Woof... That's a lot of information, sorry!

In Sage when you use the A/P GL account in a general ledger entry, that entry does not post to any Vendor account. For example, if you post purchases and payments to Vendors and at the end of the month the A/P aging is 12,154.98. That same balance should be the ending balance reflected in the GL and BS for the A/P account.  If you made a GL journal entry at the end of the same month (Debit A/P $1000.00 and Credit Expense $1000.00, only the general ledger would reflect the balance of 11,154.98. The only reason to make an entry directly in the general ledger to the A/P account would be to force a balance to A/P to correct an out of balance problem.  

The other issue you state that may be causing a problem: 

One of our Expense GL's was errantly set-up with an Account Type of Accounts Payable. I have since inactivated this account, but it still does have an ending balance of $-31,870.99.

When you enter a purchase for $50.00 you can choose (1) A/P account, then in the body of the purchase you can distribute to multiple expense, assets,liabilities, etc anything but the A/P account.  This will credit the A/P $50.00 and debit the other offset accounts in the GL and update the Vendor's balance as well, so everything matches. If your (Expense GL's was errantly set-up with an Account Type of Accounts Payable) was used instead of the correct A/P account, then the $50.00 got posted to that Expense GL account. So now the A/P aging shows $50.00 more but the actual A/P account in the GL does not have the $50.00 included in the balance. Once the wrong A/P account is used in the purchases, Sage remembers that same incorrect account for every new purchase until someone changes it to the correct A/P account. Changing the A/P account in any future purchase does not automatically change the purchases entered in error.  If the accounting year was closed, you can't make any correction to those purchases, you would have to enter a GL journal entry to correct the balances, which would be a debit of $50.00 to your wrong A/P account and a credit of $50.00 to the correct GL account.  However you are not out of the woods yet, because when those purchases are paid, Sage remembers the wrong A/P and therefore debits the wrong A/P and credits cash in bank.  So you would continue to need to make GL journal entries adjusting either a debit or credit to the wrong A/P account against the correct A/P account with an explaination (hopefully) as to exactly why this entry is being posted directly through the GL.

I hope this helps you.  Sometimes it takes some digging.  If you wish to contact me directly, my name is Kim, 800-303-7770 

So the 5 GL journal entrys you say were posted in 2012/2013 may be why the BS-GL Balance for the A/P account does not match the AP aging report. I would run a BS and an A/P aging report for a date prior to the GL journal entries in 2012 to see if they match.  If they match, then it's probably one of the GL journal entries 

Thank you, Kim!

I am going to go over each part of your reply in detail over the next few days. I will probably reply to this thread for future users/searchers, but may end up calling you. I really do appreciate it!

Hi SNS,

The  Subsidiary Ledger ( AP and AR Aging Reports  & Inventory ) should always be in balance with the amount on the Standard Balance Sheet.  

When your Accountant or CPA wants you to adjust the balance of a CONTROL ACCOUNT with a General Journal Entry, that is usually how it gets out of balance.  You actually need to remove the invoice from the system and that will adjust the account balance on the General Ledger. 

Also NEVER use your control accounts to make a General Journal Entry.  Again these AP, AR and Inventory Accounts should be adjusted only by adding invoices or removing invoices. 

- One of our Expense GL's was errantly set-up with an Account Type of Accounts Payable. I have since inactivated this account, but it still does have an ending balance of $-31,870.99   What year did this happen?  Current or a closed year?  This could make a significant difference on your tax return.

As for the other AP accounts, I would need to look at them.

We can remote in and review your accounts with you.  Please call us if you would like our help.  304-233-2612   There would be a fee for our service.

Shirley Byard,  Master Certified Consultant.    [email protected]

Thank you, Shirley! I have added your information to what Kim gave me. I do appreciate the time and detailed explanations. I'll circle back once I've had time to go through all points from both comments and our books.