Thanks for the speedy reply, Richard.   After all these years, I’ve never looked at
“Data Integrity” (or any resulting Balance Sheets / Trial Balances, for that matter).
I merely input all the Sales, Deposits, Bank Credits, Expenses and Bank Debits,
and then bring a USB stick to the accountants -- so this is all new territory for me.

Sure enough, “Data Integrity” does have discrepancies, as shown in detail below:

The $2,000.62 which you see is the product of this year’s overpayments of $0.62,
plus a 2013 prepayment of $2,000.00 which seems to have never been recorded.

The -$19.90 is the result of those $0.62 overpayments, plus a 2014 overpayment
of $19.28.   As such, the "Customers & Sales" homepage shows their balance as
being $1,980.72 – (in other words: $2,000.00 - $19.28), but it should really be $0.

As for the Balance Sheet, the balances for #1200 and #1202 are indeed a match
because my “Session Date” is, effectively, the year-end date – Oct 1 vs. Sept 30:

I’m not sure how to post the Adjusting Entry in the Sales module (or how to alter
the customer account balance) considering the comment in your final paragraph:
Both the “$0.61” and “$0.01” customers already have a zero balance -- whereas
the “$1,980.72” customer does NOT, though it too should be zero.

I don’t know if I’m in trouble, but in my 1st year on Sage, I may have been guilty
of your statement: “you may have already unlinked the accounts to post an entry
in the General Journal and therefore your balances are out.”

Oh dread!!!

I had feared that a simpleton like me would feel bamboozled & overwhelmed by
the potential response, but I didn’t think it would be so lengthy and complicated.

Just looking at your item #1 is already frazzling me, because I’m not even sure
that I did unlink the accounts back in 2012.   Back then, in my 1st year on Sage,
I knew nothing, but I vaguely remember talking on the phone with a Vancouver
Sage representative, and I believe he guided me through the steps of posting
a “1200 Accounts Receivable” adjusting entry by having to unlink the accounts.

If I did so at the time, I don’t know if I re-linked them afterwards (or if I ever did),
but my current “Setup > Settings” looks like this:
 

I don’t dare contemplate the rest of your wonderful answer until I can determine
whether I indeed unlinked the accounts; but I’ll try to answer the rest of your #1.

__________


It seems that the $2,000.00 payment was posted like this at the time of deposit
because an invoice did not exist, nor was there a foreseeable one in the future:

1060  Royal Bank ..................................... 2,000.00
1201        Accounts Receivable other ........................ 2.000.00

The $19.28 overpayment during the following year was actually posted like this:

1060  Royal Bank ..................................... 1,307.00
1200        Accounts Receivable ................................. 1,287.72
1202        Accounts Rec. Pre/overpaid ......................      19.28

It does not appear that either were originally sent to a Sales/Revenue account,
but then these 2 items were posted as 2014 FYE entries “BY” the accountants:
 

1202  Accounts Rec. Pre/overpaid ................ 19.29
4120        Sales ………………………………….…………. 19.29

5716  Bad Debt ………………………..….. 3,200.00
1200        Accounts Receivable ................................. 2,000.00
1201        Accounts Receivable other ........................ 1.200.00

I don’t know why it’s “$19.29” as opposed to “$19.28”, nor do I know why or IF
the 2nd entry is in any way related to the $2,000.00 prepayment, but I doubt it.

However, first and foremost in my mind is 1) whether I did unlink the accounts;
2) did I relink them; and 3) what’s my status?   Is there any way to tell for all 3?   
I assume that since my current “Setup > Settings” screenshot shows a filled-in
“Accounts Receivable”, it’s therefore “linked”.   (But what the heck do I know.)

Steve J. said:

Back then, in my 1st year on Sage,
I knew nothing, but I vaguely remember talking on the phone with a Vancouver
Sage representative, and I believe he guided me through the steps of posting
a “1200 Accounts Receivable” adjusting entry by having to unlink the accounts.

