Moving money between suspense purposes
Every amount in suspense is held for a reason — a purpose. Unidentified receipts, early settlements, returned payments, corrections.
The purpose is a first guess, made when the money arrived and nobody had looked at it yet. Once you work the case you often know better. Moving it to the right purpose is how you say so.
When to move money
Move it when the money is still unallocated but you now know what it is for. For example:
- A receipt parked as unidentified turns out to be an early settlement.
- A credit parked as a correction is really a returned payment.
Do not move money to get it out of your queue. The case, its age and its owner all follow the money, so the work comes with it.
If you know which customer the money belongs to, place it on their account instead. Moving it between purposes is for when you still do not.
Moving an item
- Open the case from the suspense worklist.
- Select Move to another purpose.
- Choose the purpose the money should be held for.
- Confirm.
The amount clears from the old purpose’s balance and opens on the new one.
What travels with the money
This is the part that matters, and it is deliberate.
| What | What happens |
|---|---|
| The case | The same case continues. No new case is opened. |
| The age | The clock keeps running from the day the money reached the bank. |
| The value date | Unchanged — still the arrival date. |
| The narrative | Unchanged. Whatever the bank sent is still searchable. |
| The owner | Whoever the case was assigned to keeps it. |
| The direction | Money that came in stays an inflow; money that went out stays an outflow. |
The age is the one people expect to reset, and it must not. An item that has been sitting for ninety days is a ninety-day item whatever it is now labelled. If moving it restarted the clock, anything you escalate on age could be hidden from you indefinitely by relabelling it.
What you cannot do
- You cannot move money to the purpose it already sits on. There is nothing to move.
- You cannot move more than the item still holds.
- You cannot move money to a purpose your organisation has not set up.
- You cannot move money that has already been placed in full.
Reading the trail afterwards
The case shows the move: what it was held for, what it is held for now, and when it changed. The old purpose’s balance goes down, the new one’s goes up, and both sides reach the ledger.
Nothing is created or destroyed by a move — the money never left suspense. Only the label on what it is being held for changed.
What your organisation configures
- The purposes available, and which one money defaults to.
- The ledger accounts each purpose books through.
- How long money may sit on each purpose before it is escalated.