Fixing Dual Month Transactions in Rent Master

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If when you go to print your month end reports and/or statements you find that you have LAST month transactions printed as well as the current month transactions then you have a dual month situation.

The reason why you have both current month and previous month transactions on your statements is because you didn't close off the month properly at the end of last month. You didn't do the last entry on the menu (CLOSE MONTH).

The CLOSE MONTH option deletes all the the current transactions (they remain in the YTD file still) and zeros all of the Monthly figures ready to start the new month. If you didn't do this step then all of the previous month transactions would still remain and be included in the new month.

Another cause? If you closed off the month using this option and then subsequently restored from a backup done earlier (prior to the close off) then the data will appear as if you didn't ever do the close off.

Checking the Exact State of Your Data

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Do the previous month's transactions include all of the commission and landlord payments for last month? If they are included as well as the current month transactions then you can fix it up ok. (see further notes below)

If the commission and landlord payments for the previous month are missing and only the receipts for that month are there then you have a much bigger problem. If this is the case you'll have to contact GO Software so that we can go through it together. (see further notes below)

Fixing the Dual Month Transaction problem

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Assuming that all of the prior month transactions are there then you can pay the landlords etc as normal but you need to delete the prior month transactions from the reports. By the way you aren't the first person to forget to close off the month and so we have created a semi-automatic fix to correct it for you. Do the following
  1. Backup your database before you start
  2. Print a Landlord Trial Balance and mark it BEFORE FIXUP
  3. Click on the FIX menu to go to the Fix Screen
  4. Click on the FIX menu again
  5. Click on CHECK/FIX BALANCES
  6. Click on DUAL MONTH
  7. Click on the AUDIT button
  8. The system will display a message telling you what to do - click on the OK button
  9. A list of the current prior month and current month transactions will be displayed.
  10. Locate the first transaction for current month - usually the first receipt AFTER the last landlord payment.
  11. Double click on the first current month transaction
  12. Click on OK when the system displays the audit number for you to verify
  13. The prior month transactions will be deleted and the balances adjusted to reflect this.
  14. Print another LANDLORD TRIAL BALANCE and mark this one AFTER FIXUP
  15. Compare the closing balances on the two Trial Balances - they MUST be the same
Hopefully this will have fixed your problem. If the closing balances on the two trial balances DON'T agree then you'll have to manually adjust these using the EDIT LANDLORD function. The YTD B/FWD balances for each landlord and the closing balance for each landlord MUST be the same on the two reports. The MTD B/Fwd balance MAY be different on the two reports but that is ok.

If the landlord YTD B/Fwd and closing balances are the same for all landlords on the two trial balances then you can just continue your month end processing from the start of the final reports menu. You'll need to reprint all of the reports and the statements and continue on.

If the balances are NOT matching then you'll need to adjust them first. (see below for how to do this.)

Last Months transactions are not ALL there

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If the prior month commission and landlord payments are missing from the current reports but the prior month receipts are on the current reports then you have a major problem as the landlord balances will not reflect last months payments and so the landlords will be paid too much (two months worth of payments) and this will overdraw your trust account. If this is the case then you'll have to bring/send us a backup of your database and you last month end backup as well as ALL of the prior month month end reports (please don't FAX them) so that we can take manual steps to correct the problems.

What we'll need to do here is to

  1. Export the transactions from your prior month database
  2. Identify the audit number of the last transaction for last month
  3. Find the audit number for the first transaction for current month on your current database
  4. Adjust all of the audit numbers from this number on to all be after the audit number of the last transaction for last month in the transaction, YTD transaction and tenant receipt files.
  5. Merge the transactions exported from the prior month database into the transaction and YTD transaction files in the current database.
  6. Add any receipts in the merged transaction list into the tenant receipts file.
  7. Backup this database
  8. Continue with the dual month fix as normal