I hate to say it but sometimes it is better to work with a consultant than tech support for data entry-related issues.  I have found consultants will ask more questions and review the file more closely.  But having said that, we can't make any conclusion here because I am afraid even my vague memory has been proven wrong sometimes.

And then you said

Steve J. said:

It does not appear that either were originally sent to a Sales/Revenue account,
but then these 2 items were posted as 2014 FYE entries “BY” the accountants:

which seems more logical to me.  Accounting offices do what they can to help companies but they do not/possibly cannot take the time to always understand how each of the 15-30 pieces of software they use in any given year work.  So they just get the job done to match their reports.  They likely unlinked to get the entries done.

Steve J. said:

I don’t dare contemplate the rest of your wonderful answer until I can determine
whether I indeed unlinked the accounts; but I’ll try to answer the rest of your #1.

The image shows you are linked.  Normally the default linking of Deposits is to account 2460 (because amounts paid by customers but not invoiced are liabilities), but it can be changed.

Steve J. said:

However, first and foremost in my mind is 1) whether I did unlink the accounts;
2) did I relink them; and 3) what’s my status?   Is there any way to tell for all 3?   
I assume that since my current “Setup > Settings” screenshot shows a filled-in
“Accounts Receivable”, it’s therefore “linked”.   (But what the heck do I know.)

Answers:

1) Maybe, maybe not.  Sounds like the accountants did but

2) they are relinked again so you can't use those accounts in the General Journal entries unless you unlink them again.

3) Seriously, still confused is the answer! ok, sorry, but let's fix it.

Based on the information you have provided and my interpretation, the first step is to get your year end books for Sep 30/15 matching the accountant's trial balance (assuming they gave you one with the year end adjusting entries).

Second step is to get the Customer Aged report matching the real zero amounts owing.  This will also fix your Data Integrity Discrepancy errors.  Because account 1201 is a zero balance, we cannot post the entry in the 2015 year end, you need to post it in Oct/15.

Step ZERO: BACK UP your company file.

Step 1a: Unlink the accounts by going to the Account linking screen (image you provided) and delete the accounts in Accounts Receivable and Deposits and Prepaid Contracts.  You may get a warning about foreign currencies but you shouldn't because that module is turned off in your file.

Step 1b: Post the accountant's year end adjusting entries so those accounts go to zero on the balance sheet.  Use your year end date for that year.

Step 1c: Relink the Accounts Receivable account to 1200 and Deposits and Prepaid Contracts to account 1202.

Step 1d: Check the data integrity.  You should see a zero balance on the left but the original balances on the right are the same and the discrepancy should remain.

Step 1e: Confirm that your trial balance matches the Accountant's year end trial balance.

Step 2a: Check the balance of the bank account on Oct 1/15 (first day of new fiscal year I believe) possibly still -1195.29.

Step 2b: Use Receipts to receive any amount owing/prepaid for any customer.  Use the Royal Bank account in the Bank drop down.  Date should be Oct 1/15.

Step 2c: Check the Customer Aged report to make sure no customers owe money.  Run it in detail as well using zero days instead of 999 at the bottom to make sure no invoices are unpaid.  If there are, let me know (show me an image if it's ok with you to show us the detail or black out the your company and customer names).

Step 2d: Unlink the Accounts Receivable and Deposits and Prepaid Contracts accounts again as you did in Step 1a.

Step 2e: Post a general journal entry on Oct 1/15 to remove the amount of money you just added to the bank account in total to each of the other accounts as necessary to bring the balances of accounts 1200 and 1202 to what I believe should be zero on Oct 1/15.  The bank account should go back to the original -$1195.29 balance and accounts 1200 and 1202 should be zero.

Step 2f: Relink the Accounts Receivable and Deposits and Prepaid Contracts accounts as you did in step 1c.

Step 2g: Check your Data Integrity to make sure it says Data Ok.

