The accounting output "balance" (saldo) does not group documents by variable symbol, but by matching symbol. This symbol is calculated automatically and may differ from the variable symbol in certain situations. The following article explains how the matching symbol is determined, why a document may remain in the outstanding balance even after payment, and how to resolve the issue.

The matching symbol is the key by which the balance groups accounting entries on a balance-tracked account. If the sum of a group is zero, the group is considered settled and will drop out of the outstanding balance.

The matching symbol is not a standalone field on a document. It cannot be entered or overwritten, as it is calculated only when the balance is generated — derived from the variable symbols of the document and its payment.

When a payment is matched, it adopts the variable symbol of the document being paid. Both the document and the payment therefore fall into the same group, their sum is zero, and they will not appear in the outstanding balance.

If a single payment covers several documents with different variable symbols, a single matching symbol must be assigned to the entire resulting group. This symbol is taken from the payment — that is, from one of the documents being paid. The remaining documents are therefore assigned a matching symbol that does not correspond to their own variable symbol.

Example

Both invoices and the payment receive the matching symbol 2026002. As long as the relationship is solely between the invoices and their payment, the balance will be settled and the documents will drop out of the outstanding balance.

A problem arises when one of the documents has a counterpart entry elsewhere — typically a deduction on a billing invoice or an internal document. That counterpart carries its own variable symbol and therefore does not fall into the same group. The group does not balance out, and the documents remain in the outstanding balance even though the accounting state is correct.

If their matching symbols differ, you are dealing with the situation described above. Also check the total balance of the balance-tracked account in the trial balance. It is typically zero, because it is not the accounting state that is broken — only the key by which entries are grouped.

Split the combined payment into as many transactions as there are documents being paid, and match each transaction to its document individually. Each individual transaction will adopt the variable symbol of the document it belongs to, so each document receives its own matching symbol and drops out of the outstanding balance. The original payment details, including the variable symbol, are retained in the individual transactions, so the link to the bank statement is preserved.

Going forward, follow this simple rule: one payment corresponds to one document.

For documents that have already been matched, the payment must first be unmatched before the matching can be redone. For larger volumes of documents, the free add-on Bulk Bank and Cash Unmatching can help.

Do not overwrite the variable symbol on a bank transaction just to improve the appearance of the balance. A bank transaction is a record of an actual payment, and changing it will cause a discrepancy with the bank statement. The process for changing the variable symbol on a document that has already been matched is described in the article Changing the variable symbol on a matched document.

Most commonly because its matching symbol does not match the matching symbol of its counterpart entry. This typically happens when a single payment covered multiple documents with different variable symbols.

No. It is not an editable field — it is calculated only when the balance is generated. You can only influence it through the variable symbols on the documents and the way the payment is matched.

A mutual offset is treated by the application as a fictitious bank statement and behaves in the same way as a bank transaction. The matching symbol is derived using the same logic from the linked documents. The offset number does not enter the balance — it is used to link the entries of a single offset in the Mutual Offset Agreement print report. The clearing account through which the offset is posted must be set as a balance-tracked account; otherwise, the balance will not show the complete picture. The process is described in the article manual creation of a mutual offset.

For the balance, yes. Both documents are source documents, each contributing its own variable symbol to the matching symbol, so they fall into the same group with a sum of zero and drop out of the outstanding balance. However, in views that work with the payment status of a document, they will still appear as unpaid. The clean solution is a mutual offset, which reconciles both.

Through a mutual offset, where the invoice appears on one side and the amount is simply posted through on the other. The process is described in the article Removing unpaid invoices from the balance.

Neither of them addresses the root cause, and both will cause the balance to diverge from the trial balance. How they behave in individual outputs is described in the section Balance and other outstanding document views.