Classic - General Ledger Setup

Successware as an Accounting Program

At its heart, Successware is an accounting program, but one of the strengths of Successware is that it isn't JUST an accounting program. It does the accounting, but as a result of the normal day-to-day call taking, dispatching completion of work tickets and purchasing that is carried out by a user. The goal of Successware is to make the complicated process of entering information into a ledger sheet and balancing the books as effortless and invisible to the end-user as possible. To accomplish this, Successware requires that all of your accounting information be properly setup before you begin to fully use the application.

Accounting entails keeping track of where money is moving in your business. For example, keeping track of how much is spent on parts, how much is owed in Sales Tax, and how much money you made for performing an installation are all functions that are carried out automatically by Successware, thereby making it easy for you to generate reports detailing the information you need.

Basic Accounting Terminology

In order to understand the accounting functions of Successware, it is important that you understand some basic accounting terminology.

Accrual vs. Cash Basis Accounting

Successware operates based upon Accrual Basis Accounting. This means that revenues are recognized on the books when it is earned, i.e., when you send create and post the invoice, not when the customer pays the bill. Expenses are recognized when they are incurred, i.e., when you become liable for a payment, not when you actually pay the bill.

Successware cannot be set up to run as a cash basis accounting system (meaning that expenses and revenue are recognized when bills are paid or payments from customers are received).

The Accrual method of accounting is recognized in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP).

Types of Accounts

One of the most fundamental of accounting terms is what’s referred to as an “account.” An account is a vehicle used to keep track of the various monetary increases and decreases to specific assets, liabilities or equity items regarding your business.

There are 9 categories of accounts. They are:

Asset Accounts- these accounts represent resources that your business owns such as computers, inventory and cash.
Liability Accounts - these are debts that your business owes, for instance, bank loans, money owed to vendors or Sales Tax that is due.
Equity Accounts- these accounts are comprised of the difference between your assets and liabilities. These could include owner’s equity and common stock.
Income Accounts - these accounts handle monies received. These could include merchandise sales, performance of a service or rental of a property. There is a subclass of accounts within Income called Returns and Allowances which allow you to identify amounts which reduce sales such as discounts or refunds.

4a. Returns and Allowances- these accounts represent money that is "given back". This can be through refunds, discounts offered to customers or chargebacks. These amounts are subtracted from sales to show you your Net Sales.

Cost of Sale Accounts - these accounts accommodate the tracking of costs relating to the sale of goods. This would include the cost of goods, associated labor and even sales commissions.
Expense Accounts - these include general operating expenses incurred to run your business such as rent, utilities and interest expenses.
Other Income - this is revenue generated outside the normal course of business, such as from the sale of an asset, or even from a vending machine.
Other Expenses - these are costs not directly related to the normal course of business. An example might be an account for “Flood Loss.”
Income Taxes - these accounts represent the amounts that you owe in Federal and State Income tax.

Each of these account categories are sub-divided into specialized accounts that accommodate specific activities relating to your business. The number of individual accounts that you establish depends on the how you want to track your cash flow.

Debits & Credits

Accounting is based upon the premise that all transactions result in a balance of funds. To create this balance, transactions entered on the ledger contain positive and negative entries, meaning, some add to, while others subtract from. These entries are referred to as debits and credits. All debits and credits must equal each other. If they do not, the account is out of balance.

Depending on what type of account you are using, a debit or credit will either increase or decrease the account balance. The example below illustrates how each type of account is affected based on whether the entry is a debit or a credit.

Account Types	Debit	Credit
Assets	Increase	Decrease
Cost of Sales	Increase	Decrease
Expenses	Increase	Decrease
Liabilities	Decrease	Increase
Equity	Decrease	Increase
Income	Decrease	Increase

Notice that for every increase in one part of an account, there is an opposite and equal decrease in another. This is what keeps the entry in balance. Also, notice that debits are always listed on the left while credits are always listed on the right. As you read this please keep in mind that the terms debit and credit do not necessarily mean plus and minus.

The following example shows a sample of a simple debit/credit transaction.

Account	Debit	Credit
Asset Account (Inventory)	$5
Cash Account		$5

The net sum of the transaction is zero. In this case, our value of assets went up $5 while the value of our cash account went down $5.

Successware uses a system of double-entry debits and credits. This means that additional accounts are used to “hold” value until the entire transaction is complete. This allows you to account for payments as a separate transaction.

For example, when buying a part we would get an additional account, such as Accounts Payable, involved.

Purchase of part

Account	Debit	Credit
Asset Account (Inventory)	$5
Accounts Payable		$5

Payment for part

Account	Debit	Credit
Accounts Payable	$5
Cash Account		$5

After the transaction our net sum is still zero.

