Accrual methodology audit — cleaning up unattended automation

Reference · Accrual audit · Accrual methodology · ERP recurring templates · Multi-entity operator

The situation

Recurring journal-entry templates set up by a since-departed staff member were running unattended inside the ERP, posting accruals on autopilot. Nobody owned them, and the methodology had drifted — vendor accruals routing to the wrong accounts, period spreads applied inconsistently.

The work

A transaction-level accrual audit identified the drift: one utility vendor's credits were routing to a clearing account instead of accrued utilities; a cleaning vendor was hitting accrued utilities instead of its correct accrued-cleaning home; and spreading logic was inconsistent against the operating calendar. Two AP invoices had transaction-spreading incorrectly applied, breaking the accrual entirely.

The resolution

Templates were corrected to a single consistent methodology — every monthly bill spread over exactly four weekly installments inside a 28-day period, gross-up and reversal handled the same way every time, each component mapped to its correct account. The broken spreads were unwound and rebuilt.

Why it matters

Unattended automation is worse than manual entry — it produces consistent, confident, wrong numbers that compound every period until someone audits the rules behind them. The fix isn't a one-time correction; it's establishing a methodology the automation can be trusted to follow.

Inherited an accrual process you don't fully trust? Let's audit it →