Step 2h: Check the balances of your accounts on the balance sheet for Oct 1/15 to make sure they are as they were before you started this step.

In your general journal entries, use the comment to clearly show what you are trying to do so you have information for the future if the accountants or CRA ask.

Based on my interpretation of the information you have provided, this is what I think is required to get you back in line again.  It sounds like a lot but it can all be done in less than a half hour likely.

For your Oct/15 bank rec, you will see a debit and credit on Oct 1/15 for the same amount.  Click off each and mark them as Adjustment instead of Cleared.  The entries should not affect your bank rec if you click both as cleared/adjustment.

If anyone else can see anything I might have missed in my interpretation, please jump in.  My assumption here is that the accountant or Steve J has already handled the proper entries to record the invoicing amounts and write offs regarding amounts not paid in full.

If you still have problems, click on my name send me an email.

Hope this helps

Wow!!!

Many thanks for everything you posted.   :-)    And in many more ways than one.

Thanks for letting me know that it doesn’t/didn’t matter if-and-when the accounts
were unlinked and relinked.   I was really scared that was going to be a concern.

Also, thanks for re-confirming “how” to unlink those accounts -- (by making their
“Setup > Settings” entries temporarily blank).   Sometimes things aren’t obvious.

Thanks also for advising me to match the accountant’s Year-End Trial Balance.   
I had never considered that before, and that lets me know I'm on the right track.

And of course thanks for also predicting what the Data Integrity would look like:

The $4,000.00 is the result of this additional Adjusting Entry by the accountant:

1200  Accounts Receivable ..................... 4,000.00
1250        Inter Company ……………........................ 4,000.00

It’s funny how things would have looked like if the accounts remained unlinked.   
This is what the Data Integrity looked like before I had relinked those accounts:

Now, every-everything matches the accountant’s Trial Balance to a tee except
for the Retained Earnings (which always excludes the current year’s loss/profit).

For step 2, I believe the following is what you want me to post:

                                          LINKED (2b):
1060  Royal Bank .................................... 1,980.72
1200        Accounts Receivable ................................ 1,980.72

                                       UNLINKED (2e):
1200  Accounts Receivable .................... 1,980.72
1060        Royal Bank …………................................. 1,980.72

Actually, I feel like holding-off on those Step 2s until (hopefully) your next reply.   
Mucho mucho thanks for everything you’ve written – nevermind it’s great detail.

:-)

Oh no!!!
I thought that everything was resolved.   I was merely looking for a confirmation.

But you’re right.   The $4,000 is indeed odd in that it doesn’t refer to a customer
but, rather, an inter-company loan/cheque from the Ontario company.   As such,
the A/R totals won’t ever equal the list of customers.   However, that is what the
accountants have as an Adjusting Entry, and I posted it as “unlinked” -- just like
the original “$0.62” problem up-top which started this thread.

I’m guessing that the best thing I can do for the time being is to leave this quirk
as is, and bring it to the accountants’ attention when I give them the 2016 data,
asking them to reverse it for a different Adjusting Entry.  (They use CaseWare.)
_____________

As for your latest reference to Step 2e:   it was the accountants’ adjusting entry
(Step 1b) that was the “journal entry that took the balance of account 1200 and
1202 as indicated, to zero.”  That’s the original problem which brought me here.

1200        Accounts Receivable .................................. 0.62
1202  Accounts Receivable Pre/overpaid ..... 0.61
5715  Office Expenses .................................. 0.01

After posting the above as “(1b) unlinked”, I thought the problem was resolved
because both “1200” and “1202” were now zero.
_____________

The only remaining quandary was the customer who prepaid $2,000 without it
ever being in the A/R book -- minus $19.28 overpaid on a subsequent invoice.   
(See very 1st screenshot above.)    That’s what I thought your 2b and 2e were
referring to:   eliminating the outstanding $1,980.72.

Sorry about your confusion over my confusion.   :-)

If you are still having problems, I will offer one more time what I offered in the second last line of my third post.