The double-entry rule applies generically as follows:

Selling

Accounts	Debit	Credit
Sale		X
Account Receivable	X
When Paid
Cash	X
Account Receivable		X

Buying

Accounts	Debit	Credit
Assets	X
Account Payable		X
When Paid
Cash		X
Account Payable	X

Chart of Accounts

The Chart of Accounts is a listing of all accounts that your company chooses to track. The Chart of Account lists and divides the accounts by account categories. These categories can be further divided into sub-categories with individual accounts listed under those sub-categories. Successware comes pre-loaded with a sample Chart of Accounts that you can modify, or use as is, to meet the needs of your company. Accounts listed in the Chart of Accounts include an account number, a class (this is the category) and a description.

All of the transactions that you perform in Successware will be “pre-connected” to these accounts so that at the time of entry all of the entries will be made in those accounts without the user being prompted for additional information.

Printing the Chart of Accounts

In order to compare the Successware Chart of Accounts to your company’s Chart of Accounts it would be easiest to begin by printing the Chart of Accounts that came pre-installed in Successware.

Click on the icon and then click on the Quick Start.
Click on the General Ledger button and then click Next.
To print the Chart of Accounts, click on Print in the ACCOUNTS tab of the General Ledger setup window. This will bring up the Chart of Accounts print options box.
To print the Chart of Accounts click on the Printer button (looks like a printer).
To preview the Chart of Accounts click on the Preview button (looks like a monitor).

Reconciliation and Financial Reports

The Reconciliation and Financial Reports screen allow you to force the Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable modules to be in balance and finalized before you can activate the General Ledger.

When selected, in order to activate the General Ledger you will need to enter and finalize your Opening General Ledger Balances. Additionally, all outstanding AR and AP invoices will need to be entered and finalized as well. Finalizing your balances prevents them from being changed at a later time. In order to finalize balances, the total General Ledger balance of AR or AP must match the total of outstanding customer and vendor invoices that you have entered through the AR and AP options of Quick Start

Note: If you wish to begin processing General Ledger transactions before you have completed the entry of opening balances, DO NOT CHECKMARK THESE ITEMS!

How does Successware Know Where to Put "IT" in the General Ledger?

One of the benefits of Successware is that it makes posting to the General Ledger consistent and easy. As mentioned earlier, one of the goals on Successware is to make the process of posting to the General Ledger as effortless and invisible to the end user as possible. Once your initial setup is completed, users posting transactions to the General Ledger will not have to make decisions as to what General Ledger accounts are affected by the transaction. This allows for entries such a AR and AP invoices to be entered by users that do not necessarily have bookkeeping experience or and intimate knowledge of the General Ledger structure. All they really need to know is what was bought or sold (select the item from the PriceBook) and what department was responsible for the sale or purchase.

So how does Successware know what General Ledger account to post to?

Default Accounts- Default accounts are accounts that the system will post to automatically when certain transactions are processed. Default accounts are used to expedite data entry. Some examples of Default Accounts are Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Sales Tax, AR Invoice Discounts and AP Discounts.

Sale and Expense Types- These are drop down lists that represent the different types of things that your company buys and sells. Each is associated with or "pointed to" a General Ledger account. Sale and Expense types are attached to the items within your PriceBook. When those items are bought, sold or costed, the associated General Ledger account is posted to.

Adjustment Codes- Adjustment codes are drop-down lists used to identify the reason that a change is being made to an operational balance in a module of Successware. These drops down lists of reasons are associated with general ledger accounts. When you need to make a change to a customer's balance or a vendors balance for example, that is not associated with a new invoice or payment, an adjustment can be recorded.

General Ledger Setup

General Ledger setup consists of addressing:

Accounts- your Chart of Accounts
Sub-Accounts- break-down of the major General Ledger accounts
Default Accounts- accounts that are posted to automatically during certain default functions (A/R Trade, A/P Trade, Sales Tax, Warranty Reserve, Deferred Revenue, etc.)
Departments- your company’s profit centers for all income statement transactions
Periods/Activation- your company’s fiscal periods and activation dates (the dates you start posting to the General Ledger in Successware).
Expense Groups- groups of operating expense accounts that enable you to see sub-totals on your income statement (advertising, vehicle, etc.)
Opening Balances- your entire list of General Ledger starting balances (from your trial balance) as of your General Ledger activation date. Make sure these numbers are accurate before you enter them. You do not have to have your starting balances entered in order to start posting to the General Ledger in Successware.

When you set-up the General Ledger in Successware you can perform the setup from two areas of the application:

Quick Start.
The Setup button in the Main Menu.

We recommend you set-up the Chart of Accounts using the Quick Start utility.

Accounts

The first step in setting up the General Ledger is to setup your Chart of Accounts. Successware already comes with a standard Chart of Accounts installed. To set a Chart of Accounts up for your company, compare the installed Chart of Accounts to your existing accounts and determine what changes need to be made. You will then:

Delete unnecessary accounts.
Deactivate accounts.
Change accounts.
Add accounts.

When stepping through Quick Start, the system will go through the Chart of Accounts based on the account types (i.e. assets – current assets, fixed assets and other assets, then liabilities, etc.) You will then make the necessary deletions, changes and additions for each account type.

Click Next and then Previous to move between account types, and press Start to edit the accounts in that section.

Adding New Accounts

In the Accounts tab of the General Ledger Setup, Click New Account. Each account type has categories of accounts within it that are grouped by account number.
Click on the drop-down arrow and choose the category of account you want to create. When you select a category the account number you choose for the account will be limited to those available for that category.
Highlight the account number for the new account and double-click, press Enter, or right-click and select Add Account.

Enter a name for the new account and click Save.

Editing an Account

If you want to leave an account, but make a change to its name, you can do this by editing the account. For example, you may wish to change account 1002 – Cash Local Bank, to a specific bank’s name, i.e., Cash – Bank of America, Checking.

To change the description for an account, right-click on the account and select Edit Account.

Enter the new description and click Save.

NOTE: Select the Must print checkbox to print the account numbers on financial reports, even if the balance is zero.

Deleting Accounts

It is recommended that you delete any accounts your company will not be using before you edit existing accounts or add new ones. Once an account has transaction posted against it, the account can NEVER be deleted. If you no longer wish to use a GL account and it has posted transaction history, you can right click on the account and deactivate it.

To delete an account, highlight the account you would like to delete.
Right-click and select Delete Account. Make sure to confirm the deletion.

Activating and Deactivating Accounts

If an account at one time carried a balance and you do not plan to use the account anymore, you may choose to deactivate the account. Deactivating the account removes it from the active account list and does not allow any further posted transactions against the account, however any posted history within the account remains available for reporting purposes. Accounts can be reactivated if necessary if you need to process additional transaction using the account in the future.

Generally, accounts are deactivated when they will no longer be used. For example, if you were to change the bank where you keep your checking account, you would not want to simply change the name of the existing GL account that represents the checking account, but rather, would deactivate the existing account and create a new GL account to represent the new checking account.

To Deactivate an Account

To deactivate an account, highlight the account you would like to deactivate.
Right click on the account and select Deactivate from the right click menu.

The deactivated account will be moved to the lower portion of the Account window.

To reactivate an account, select it in the lower portion of the account window, right click and select Activate.

Sub-Accounts

Sub-accounts are used to further categorize entries in the General Ledger. For example, an account called “Loans” may have individual loans listed as sub-accounts. Sub-accounts allow you to "roll-up" detailed account balances into a grand total or master value.

In Successware, you WILL NOT use sub-accounts to post general ledger transaction to individual departments, instead, each General Ledger posting has a department field included in it. For more information see the Department section.

DO NOT add sub-accounts to any account number that is a default account (an account the system will post to automatically).
DO NOT add sub-accounts to an account that has a balance. Zero out the balance prior to adding the sub-account. Once an account has been assigned sub-accounts, the master account will no longer accept direct posting, a sub-account must be selected every time the account is used.

Adding Sub-Accounts

In the Sub-Accounts tab of the General Ledger Setup, select the Account Class that contains the account you want to add a sub-account to.

Highlight that account.
Click on the New Subaccount button located at the top right side of the form, or right-click and select New Sub-Account from the drop-down menu.
Enter the ID to use for the Sub Account and the Description. The ID can be letters and/or numbers.

Click Save to save the sub-account.

To change or delete sub-accounts, highlight the appropriate account and right-click to select Edit Sub-Account or Delete Sub-Account. There is also a Deactivate option which can be used to deactivate sub-accounts once they have been established.

Default Accounts

Default accounts are accounts that the system will post to automatically when certain transactions are processed. Default accounts are used to expedite data entry. For instance, by telling Successware in advance what accounts you will use for such entries as Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Cash, you eliminate the need to enter the account information when making each transaction. As invoices are processed, the system automatically posts to the appropriate accounts.

Click on the Default Accounts tab in the General Ledger Setup and then click Start.

Successware displays the list of default types in the Default Type window, including the accounts that are selected for those defaults.

The right side of the form will list all account numbers that can be used for the highlighted default type. A red arrow will precede the account that has been selected.

Defining the Default Types

The following list defines the role played by each of the default types included in the Default Account Setup.

Accounts Payable Trade- This default points to the account into which postings and adjustments of AP Invoices, as well as adjustments and payments to a vendor account via the Payables Manager or Vendor Account History will be made. This default points to a liability account
Accounts Receivable Trade- This default points to the account into which postings and Adjustments of AR Invoices as well as adjustments and payments from customers recorded via the Receivables Manager or Billing Account History will be recorded. This default points to an asset account.
Agreement Deferred Revenue- If you sell an agreement and indicate that you wish to Defer Revenue, the amount that you defer at the time of activating the agreement as well as the amount posted on future periodic invoices related to the agreement will post to this default account. When visits are performed revenue will be released from this account as current revenue (into the default account for Agreement Revenue- Maint)
Agreement Reserve- If you sell an agreement and indicate that you wish to hold Service Reserve, the amount that you chose to reserve will be placed in the default account associated with Agreement Reserve. Agreement Reserve is also reduced when you charge against an Agreement. Increases and decreases of Agreement Reserve are countered with entries to the default account for Agreement Expense.
Warranty Reserve- Installs- If you add an in-house warranty to a piece of equipment you may choose to set aside warranty reserve against that warranty. This default will be associated with a liability account. This default will be charged against when you charge items on an AR Invoice against the in-house warranty. Entries against this account are countered with an entry to the default account associated with Warranty Expense.
AR Invoice Discounts- This account is posted to when you apply a discount to an Account Receivable invoice using the Set Discount button at the bottom of the AR Invoice form
Agreement Expense Excess- This default is used to identify the account you wish to post against when charges against an Agreement are in excess of the amount set aside in Agreement Reserve. This default points to a Direct Cost account. You may choose to point this default to the same account used for Agreement Expense.
Agreement Expense- This default is used to identify increases and decreases in agreement related expense associated with additions to and subtractions from your Agreement Reserve account. This default points to a Direct Cost account.
Agreement Revenue- Maint- This Default is used when revenue is recognized related to maintenance agreements. Entries are made in this account when payments are taken against the agreement if deferred revenue is not being used, or when the agreement visit is included on a posted AR invoice if deferred revenue is being used. This default account points to a Sale account.
Agreement Revenue- Service- This default identifies the account into which you will post agreement revenue related to the service portion of an agreement. This account points to a Sale account
Finance Charge- Finance charges posted from Accounts Receivable will be posted against this Default Account.
Inventory- If you have activated inventory, this account will be used to maintain the asset value of the stock in your warehouses.
Inventory Adjustment Overflow- This default is used to identify the account into which balances will be posted related to Overflow inventory adjustment. You need to make a value change to a quantity of inventory items, but don’t have that full quantity available on hand in inventory. In this case the available items will have their average cost value changed, but the remaining adjustment amount will be posted to Inventory Adjustment Overflow.
Payables Discounts Taken- If you apply discountable terms when paying an Accounts Payable invoice, the amount of the discount will be posted to the default account you associate with Payables Discounts Taken.
Payables Pending- This account will be posted to when you post a receipt which contains “valued” inventory items. It will be countered with a posting to your default Inventory account. Once the associated AP Invoice is posted, the amount will be removed from Pending Payables and moved to the default AP Account.
Payroll- Accrued- This default is used to identify the account where total payroll liability will accrue once the payroll period is posted. This account will be cleared when payroll is reconciled. This default is only used if Payroll has been activated.
Payroll- Burden Applied- This default will define the account into which Estimated Labor Burden will be posted at the time that the payroll period is posted. This default is only used if Payroll has been activated and you select to post labor burden to the default ELB account when setting up payroll. This default type points to a Direct Cost account.
Payroll- Est. Labor Burden- This default is used to identify the account into which, at the time that the payroll period is reconciled, the system will post (credit) the total Estimated Labor. This account is only used if Payroll has been activated and you have selected post labor burden to G/L as indicated by pay items during payroll setup. This default type points to an Operating Expense account.
Retainage Payables- This default identifies where retainage withheld on a posted AP invoice will be accumulated. This account points to a liability account.
Retainage Receivables- This default identifies where retainage withheld on a posted AR invoice will be accumulated. This account points to an Asset (Receivables) account.
Retained Earnings- This default identifies the account into which the system will record retained earnings when a Fiscal Year ends. Retained Earnings are calculated when the first period of the next fiscal year is compiled.
Returns and Allowances- This default type is used to identify the account which will be used when the Adjustment Code “Customer Refunds” is used.
Sales Tax- Sales tax associated with a line item on an Accounts Receivable invoice is posted to this account. This default points to a liability account.
Warranty Expense Excess- Installs- This default is used to identify the account in which expenses beyond the amount previously set aside for Warranty Reserve will be posted. You may choose to point this default to the same account used for Warranty Expense- Installs.
Warranty Expense- Installs- This default is used to identify the account in which expenses related to an in-house warranty will be posted. The default points to a Direct Cost account. Entries are made to the account when Warranty Reserve is posted or charges are made against the warranty on an AR Invoice. Entries to this default are countered with an entry to the account associated with the Default type Agreement Reserve.

Changing a Default Account

On the Default Account Tab of General Ledger Setup, highlight the default type you want to change.
In the right panel of the form, double-click on the account you want to set as the default account.
The red arrow moves to the newly selected account and the default type will now include the new account number in parenthesis.

NOTE: It is important that the correct default account has been selected prior to posting transactions. Once an account carries a balance, it cannot be changed. If you must make a change to the default once the currently selected account has a balance, you must, using a journal entry bring the account's balance to zero, then change the default. Now you must, via journal entry move the original default accounts balance to the newly selected account.

How Does Successware Departmentalize?

Unlike some other accounting software packages, Successware DOES NOT use sub-accounts to departmentalize income and expenses. Instead, each transaction that posts to an account in the general ledger contains a debit or a credit as well as a department number that indicates what department the entry is associated with. This amounts to an additional column being added to a general ledger account. Instead of just a "Debit" and "Credit" column, there is also a "Department" column.

Each entry that is made to an account on the income statement must have department number that identifies which department is responsible for the income or expense.

Each entry that posts to the balance sheet will automatically post to the default "Administrative" department (department number "00"). This is because the balance sheet in Successware is not departmentalized. The Administrative department is set up in Successware by default and cannot be changed or deleted.

For Example, an Accounts Receivable invoice that is posted which includes a $150 sale of a repair performed by the Residential Service department (Department 20 in my example) would result in the following general ledger transaction:

General Ledger Account	Department	Debits	Credits
1101 (AR)	00 (Administrative)	150
3005 (Sales- Repair)	20 (Residential Service)		150

This method of departmentalization allows for financial reports, such as the Income Statement to be run separately by department by merely "filtering" the Department column for occurrence of postings related to a particular department when running the report.

Departments

Successware allows you to use departments to create separate profit and loss statements for each cost center. All transactions that post to the General Ledger, whether payables, receivables, or inventory transactions, must have a department assigned to them.

Use departments to split income and expenses for reporting purposes. A good way to determine if a group or type of work should be considered a department is to ask if it could be considered a profit center. Typically, a department is a “profit center” if you are going to want to print a separate Income Statement for it.

Each transaction that is posted to an account on the income statement must reference a department (or departments if you are splitting an expense). The Balance sheet is not departmentalized in Successware, rather all transactions that post to asset, liability or equity accounts are posted to the default Administrative department, which is represented by code 00.

Successware comes installed with a standard list of departments. As with establishing your Chart of Accounts, compare your list of departments to the standard list included in Successware. You will then:

Delete Departments.
Deactivate Departments.
Change Department Descriptions.
Add Departments.

NOTE: If there is an area of your company for which you need to track specific General Ledger posting it needs to be created as a department.

Deleting a Department

If there are departments listed in the default department list that you do not need, they can be deleted. Departments, like accounts cannot be deleted if they have posted general ledger history associated with them. If you no longer need a department that has past history you can deactivate the department instead.

To Delete a Department.

Click on the Department tab in the General Ledger section of Quick Start, or go to Setup in the Main Menu, select General Ledger and then click on the Department
Click Start to open the Department Setup window.

Highlight the department.
Right-click and select Delete Department.
Confirm the deletion.

NOTE: You cannot remove department 00 – Administrative. The system uses 00 as the default department for balance sheet accounts.

Deactivating a Department

Just as with general ledger accounts, if a department has been involved in posted financial transactions, the department cannot be deleted. IF you no longer plan to use a department and cannot or do not wish to delete the department, you can choose to deactivate the department instead. A deactivated department can still be included in reports, but is not available for new posted transactions.

To Deactivate or Reactivate a Department

Click on the Department tab in the General Ledger section of Quick Start, or go to Setup in the Main Menu, select General Ledger and then click on the Department
Right click on the Department that you want to deactivate and choose Deactivate or select the account and select the Deactivate button near the bottom of the department list. The department will be moved into the Inactive Departments list at the bottom of the window.

To reactivate a department either right click on it in the Inactive Department list and select Activate or select the department that you want to reactivate and click the Activate button.

Changing or Editing a Department Description

If you want to simply change the name of an existing department you may choose to edit.

Click on the Department tab in the General Ledger section of Quick Start, or go to Setup in the Main Menu, select General Ledger and then click on the Department
To change the description of a department, right-click on the department and select Edit Department.
Enter the new description and click Save.

Adding a New Department

New departments added to Successware consist of a Department Code and a Description. The Department code must be two characters and can be any combinations of letters and numbers.

Click on the Department tab in the General Ledger section of Quick Start, or go to Setup in the Main Menu, select General Ledger and then click on the Department
To add a department, click New Department or right-click anywhere in the Department window and select New Department.
Enter a 2-digit department number or letters and a description.
Click Save.

Fiscal Periods

Before you can start using the accounting modules you need to set-up the financial periods and activation dates.

Financial periods are nothing more than your fiscal year and the number of periods your fiscal year is comprised of. Generally, a fiscal year will be divided into 12 periods (one for each month). Activation dates will be covered in the next lesson.

Creating a Fiscal Period

Go to General Ledger Setup by going to the Main Menu, choosing Setup and selecting Quick Start. Select General Ledger on the right side of the page.
Click the Periods/Activation tab and click the Start button.
Click the New Year button located at the bottom of the form.
Enter the description you wish to use for the fiscal year and the number of periods it will consist of. The number of periods can be 12 or 13.
Click Save.
The system will display all fiscal periods for the year in the panel on the right side of the form. All periods will be marked as Inactive.

Changing the End Date of a Period

If your fiscal periods have different ending dates you may edit the ending dates of each period. For instance, if your fiscal periods end on the last Friday of each month rather than the last day of the month, you will change the ending date to the actual date of the last Friday.

Highlight the period and right-click to select Modify End Date.
Select the actual date from the calendar that is displayed. The system will automatically change the starting date of the next period.
Continue to change the end date of each month until all periods are correct.

Adding Another Fiscal Year

In the Period/Years tab of the General Ledger Setup, Click the New Year button located at the bottom of the form.
Enter the description you wish to use for the new year.

Select whether the year you are adding should be Previous to the existing year or a FutureThe No of periods will default based on the existing fiscal year.

Click Save. The system will create the next or previous year based on the existing fiscal year.

NOTE: If you are entering beginning balances as of January 1, you must add the prior year as well as the current year. When entering beginning balances for the General Ledger, the system will date the transactions 12/31 (ending balances) so they will post forward as beginning balances.

Opening a Fiscal Period

A fiscal period must be opened in order for you to post transactions with the period.

Click on the icon and in the Main Menu click Setup.
Click on the General Ledger button at the right of the window.
Choose the Period/Years
Select the fiscal year that contains the period you want to open.
Right-click on the earliest period you wish to open and select Update Period Status.

From the Period Status drop-down list, choose Open and click Save.

The selected period, as well as all of the following periods in the fiscal year, will be marked as active.

General Ledger Activation

The activation dates are when you will begin posting transactions to the General Ledger. The General Ledger can be activated without activating the Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable modules, however, if the other modules are not activated, you will have to use journal entries to update the General Ledger.

The General Ledger is activated on the Financial tab of Company Setup or through Quick Start.

We recommend that Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable be activated at the same time as the General Ledger. This will update the General Ledger as A/R and A/P invoice payments are processed. This way journal entries will not be required.

If you are unsure of the date you wish to use for activation, leave those fields blank. You can enter data, including posting invoices and payments, to record history without posting to the General Ledger. Once there is a date in the activation field, you can only post items dated after the activation date.
Once you have decided on an activation date, make sure you do not enter data dated after that date until you have established the activation date in Successware. For instance, if you decide to make February 1st your activation date, but do not enter it as such in the activation fields, and then later add transactions for February 1st and 2nd, the system will not allow you to use February 1 as your activation date. It will assign the first date that there was no activity as the activation date, in this case February 3rd.
You do not have to enter beginning balances in order to have an activation date. If you wish to start posting live on February 1, but do not have ending balances for January yet, go ahead and enter February 1 as the activation date and start processing live. You can enter your General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable starting balances after starting live processing.

Establish activation dates by using the mouse or spacebar to mark the check boxes to the left of each module. This will activate the corresponding field and allow you to enter an activation date.

Enter your activation date and click Save.

Successware will change the period status on the first active period (and all following periods) from inactive to open, provided you have not opened the period already.

Expense Groups

Expense Groups are a reporting tool that allow you to separate your operating expenses into groups that will contain subtotals.

Expense Groups are used to define how you group operating expenses on your Income Statement Report (profit & loss statement).

By default, the system will report income, direct costs, and operating expenses in separate sections of the report. If you wish to group the operating expenses by Expense Type, you can define that here. For instance, you may have groups for advertising, employee related concerns, plant & equipment expenses, etc.

There are two rules for setting up Expense Groups:

All of the accounts in a group must fall in consecutive numeric order in the Chart of Accounts, and
If any of your operating expense accounts belong to a group, ALL of the remaining accounts must belong to a group as well.

Defining Expense Groups

Enter the Number of Groups that you wish to define.
Press Insert, or right-click and select New Group, and enter the first group’s description.
Press Insert again to add the next group description and repeat until all groups have been defined.
Once all groups have been defined, highlight the first group in the panel on the right.

Use the mouse to select the accounts that belong to that group. You can click on the first account and drag the mouse to the last account in the group, or click on the first account then hold down the Shift key while you click on the last account in the group, to highlight all accounts.
Click on the Add to group button located in the middle of the form.
Highlight the next group listed in the panel on the right and mark all accounts that belong to that group. Click Add to group.
Continue until all accounts have been added to the appropriate groups.
Click Save.

Opening Balances

The last major step to setting up the General Ledger in Successware is the entry of opening balances. Opening balances are really your closing balances on the last day you are using your old financial software. Those numbers are then brought into Successware as the starting numbers where they are then added and subtracted from as you begin processing financials in Successware.

Opening balances do not have to be entered before you begin your actual General Ledger processing, as you often will not have them for a couple of weeks after your GL activation date, but they must be entered before you can begin to perform any financial reporting out of Successware.

Opening balances cannot be entered until the General Ledger has been activated. Opening balance entries will be dated automatically, the date that immediately precedes your General Ledger Activation date.

Entering Opening Balances

Opening balances are entered through the Quick Start screen.

Press New.
From the Account field press the down arrow key to select the account for which you are entering a balance (If the chosen account has sub accounts, you will be prompted to choose a sub account).
Tab to the Department field and enter the department.
Tab to the Debit or Credit field and type the account’s credit or debit balance.
Press the Save button to save the entry.
Press New to add another opening balance.
Continue to add all balances for your accounts.

NOTE: At any time, you can review a list of the accounts you have entered, as well as a total of all debits and credits, by pressing the review button. In order for you to post your opening balances to the General Ledger, debits and credits must balance to zero.

Once all of your balances have been entered and reviewed, press the Post button to post them to the General Ledger.
Press the Finalize button to lock the balances from being changed.

AR Beginning Balances

When entering you General Ledger Opening balances you will enter a total outstanding Accounts Receivable balance. After entering the total outstanding AR balance you will need to enter your individual Accounts Receivable beginning balances. This will be an individual listing of all of the outstanding items owed to you by your customers.

Once all of the outstanding items have been entered and posted you will Finalize the list. The list of outstanding Receivable items cannot be finalized unless the total of the outstanding items equals the Accounts Receivable opening balance that you have entered.

Once the outstanding items have been entered, they will be available to process like any other open Receivables item on customers billing account.

Receivables beginning balances are entered through the Successware Quick Start utility, which will guide you through the necessary setup steps.

Click the 21 Icon to open the Main Menu.
Select the Setup button.
Click Quick Start.
Click the Receivables button and select the Customers Balances tab.
Select Start, then New to enter the first billing customer.
Follow the on-screen instructions to enter the information. If the customer you enter is already in the system, it will display in the Auto Search Results panel located at the top right corner of the window. To avoid entering duplicate billing accounts, be sure to watch the Auto Search Results When complete, select Save.

Note: To search for an existing billing account, enter part of the acount information (such as ID or name) and press Tab. The results will display in the Auto Search Results panel. To search through all Billing Accounts, delete the system-assigned ID number, and press Tab to search.

Select the Add Inv button to add the first outstanding invoice for the Billing Account. The invoice date MUST be prior to the activation date.
After posting the first invoice, select the Add Inv button to add another invoice for the same customer, or New to add (or select) the next billing account.
Complete the steps until all billing accounts and invoices have been entered.
Use the Show Invoices button to review the invoices that have been entered for the current Billing Account, and Show All Invoices to review the invoices that have been entered for all Billing Accounts.
If an invoice was entered incorrectly, highlight the invoice in one of the show invoice display grids, and right-click to delete it. Re-enter the invoice correctly.
When all Billing Accounts and invoices have been entered, select Summary to preview and/or print a list of the information that was entered. Verify that all invoices and accounts are correct AND that the total is the same as the Accounts Receivable balance in General Ledger.
Once all data is correct, select Finalize to post the starting balances. Once you have Finalized the balances, you will not be able to use Quick Start to enter outstanding invoices.

AP Beginning Balances

When entering you General Ledger Opening balances you will enter a total outstanding Accounts Payable balance. After entering the total outstanding AP balance you will need to enter your individual Accounts Payable beginning balances. This will be an individual listing of all of the outstanding items you owe to your vendors.

