Common reasons suspense is out of balance:

•You made GL entries without adding suspense to owner maintenance.

•You ran a revenue correction and the entries did not post and they were deleted.

•You voided a revenue check and the entries did not post and the entries were deleted.

How to research

•Run the Revenue/Billing > Reports > Suspense > Suspense vs. GL Balance report, this report will help you try to identify the entries that could be causing the issue.

•Use Your Company Change Log and your Suspense Change History Report to research.

•Pak Accounting also recommends running the Historical Suspense Owner Report.

This report provides detail by owner/lease or owner level as of two different historical dates and differences. This report could take a while to run if you have a large suspense history.

This report starts with current suspense information and backs out the changes between current Date and Date 1. Then, if Date 2 is specified, it reverses out all the changes between Date 1 and Date 2 to create the report.

This report was designed specifically for auditors that need a tremendous amount of detail and to satisfy the question asked in the middle of June: From December 31 of last year to the prior year, what exactly changed in suspense? This report is based on you keeping the General Ledger and suspense in balance at all times, otherwise it will report problems with finding the correct detail for the back dated "As of Date(s)". 

Suspense is entered in the Revenue/billing module under Suspense Maint/Listings, Add new.

It is very important that we integrate this process with our normal cycle locking routines. For instance, you would not want to run this process and cut a check while another revenue cycle is in process and the same suspense items have been assigned for payment. Also, in most cases the owner would need the attachments the cycle provides.

Suspense payments still do:

a.Backup Withholding, state or US, owner or distribution level.

b.Netting against the owner defined A/R account. We still look at both the cycle and the owner switches. This means you could net one owner and not another in the same run.        

c.Owner option to ‘Instead of Paying, Credit Account” to force payment against a defined account. This allows you to pay a wire transfer via G/L ACH.

d.Refund credit balance.

i.e. Everything except one thing: Since you are hand picking the owners you want to pay and the system is letting you know immediately the net amount being paid, the system is ignoring for this run only, any type of minimum payment requirement that was defined for the owner.  The system will pay everything in “Pay“ status for the owner(s) selected as long as it doesn’t result in a negative check.

If an owner is in Legal Suspense, their revenue will be held in their Suspense Maintenance. When the reason for putting the owner into suspense has been resolved, you must “release” the amount from legal first. (change the status from one of the many legal codes to the PAY status either via a DOI change or a suspense change). The revenue will then be "paid" out. As a reminder, revenue can be paid out via netting against JIBs/AR or paid via a check/wire. This will depend on their Owner Maintenance setup..

See Revenue/Billing > Reports/Correction/Void > DOI/Owner/Property tab > Mass Suspense Code Change Utility

See: Revenue/Billing > Master File Maintenance > Division of Interest

Also see Date Sensitive DOI Change and DOI Mass Change

Scenario: You have sold some wells to another operator, you need to get them off your suspense listing and transfer to the new operator.

Below are the steps for transferring suspense on wells or for which the operator is being changed.

1. Prepare a report of the Suspense to be sent to the new Operator.

Identify the properties that are affected and run a Master Listing by Property (S-10) report for those properties to identify the owners that have suspense. You can use this report to provide the new operator with the suspense detail by owner. If you have owners in these properties that owe you money and are in suspense and you do not want to send this money to the new operator, then you can change the suspense code on the owners that you wish to pay in Revenue/Billing > Change/Correct/Void > Suspense Change Existing. After you have changed the suspense code, then print another suspense detail just for that suspense code. You do not have to change the suspense code if you are sending all of the suspense to the new operator. The suspense report by property will provide the necessary detail for the new operator to enter the suspense by owner. 

2. Transferring Suspense to the new Operator

Set the operator up in the Owner Master (F12). After printing the suspense detail report, transfer the suspense from the old owners to the new operator owner by again using Revenue/Billing > Change/Correct/Void > Suspense Change Existing.

 3. Paying the owner (Choose best example for your situation)

Example A: Writing only one check to the New Operator(Already Paid or to be Paid)

Once you have the suspense transferred to the new operator owner, you can run a suspense maintenance cycle and print one check for the new operator owner. See Below for the Suspense Maintenance selection screen. CAUTION - Be sure and print a report of the original owner's suspense detail before you transfer it to the new operator owner.

Example B: Transition to a Gain/Loss from the sale of the lease account. (Not going to Pay)

1. On the Owner Maintenance screen > Revenue/Billing tab > Payment Method check Credit Acct then enter the Gain/Loss account number in the field "Instead of paying, Credit Acct:"  with the appropriate Sub-Account (if applicable).

2.  Run your cycle. In stead of paying the owner's revenue will be credited to the account in the previous step.

3.  Once the suspense has been moved you can go back into Owner Maintenance and change the Payment Method back to Check.

Revenue Billing > #30-Reports > Suspense Tab > Report S-21

The Suspense Change History Listing provides a detail audit trail of any suspense changes by property, owner, and distribution. This report can be run for one lease, a range of leases, or for all leases in a specified time period or since the last Revenue/Billing cycle update. A GL reference can also be entered to refine the report. If this is left blank, all GL references will be included.