Q. Sometimes the system will not cut a reimbursement check for an employee even though he has made a request and there appears to be sufficient money in his trust account. What's the deal?

A. It is critical that you only update withholdings (Main Menu/Data Entry/Update Withholdings) and print reimbursement checks on a true pay day! Also check that your fiscal year and final pay day dates (Main Menu/File/Company Setup) are correct.

If no problems are found with with the fiscal year dates, and you are updating withholdings and printing checks only on true pay days, then the cause of checks that won't print is always an inadvertently deleted transaction record or an improperly edited transaction. Therefore, the best pace to start correcting a problem like this is with the dates and Transaction numbers. (The software sorts first by date, and within a given day by withholding, reimbursement request, and then payment. So for a given date, the transaction numbers can be scrambled.) Transaction numbers should generally be in numerical sequence because they simply reflect the chronological order the transactions were entered into the computer. If transaction numbers do not always get larger as the dates get later, going from the top of the page to the bottom, you can be certain that the Fast-Flex Plus operator has messed things up by improperly re-dating or eliminating some transactions.

Go to the "Report Generator/Transaction Reports/Individual Employee" to view the order of the transaction records in each trust account (medical, dependent care, etc.) for the problem employee. If any transaction numbers are out of order, you'll be able to spot where a problem lies. An out-of-sequence transaction record will either indicate a missing transaction (for example, a payment without a preceding request for reimbursement) or a transaction where the date has been incorrectly changed so that it no longer "fits" chronologically with the other transaction records. Both of these situations will cause problems, and both arise from manually editing the transaction records improperly.

For example, an out-of-balance problem could arise because a payment record no longer has a corresponding request, because the request was manually deleted.

Be assured that the program works correctly if the transaction file is complete and in order, so be careful in the future when editing your transaction records.

Here is an example of a messed up transaction file that prevents checks from printing even though it appears that there is sufficient money in the employee's account.

Example 1:

           Trust  Reimbursements   Trust   Outstanding Transaction 
         Date     Deposits Or Withdrawals  Balance   Requests     Number
         8/30/99   294.00      0.00         294.00      0.00        267
         8/31/99     0.00      0.00         294.00    294.00        300 
         9/1/99      0.00    294.00           0.00      0.00        310

Example 1 is how the Transaction should look in Report Generator/Transaction Report/Individual Employee. Both the dates and the transaction Numbers are in sequential order. The reimbursement is preceded by a request for reimbursement.

Example 2 shows a messed up transaction file because the program operator has deleted the request for reimbursement, but left the reimbursement itself. A subsequent reimbursement check may not be printed because Fast-Flex Plus now believes that it has already paid out more than has been requested!

Example 2:

          Trust   Reimbursements   Trust   Outstanding Transaction
         Date    Deposits  Or Withdrawals  Balance    Requests     Number
         8/30/99   294.00        0.00       294.00      0.00         267
         Deleted Request should be here-------------> 294.00         XXX
         9/1/99      0.00      294.00         0.00      0.00         310

To summarize, when reimbursement checks don't print, it is always because transaction records have been improperly deleted or re-dated. There are several warnings in the manual and the program itself about editing the transaction records. These must not be ignored!

The deleted transactions must be restored in order for things to balance so that reimbursement checks can be properly computed. To do this, print out the "Report Generator/Transaction Reports/All Employees". Next, go to "Main Menu/Data Entry/Transaction Records". When the transaction entry screen appears, simply click Void and then OK. Enter the transaction number of the reimbursement that is missing a corresponding request. Next, re-enter the reimbursement request (same amount as the payment you just deleted) and date it the same as the payment you just deleted. Click YES when asked if this new request has already been paid.

Once everyone's deleted requests have been restored, you'll be in business and checks will print properly. Be careful about deleting and editing transactions in the future, and follow the on-screen directions when you do.