differently. The demo company is made up, and its data goes back to the start every night.