Balances don't agree after doing the Dual Month Fix

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Normally the closing balance for most (if not all) landlords is zero each month and so you will normally only have balance problems with landlords where this is not the case. If after doing the dual month fix as per the above instructions the landlord balances on the two trial balance reports don't match then you'll have to follow this procedure.....
  • Look at the total closing balance for ALL landlords on each trial balance. Write these two figures down.
  • Do the same for the YTD B/Fwd balance totals on the two trial balance reports.
  • Go into the EDIT LANDLORD screen
  • Bring up the first landlord whose balance is different.
  • Click on the BALANCES tab to display the landlord balances.
  • While holding down the CTRL and the ALT keys press the F10 key - this will enable you to edit the landlord balances which you normally can't change.
Now you have to change all three landlord B/Fwd balances (MTD, QTD and YTD) by the same amount so that the three closing balances all agree with the closing balance on the FIRST trial balance. Eg If the original closing balance was $110 and the balance on the second report was $60 then you have to add $50 ($110 - $60 ) to all three opening balances. Use a calculator to make sure that you don't make any mistakes. Once you do this then the YTD/BFWD balance and all three current balances should now match the original trial balance although the MTD B/Fwd balance may be different.

Save this landlord and repeat this process for all landlords who have balance differences.

Now that you've fixed the landlords you need to correct the control totals that the system maintains for ALL landlords. To do this ...

  • Click on the EDIT menu
  • Click on OTHER MASTER FILES
  • Click on CONTROL DETAILS
  • Click on the OTHER OPTIONS button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
  • While holding down the CTRL and the ALT keys press the F10 key - this will enable you to edit the balances which you normally can't change.
Now you should see in the RENT column a YTD B/FWD, OPENING and CLOSING balance. You need to do the same thing to these balances that you did to the landlord balances except that these figures should equal the total of the YTD B/FWD and CLOSING balances on the original trial balance. Then save the changes and exit the screen. Print another trial balance and now this one should match the original trial balance in the YTD B/FWD and CLOSING balances columns.

If this is ok then you can proceed as before by re-printing all of the final reports and continuing on with your month end from there.

Regenerating a Prior Period Database

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What happens if you have lost your backup for one of your databases from a prior month? Normally this means that you've lost the info for good. However we can now (sort of) recreate a prior period database.

Let's say that you've lost your end of March database backup but you have a middle of May backup that's ok. The process would involve making a copy of this backup. Deleting the April & May transactions, copying the March transactions from the YTD Transactions back to the normal transactions and then correcting any balance differences. We now have an automatic process to do this for you.

What it DOESN'T do is
  • Put the tenant "paid to" dates back to what they were at the end of March
  • Put the bank reconciliation screen back to what is was a the end of March.
So the process isn't foolproof. However to do this follow these steps...
  1. Open the database that you want to make the copy FROM.

  2. use the SAVE DATABASE AS option from the FILE menu to save the database with another name. As an example if you are re-creating the March 2004 end of month database you would save it as RENT0403.MDB where the [04] refers to 2004 and the [03] refers to March.

  3. Click on the FIX menu which will change to the FIX menu screen display

  4. Click on the FIX menu again and choose CHECK/FIX Balances and then REGENERATE PRIOR MONTH DATABASE

  5. You will be asked if you want to do this and will be warned that it may be dangerous to do so.

  6. Enter PROCEED if you want to go ahead.

  7. If there are any transactions in the transaction file for this database (as opposed to the YTD Transactions) then you will be prompted to accept the audit number of the first transaction in the list. Click on OK to accept it and all transactions with this audit number or later will be deleted. In our current example this would delete the May transactions.

  8. Then you will be prompted to enter the audit number of the first transaction that you want to delete from the YTD transaction history. In our example this would be the first transaction for April. You will be presented with a list of transactions and you will need to double click on the appropriate transaction. The system will delete this transaction and all transactions entered after it.

  9. Then you will be prompted to enter the audit number of the first transaction that you want to appear in the list of current transactions. In our example this would be the first transaction for March. You will be presented with a list of transactions and you will need to double click on the appropriate transaction. The system will copy this transaction and all transactions entered after it into the normal monthly transaction file.

  10. You will then need to run a FIX YTD TRANSACTIONS option from the CHECK/FIX BALANCES sub-menu of the FIX menu. This MAY NOT correctly set the balances and so you will need to follow the same procedure as mentioned above for the FIX DUAL MONTH in order to get the correct landlord balances.