Resolving 'Inactive GL Account with Non-Zero Balance' Errors (Troubleshooting)

When you see an error message that says "You have 1 inactive general ledger account with non-zero balance", this means you have an account that has been made inactive from your Chart of Accounts that still has a balance on it. This will typically affect your balance sheet. Because the account is not active, the funds within it are not accounted for in your balance sheet. Basically transactions have been entered that will not be accounted for.

This message will show the account in question as well as its current balance.

To resolve this issue, first, have a look at the account in question to understand what transactions have been loaded against it. If you make the account active once more and then run the Account Entries Report on it to see what the entries made against the account are, you should have a better understanding of the transactions made to the account. Once you understand this, you can work out how to deal with the balance before you make the account inactive again.

To make the account Active again:

1. In Actionstep, go to Accounting > Accounts >Accounts List. 
2. Click the Display drop-down list and choose Master Accounts. This shows all active and inactive accounts.
   
3. Find and select the account that's listed in the error message you received.
4. In the Opt-in divisions section, select the division to make the account active. (Most users will only have one division.)

Now that the account is active, you can run the Account Entries Report. Make sure you run it for a large date period so that you can capture all the transactions that have been entered involving that account.

At this point, you can decide if the account should be inactive (you can leave it in its current Active state) or if the transactions within in it should be accounted elsewhere. You may want to complete a General Ledger Journal to zero out this account and then make it inactive again.

You might consider consulting your accountant if you are unsure how to deal with this.