How do I figure out what caused a variance in the FACTS to General Ledger Comparison report?

Start with one of the funds that shows a variance on the report.
1. Confirm that there really is a variance.

• Confirm that the GL balance is the same as the report.
• Confirm that the last posted cycle plus the transactions on the investment accounts for that fund equal the value in the FACTS column.

2. Confirm that all FACTS journal entries for all GL years have been posted.
            3.  Run a Journal History report and select on the pool account and the fund.  Be sure to select Enable Multi-Year Reporting on the front screen.
            4.  Sort the report by journal number.
            5.  Compare this to the FACTS transaction entry listing and FACTS transaction history listing for the same fund sorted by document number.

Note:

• There will be no transaction in the FACTS reports equal to the net allocation entry.  If you edited this transaction prior to posting it, this will be a difficult one to track down.       
• If there are opposite variances in two funds, this usually indicates a journal entry was changed before posting. If the variance at the bottom of the report is $0, this also indicates that journal entries were changed before posting.  Closer examination of the journal entries should find the manipulation.

If the problem can't be determined, but you are certain that either the FACTS value or the GL value is correct, then fixing the variance is easily accomplished.  Note that complementary variances ( one positive in one fund and a negative in another fund) are typically caused by attempts to close funds out of the pool incorrectly.

Once you have determined which value is correct:

If the FACTS balance is correct and the GL is wrong, then make a journal entry to correct the GL balance and use an FA journal key.  Journals with an FA key will not post back into FACTS and thus won't change the FACTS balance, but will change the GL balance. Note that journals made will typically include the pool asset account and a revenue account ( typically unrealized gain).

If the FACTS balance is not correct and the GL IS correct:

1. Go to the Pools tab in FACTS
2. Find the Pool and uncheck the prevent manual transactions box.
3. Go to the Reconciliation tab and then the Transaction tab
4. Click New
5. Enter in a new FACTS transaction.
6. Use mscp for the type and fill in the rest of the information.  The amount should be the variance.
7. After entering in the transaction(s), rerun the FACTS to GL comparison report.  
8. If created correctly, the variances will disappear.
9. Repeat step #2 and recheck the box.

Note that this WILL cause the pool balance to change by the net amount of these new transactions.  Depending upon the value, the only way to get FACTS to balance will be to adjust the unrealized value for the current cycle by the total of the transactions. In many cases the variances net to $0, but the individual funds are out of balance.  Thus creating these transactions that net to $0 will not impact the total pool balance.