Writing off unidentified money

Some money never gets claimed. A payment arrives with a reference nobody recognises, you work the case for months, and no customer comes forward.

Writing it off takes it out of suspense. It does not mean the money is yours. If the payer turns up two years later, they still have a claim, and the system still has the record.

Before you write off

Writing off is the last step, not the first. Work the case first:

1. Search the narrative for anything a customer would recognise.
2. Check whether the payer’s bank account matches a customer on file.
3. Ask the bank for the remitter’s details if the reference is unusable.

If the money belongs to a purpose other than the one it sits on, move it instead. See moving money between purposes.

Writing off a case

1. Open the case from the suspense worklist.
2. Select Write off.
3. Enter the amount. You can write off part of an item and keep working the rest.
4. Choose a reason.
5. Confirm.

The amount leaves the suspense balance and posts to the ledger accounts your organisation has set up for that purpose.

Why the reason matters

The reason is required, and you choose it from a list rather than typing it. Money the bank has given up on is exactly the kind of entry an auditor reads back years later, and “misc” tells them nothing.

Your organisation sets the list. Typical reasons look like this:

The claim survives

Writing off is derecognition, not cancellation. The moment you write an item off, the system opens a claim account for it carrying the written-off amount.

That account is the answer to a claimant who arrives long after the case is closed. It records what arrived, when it reached the bank, and what it was held for — so the person at the counter is answered from the ledger rather than from memory.

The claim carries the date the money reached the bank, not the date you wrote it off. Any period the claim runs for starts from arrival, so a slow investigation does not quietly extend it.

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> InSuspense: money arrives unmatched
    InSuspense --> Placed: allocated to a customer
    InSuspense --> Moved: transferred to another purpose
    Moved --> InSuspense
    InSuspense --> WrittenOff: written off with a reason
    WrittenOff --> ClaimOpen: claim account opened
    ClaimOpen --> [*]
    Placed --> [*]

What you cannot do

• You cannot write off more than the item still holds. If part of it has already been placed with a customer, only the remainder is available.
• You cannot write the same item off twice. The second attempt is refused, and the claim is not doubled.
• You cannot write off an item that has already been placed in full. There is nothing left to derecognise.
• You cannot use a reason your organisation has not configured.

Once it is written off

The case resolves and leaves the worklist. It stays readable — the reason, the amount, who did it and when are all on the case.

If money later comes back out of a placement onto the same item, the case reopens with its original clock and owner intact. Nothing you wrote down is lost.

What your organisation configures

• The reasons you can choose from.
• The ledger accounts each purpose writes off to.
• The account type used for claims, and how claims are recorded.
• Whether the suspense capability is switched on at all.