Balance Consolidation

The balances of child customer accounts can be included in the balance of the parent customer account. To set this up, for the child accounts whose open documents can be paid with the payments of their parent, you select the Consolidate Balance check box on the Customers (AR303000) form (in the Parent Info section of the Billing tab). With this check box selected, the system includes the balances of child accounts in the parent balance; you can view this consolidated balance in the Consolidated Balance box in the Summary area of the corresponding parent account.

If the Multiple Base Currencies feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, the selected customer has been extended from a branch, and the current user is assigned to a role that gives users the ability to access companies with different base currencies, the Balance, Prepayment Balance, Retained Balance, and Consolidated Balance boxes will not be shown in the Summary area of the Customers form. Instead, the Balances tab will appear where the customer balances are displayed and grouped by base currency.

In this topic, you will read about how payment application is handled for the parent and child customer accounts and what reports you can use to analyze financial data.

Payment Application

With the parent-child relationship between customer accounts set up and the Consolidate Balance check box selected for child accounts, when you create a payment or a prepayment for the parent account on the Payments and Applications (AR302000) form, you can apply this payment to the open documents of both the child accounts and the parent account. On the Documents to Apply tab of the form, you can add rows with the open documents of a child account or click the Load Documents button on the table toolbar. When you click the button, the Load Options dialog box opens; in the Include Child Documents box, you can select the types of documents to be loaded.

If the Auto-Apply Payments check box is selected for the parent account on the Customers form and no documents for application are specified for the payment on the Documents to Apply tab of the Payments and Applications form, the system will automatically apply the payment to the oldest open documents (if any) of the parent account only.

If you want the system to include open documents of child accounts in the process of automatic payment application, you can use the Auto-Apply Payments (AR506000) mass-processing form. On this form, in the Include Child Documents box, you can select the types of open documents of child accounts that should be included in the process of automatic payment application. The system will process first the open documents of the child accounts and then the open documents of the parent account.

Also, you can apply open payments, prepayments, and credit memos of the parent account while you are creating an invoice or debit memo for the child account on the Invoices and Memos (AR301000) form.

If you plan to clear the Consolidate Balance check box for a child account for which it has been selected, first make sure that all applications of a parent payment to a child document are released or reversed (if needed). You cannot save changes in the parent-child relationship if any applications of this type are not released. However, you can reverse the application of a parent payment to child invoice or memo after the relationship was changed or removed.

Generation of Consolidated Reports

With the Parent-Child Customer Relationship feature enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, you can generate reports that group child accounts (or their documents) under the parent account and show individual account balances along with the consolidated balance of the group.

Note: Only child accounts that have the Consolidate Balance check box selected are grouped under their parent account, and their balances are consolidated with the parent balance.

The following MYOB Advanced reports have a check box (either Group By Parent Account or Consolidate Data by Parent Account) that you select to generate reports regarding parent-child relations: