My active wells are no longer posting automatically certain direct expenses to the wells. The expenses are being thrown into Unallocated Expense. Any reason this is happening? We have not changed anything. I know I can manually allocate, but was wondering if there is an easy fix.

A few different things can cause an expense to be put in the allocation file:

1. The production period is not entered for the expense when the expense is entered via Enter Bills.
   
2. The Processing option 'Send All Income and Expense to the Allocation File' is checked. This is set in the Disbursement & JIB Options screen.
   
3. There isn't any division of interest set up for the well, and therefore no way to allocate the expense to the owners.
   

Any of these things would cause the expense to be placed in the allocation file instead of the New Run.

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Can you please explain to me how a charge could get stuck in unallocated expenses? The charge would have been put in through the Net Well Expenses By Well (8/8ths) screen. How do we get those charges out of there?

The Allocation File is used to hold a specific revenue or expense until it is allocated to owners. By default the software will process all new revenue and expenses when a run is closed. If you have a revenue/expense that you do not want to be allocated until the next run closing you can put it in the allocation file. You can then release it when you choose.

You can put a revenue/expense into the Allocation File by entering a production receipt or entering a bill without specifying a production year/period. You can then allocate the entries in the allocation file by going to the Allocate Held Revenue and the Allocate Held Expense screens.

You can also put entries in the Allocation File by marking the option to "Send all Revenue and Expense to Allocation File" in the Miscellaneous Preferences screen. This will send all revenue and expenses to the allocation file as soon as it is entered into the software even if it has been assigned to a production period. This creates an additional step because you will have to allocate each revenue and expense before it will process on a closing and be disbursed. The benefit of this option is that it gives you the ability to enter a revenue or expense now and if you do not want it to be allocated until the next run closing you can keep it in the allocation file until then.

An example of this would be to put everything in the allocation file and only release entries for a specific production period. Some operators do this so that each run closing corresponds to and only includes a specific production period. View the topic on Closing Runs to see more about this.

The last way this can be sent to the allocation file is if you deleted it from the Well Expenses by Well screen.
On the Allocate Held Expenses screen you can delete them or allocate them. If you allocate them they will be charged to the investors on the next run closing.

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Should I send all revenue/expense to allocation files? Are there situations or reasons I would not want to send these to the allocation file?

You do not have to send all revenue and expense to the allocation files if you don't want. The reason that this option is available is if users want to process only certain production periods at a time.
For example, with this option selected, you will be able to enter your revenue and expenses as you receive them, and assign them to the proper production period. They will automatically be sent to the allocation file, and held until you release them from the allocation file.

Then, when you are ready to close your revenue run, you may go to the allocation file, and choose to release only the activity associated with a particular production period. The system will then release all entries in that production period into the New Run, allowing them to be processed on the run closing.

Since entries often use overlapping accounting dates for production periods, this use of the allocation file allows the user to keep the entries separated by production period. When the run is closed, it's looking only at the accounting date of the entry, not the production period. Therefore, if the allocation file is not used, it is possible to process multiple production periods at a time based on the accounting dates of those entries. Selection of this option is entirely up to you, depending on how you typically like to process your production revenue and expense.

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