The 7 Most Common PCLaw Errors – Hidden Errors

 

Hidden Errors are usually the result of deleting an entry, but a remnant of the entry is still present within the PCLaw data.

For example, I once had an entry that had been deleted, but it still appeared on an older bank reconciliation report – without remnant of this entry the reconciliation would not have balanced.

There are error messages within PCLaw that are designed to prevent you from altering data saved to bank reconciliations. In this instance, the error message was somehow overridden.

When searching the entire general bank report (all dates), the entry amount did not appear. By searching for the same amount in corrected entries, I was able to quickly locate the offending item.

As always, I invite your comments and suggestions for future post topics. Next week – Duplicate Entry Errors.

Clyde

The 7 Most Common PCLaw Errors – Read/Write Errors

Read/Write errors can be one of the hardest errors to both find and fix. The main difficulty is that the data has all been entered correctly. The receipts, disbursements, invoices, etc. are correct, but, for whatever reason, PCLaw is reading the data incorrectly. When PCLaw writes reports, on display or print, the reports do not add up correctly.

For example, I recently had a client ledger that showed all the invoices correctly, and also correctly showed all the payments made as against these invoices. But, the A/R balance was not correct.

The cause of these errors means they are usually referred to as a “server error”. But, this error can appear even though you are running PCLaw on a dedicated PC, rather than a server. A simple thing like a fluctuation in the hydro supply is all that is needed to cause the error. Therefore, just rebooting the PC or server may clear the error for you.

Depending on the error, sometimes just redoing the last few entries will fix the problem. Other times, it may be necessary to undo all the payments and invoices, in order to rebuild the client ledger from the beginning.

As always, I invite your comments and suggestions for future post topics. Next week – Hidden Errors.

Clyde

The 7 Most Common PCLaw Errors – Partial Posting Errors

 

A partial posting error occurs when an entry is posted to one sub-ledger but does not appear in the linked sub-ledger.

Some examples:

- A cheque issued from the general bank does not reduce your accounts payable balance or appear in the payments listing

- A cheque issued from the general bank does indeed reduce your accounts payable balance but this time it does not appear in the general bank journal or the bank reconciliation

- Accounts receivable receipt reduces the receivable, but does not appear in the bank journal or reconciliation

Fairly easy to correct. Simply remove the offending entry and redo it – just confirm that it now appears in both journals before moving on.

As always, I invite your comments and suggestions for future post topics. Next week – Read/Write Errors.

Clyde

The 7 Most Common PCLaw Errors – Posting Errors (PCLaw generated)

 

As we discussed last week with accounts Receivable errors, PCLaw can from time-to-time generate errors by misallocating data already entered. In my experience, the errors being discussed this time most often occur with the Input Tax Credits on expense entries that are actually non-taxable.

What happens:

You post a non-taxable expense.

It does not matter which bank you use, or if you use Accounts Payable to post the expense.

Your cheque is for the correct amount, and your bank will reconcile, which is why using the G/L reconciliation on a monthly basis is so important.

When you locate the offending entry, you will find the correct cheque amount, the expense amount, and a tax amount showing on the bank or A/P report.

Simply remove the entry and redo. Run your report again and confirm the new entry is correctly posted.

As always, I invite your comments and suggestions for future post topics. Next week – Partial Posting Errors.

Clyde