This article explains how to reconcile what Blackpurl reports as the total of your Received Inventory Accruals against the matching General Ledger (GL) balance in your accounting package (Xero or QuickBooks Online). Keeping these two figures in agreement confirms your inventory accrual account is accurate and makes it easier to catch and correct issues early.
How Often to Reconcile
Perform this reconciliation at the end of every month at a minimum. Running it regularly means your dealership can confirm the Received Inventory Accrual GL is correct at all times — and if a discrepancy appears, you can identify and fix it immediately rather than untangle months of transactions later.
What the Received Inventory Accrual Account Is
The Received Inventory Accrual account holds two types of outstanding balances:
The value of all parts-related stocked Vendor Receivings (VRs) that are waiting for a Vendor Invoice (VI) to be completed
The value of Vendor Returns (RTNs) that are waiting for a Vendor Credit Memo (RTNCR) to be completed
Together, these two amounts should always equal the balance of the Received Inventory Accrual GL account in your accounting package.
When vendor receivings are stocked in, the related part inventory or sublet accrual GL accounts are updated, with an offsetting entry posted to the Received Inventory Accrual (A/P Inventory Accrual account VR) GL. Once a vendor invoice is processed against those stocked VRs, those amounts are cleared out of the Received Inventory Accrual account.
When vendor returns are set to Approved, the related part inventory GL accounts are updated with an offsetting entry posted to the Received Inventory Accrual GL. Once vendor credits are processed against those approved returns, those amounts are cleared out of the Received Inventory Accrual account.
Before starting this reconciliation, confirm which GL you have set as your A/P Inventory Accrual GL, and make sure you understand the relationship between VRs and VIs, and between RTNs and RTNCRs.
Important: This Is a Blackpurl Control Account
The Received Inventory Accrual GL is managed by Blackpurl. To avoid reconciliation issues, follow these rules:
Never post entries manually or directly into your accounting package that affect the Received Inventory Accrual GL.
Never modify or delete a transaction or journal entry that was generated by the Blackpurl integration.
If you need to correct something that the Blackpurl integration posted, post a correction entry — do not edit or delete the original.
What to Reconcile
Step 1: Run the Blackpurl Reports
Run both of the following reports in Blackpurl:
Blackpurl Reporting - A/P Inventory Accrual Account (VR) (no longer available)
Blackpurl Reporting - A/P Inventory Accrual Account (RTN) (no longer available)
Add the totals from both reports together. This combined figure is what Blackpurl indicates as the total for your A/P Inventory Accrual account.
Step 2: Run a Balance Sheet in Your Accounting Package
In Xero or QuickBooks Online, run a Balance Sheet as of your reconciliation date. Locate the balance for your Received Inventory Accrual GL account.
Step 3: Compare the Two Totals
Compare the combined Blackpurl report total from Step 1 against the Received Inventory Accrual GL balance from your Balance Sheet. The two figures should match.
What to Do If There Is a Variance
How you handle a variance depends on its size:
Small or insignificant variance: Post a journal entry to bring the two figures back into alignment. A minor cent-level discrepancy is generally not worth the time to investigate further. This is the only situation where it is acceptable to post a journal entry directly against a GL account managed by Blackpurl.
Larger variance: Run the account transactions report for your Received Inventory Accrual GL covering the period since your last successful reconciliation. Look for entries that were not generated by the Blackpurl integration, or for entries that have been manually changed in your accounting package — these are the most likely causes.
Variance cause still unknown: Contact the Blackpurl Support team. They can review the daily logs in the backend of your Blackpurl account and identify which specific day or days reported a change in variance, giving you a date range to investigate.