Industry specific software

My client is an interior designer using a software (Studio Webware, FYI) designed for her industry. The balance sheet is out of balance by $133.21. I have gone through the GL looking for this amount, I have compared Balance Sheets I printed prior to starting their tax work and I'm pretty sure the issue developed in the latter half of December. When I run a GL report and compare it to the Trial Balance report, it's clear that there is something going on in the checking account. I've gone through every transaction on the GL report for the cash account and cannot find this amount. The net debits and credits on the GL report are off $133.21 from the net debits and credits on the trial balance, and it's the only account that doesn't tie out. Problem is that I can't get into the detail on the trial balance. The vendor who owns the software now tells me that the client needs to engage their consultant, at $2 per minute, to solve the problem. I tried exporting the report to Excel, but I still don't get the detail that I need. I'm so close to being able to find the problem, anyone have any ideas on how to get in the backdoor to find the TB detail? I just think it's awfully handy that the vendor is going to bill my client a bunch of money because they have to start cold to find what's wrong.

Plug it to software expense.

Then the checking account doesn't balance to the bank reconciliation and it would need to be reversed in January so the bank is balanced going forward. I"m going to have to think this one through. It's such a small amount of money I can't see letting the vendor crank up a huge bill to fix the problem.

Edit: That won't work anyway, this is like a one sided journal entry that is causing the problem. If I debit an asset account (cash, suspense, holding, etc) and credit an expense account, the net effect on the Balance sheet is nil.

We have a client who uses software specific to architecture firms. The difference is that the vendor is actually quite helpful. Have you asked about "Orphan Accounts?" Sometimes the TB that doesn't actually B in all cases is because something has gone to an orphan account that is not designed to hit the accounting system.

Sumwunlost, are you able to see an Orphan Account on the chart of accounts? That would explain how this might have happened. I don't think this vendor will answer that question though. So far the standard response to my questions has been that it needs to be turned over to their consultants at a cost of $2 per minute ($120 per hour!). I finally caved and sent an e-mail with my explanations hoping to cut down the amount of time they need. So far this morning, no response and the issue is not corrected. They are on the east coast, I'm in Hawaii, so they've had plenty of time to find a solution, I'm just hoping that solution doesn't require the amount of time they've had so far (there is six hours difference between here and the east coast).

In the software our client uses, it is something you have to search for. It is not in what an accountant would call the Chart of Accounts. Can you get a list of system accounts, in particular, those used outside of the accounting module?

They won't provide access to the trial balance detail, I don't have much hope of them allowing someone access to or information about the system files.

I did have an e-mail from them this morning thanking me for my information and letting me know they are working on the problem and will let me know when it's fixed. I'm just hoping they haven't racked up two days worth of time trying to solve something I could have solved in about an hour with proper access. This is a very frustrating and arrogant company to work with.

EDIT: I just had an e-mail telling me the problem is fixed. Seems an order didn't have a tax location assigned to it which caused the problem. I checked the order, the dollar amount is right, but the date of the order is 2012 and all transactions within it seem to be from there. The in house bookkeeper was doing some clean up work on a bunch of little things recently, something must have been just hanging there incomplete and when she cleared it, that tax code became an issue. Still don't know how much that's costing.

Oh the pain of Studiowebware. . .I know that mongrel hybrid accrual system well. Thank you for sharing, if the balance sheet ever comes up short, I'll know where to look, or at least one more place.

SWW features about the worst customer service I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with. They either don't help at all, or bare minimum. Nice how that independent consultant thing works out, ya? $100 an hour for bookkeeping they charge! LOL!! Is it $120 now?!? I did have a good overall experience with one consultant, I must say. Damn expensive though. Apparently the project management side of the program is genius, my client loves it; the accounting side, not so much. I can see Studio's usefulness in terms of how it handles client and vendor deposits and such, and handling custom creations where components come from all over the world. That is where the usefulness ends.

Here's a good one. . .try running a simple AR aging report for 12.31.2015. . .is it working for you (your client)? Hasn't for my client for months now. The current daily report works, but if you need to go back even a day, it does not. My favorite part is that I periodically check and see when it will be fixed, and there is nothing slated. Email customer servive, nothing, no date available. The recommended work around is to export and excel worksheet and massage the data down. At an annual cost of a little over $6k, I'd think one of the most basic damn reports should at least work. Set up fees were stiff, and were capitalized, etc. I think they are pouring all their resources into marketing a new purchasing and product selection platform that features chosen vendors, they could give a **** about making a decent accounting system.

One last, if they push their "Payscape" credit card payment partner on your client to integrate to accounting. . .don't do it, just don't.