Make zero-balance Suspense account visible if transactions are present

ideas
1

The suspense account disappears from the summary screen with zero balance (Equal Debit and Credit) even if the ‘exclude zero balances’ is unchecked.

The danger of this is that you may be having a suspense account with equal debit and credit amounts and not know.
I believe the behaviour of the Suspense Account has to be consistent with the summary page settings when transactions inside it add up to Zero. it can stay hidden if there are no transactions in it.

2

I agree with Abeiku the Accountant.

To enable myself to detect if I do have any amounts in the Suspense Account, I created a Balance Sheet report for the 31st of March 2021 (The end of my current Financial Year) which includes all zero balances.

When I want to check on the Suspense Account quickly, I just select:

  1. Reports TAB
  2. Select Balance Sheet
  3. Select the “View” button for the report titled: Balance Sheet for 31 March 2021 (Including Zero Balances)
  4. Page Down until the Suspense Account is shown
  5. Click on the “-“ or Amount space
  6. A List of all the batches which have the Suspense Account selected in them is then displayed.
  7. Corrections or enquiries can continue.
3

Optimal behavior of the Suspense account can be debated. That is, should it always be visible if any transactions are in it, even if the balance is zero? Or should it be suppressed if zero balances are excluded and it happens to have a zero balance despite having transactions in it?

Personally, I think it should always be visible if there is any transaction in it, regardless of its balance.

Why? Because any transaction in Suspense is evidence of a mistake. No financial statement should be relied upon if there is any transaction in Suspense. So there is no valid reason to want display of the account to be toggled on or off based on balance. That option is meant to shorten reports. But suppressing a zero-balance Suspense account means hiding mistakes.

Nullifying transactions that coincidentally produce a zero balance are still mistakes. And the Suspense account is your warning about them, justifying slightly different treatment from other accounts, all of which except Retained earnings and Starting balance equity are either actively created or result from enabling specific functional tabs. (And the latter of those is also evidence of mistakes.)

I have put this into the ideas category and modified the title to be a suggestion rather than a complaint.

4 Likes
4

Thanks @Tut

5

Agree with this, Add Option
Exclude Account with (Zero balances AND No Transaction) within the specified period.
Especially on the Summary Page, Financial Statements Report, and Trial Balance Report.