The !unbalanced sign looks intimidating and our Accountant's instinct is to panic, but we promise you it's nothing to worry about. As we appreciate this unbalanced tag is there for your benefit, we also understand how frustrating it is to see this in your file! That's why we've compiled a few simple checks to help you troubleshoot!
Troubleshooting the '!unbalanced' notification
- ACCOUNT MAPPING & ACCOUNT TYPES
Is everything mapped correctly? i.e. are all balance sheet accounts mapped to all Silverfin Balance Sheet accounts? are all P&L accounts mapped to all Silverfin P&L accounts? If not, this could be causing an unbalance between your assets, liabilities, equity and income statement.
A common oversight is when users incorrectly map their Profit and loss account - Dividends Paid to an Equity vs Expense account. Silverfin gives opening balances to balance sheet accounts but not P&L, so the classification of the accounts is important.
Silverfin will sense check your accounts are mapped at the right level compared to what's coming in from the bookkeeping system. To review this you can access the 'Accounts' section of your client file and navigate to the 'Mapping' option.
If your account type appears inconsistent with the bookkeeping system Silverfin will alert you.
BOOKYEARS
Are all prior periods closed off correctly in your bookkeeping software? Silverfin requires these to be closed off so that it can accurately pick up the Retained Earnings entry upon doing so. An easy giveaway to check whether this is happening is if the amount 'unbalanced' is the same as the result of the previous period.
If so, this is no cause for alarm. Once you've closed off the prior year in your bookkeeping system then this will disappear.
Additionally, check that your bookkeeping years and periods in Silverfin are in line with those in your bookkeeping software. A difference of a day can obviously cause a difference in account values and therefore an unbalance!
- MANUAL UPLOAD
If you're manually uploading your data it may be helpful to check the formatting of the numbers in Excel, as this can often cause minor differences that accumulate and lead to an unbalance. It is also good to check whether there are any imbalances in the source data before it is exported from your accounting software.
- ROUNDING
Sometimes our data has been rounded if it's originally taken in a foreign currency, with this there can be discrepancies, particularly if you are using a XeroTB sync.
Please check through and compare the transactional details in accounts that may fall susceptible to this. If you find these rounding differences are the cause of the unbalanced amounts then this can be easily corrected by posting a small adjustment.
- SYNC ISSUE
Sometimes technology just doesn't want to play ball and your sync between your bookkeeping software and Silverfin is glitched somehow. Hopefully here at Silverfin Support we can help you solve the sync issue and get everything re-aligned again, but occasionally before the sync issue is solved, the latest data from the bookkeeping software has not been able to pull in to Silverfin, which causes an unbalance (as there are missing transactions or even accounts). When we have solved the sync issue, we can also then do a manual reset and your latest and greatest data will then come in and be in line with your bookkeeping software once again, happy days!
STILL UNBALANCED?
Ultimately, if you have exhausted the above queries, then it could prove useful to look through the Trial Balance (TB) from your bookkeeping software and your TB from Silverfin to compare accounts and see where the differences lie.
Where you identify any accounts that do not align, take a look at the transactions against the ledger in Silverfin to determine which amounts are missing or surplus.
Once you've found these send it through to us together with the Trial Balance and the nominal transaction activity.
If you're still scratching your head on that pesky sign? We're here to help!