Yes you can settle customer/vendor trans actions. They have to add up to zero,..so what is there to settle on lets say the vendor account? (in our company general ledger 1600)
1) an invoice and a credit note for exactly the same amount ( or more credit notes making up the exact amount of the invoice )
How did these get on the vendor account => invoice journal.
Settling the General ledger account 1600 will make it so you can use the "show only open" function on general ledger 1600, (all vendors in a great heap)
The sub administration...individual vender accounts will not be settled. There you should use the invoice journal to book the credit notes and settle the invoice while doing this.
(or enter the credit note-s and go to Accounts Payable=>Vendor Details=>select the vendor=> Functions=>Open transaction editing=>choose to settle amounts=>Update)
That's a lot of clicks, just use the invoice journal for this, and settling 1600(vendors) is a waste of time. Just check if the balance of 1600 equals the open invoice transaction report.
2) an invoice and a payment.....
The same story, use what-ever you book a payment with to settle an open invoice.
When do we settle general ledgers... well let me give you an example. We use general ledger 2000 to book money transfers between our banks. On the last few days of the year I transferred money from one of our bankaccounts to another of our own accounts and even one to petty cash. I can see the balance of G/L account 2000 but I can not see what it is made up of (show only open does not work), so wen transferring money I book it on G/L account 2000 and when receiving the money I book it on G/L account 2000. Every time I receive the money I go to Ledger settlements and settle the two postings. Now I can use the show open only to see what is still "being processed by the banks"
There are more general ledgers that I settle, just because our auditors ask for specifications of the balances of some general ledger accounts. Mostly the accounts that should be zero at a certain time. (precalculations, accruals and sadly in my case also the stock accounts due to sloppy work by our AX supplier)