Once all of the outstanding items have been entered and posted you will Finalize the list. The list of outstanding Payables items cannot be finalized unless the total of the outstanding items equals the Accounts Payable opening balance that you have entered.

Once the outstanding items have been entered, they will be available to process like any other open payables item on vendors account.

Vendor beginning balances are entered through the Successware Quick Start utility, which will guide you through the necessary setup steps.

Click the 21 Icon to open the Main Menu.
Select the Setup button.
Click Quick Start.
Click the Payables button and select the Vendor Balances tab.
Select Start, then New to enter the first vendor.
Follow the on-screen instructions to enter the information. If the vendor you enter is already in the system, it will display in the Auto Search Results panel located at the top right corner of the window. To avoid entering duplicate vendors, be sure to watch the Auto Search Results When complete, select Save.

Note: To search for an existing vendor, enter part of the vendor information (such as ID or name), and press Tab. The results will display in the Auto Search Results panel. To search through all vendors, delete the system-assigned ID number, and press Tab to search.

Select the Add Inv button to add the first outstanding invoice for the vendor. The invoice date MUST be prior to the activation date.
After posting the first invoice, select the Add Inv button to add another invoice for the same vendor, or New to add (or select) the next vendor.
Complete the steps until all vendors and invoices have been entered.
Use the Show Invoices button to review the invoices that have been entered for the current vendor, and Show All Invoices to review the invoices that have been entered for all vendors.
If an invoice was entered incorrectly, highlight the invoice in one of the show invoice display grids, and right-click to delete it. Re-enter the invoice correctly.
When all vendors and invoices have been entered, select Summary to preview and/or print a list of the information that was entered. Verify that all invoices and vendors are correct AND that the total is the same as the Accounts Payable balance in General Ledger.
Once all data is correct, select Finalize to post the starting balances. Once you have Finalized the balances, you will not be able to use Quick Start to enter outstanding invoices.

Sale & Expense Types

Two of the Reference Tables that must be set up in Successware are the Sale Type and Expense Type tables.

Sale Types identify the different types of things that you sell, such as labor, equipment, parts, and flatrate service. Sale Types are then attached to items in your PriceBook that could be included on an Accounts Receivable Invoice. Items that are included on AR Invoices include tasks, parts and labor items as well as coupons and discounts. Therefore, Sale Types are pointed to Income accounts in the General Ledger as well as Returns and Allowances accounts.

Expense Types Identify the different types of things you have to pay for. These can be either Expenses (direct cost or overhead) or can be related to outstanding liabilities such as a loan. Expense Types are attached to items in your PriceBook that can be included on AP Invoices, Inventory transactions and even Pay Items such as Commissions and Hourly Wage items.

Sale and Expense Types in Successware serve as "Pointers" to General Ledger accounts. These pointers are used by Successware to determine where to post the General Ledger entry associated with each line item on a posted transaction.

When the PriceBook items are included in Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable invoices, or inventory transactions, the appropriate debits and credits will automatically be applied to the correct accounts based upon the Sales or Expense Type, at the time of posting.

While the creation of Expense and Sale Types is not actually part of General Ledger set-up, we highly recommend that you create them at this time.

Creating Sale and Expense Types

Click on the 21 icon and in the Main Menu click Setup.
Click on the Reference Library button at the right of the window.

Select the Accounting Volume.
Choose either Expense or Sale Types and click Open.
Right-click and choose Modify mode, or press Ctrl+Enter. This will open the table in edit mode.

Press Insert to add a new type.
Complete the following fields:

Field	Description
Expense Type/Sale Type	This is the name you will give to the Expense or Sale Type. This type name will then be used when creating PriceBook items.
GL_Account	Enter the General Ledger account number that this type will represent. You can create multiple types that point to the same General Ledger account.
SubAccount	If the General Ledger account is a master account (has sub-accounts), you must choose the sub-account that the type will represent.
Department	If this type almost always posts to a particular department you can add the department here. When the type is used the department will then default, but can be changed. If you do not include a department you will be prompted to enter one each time an item with the Sale or Expense Type is used.
Expense Type Desc.	This allows you to enter a more complete description of the type.
IsJobCost (Expense Type Only)	Items marked with an “x” will be listed on job estimates when using project management.
IsActive	This field will be marked with an “x” by default. If an item is not marked active, it will not be available to assign to items created in the PriceBook.

Press Enter to save the new Expense or Sale Type.
Continue to add additional items, or click Close to leave edit mode.

Adjustment Codes

Adjustment codes are drop-down lists used to identify the reason that a change is being made to an operational balance in a module of Successware. These drops down lists of reasons are associated with general ledger accounts. When you need to make a change to a customer's balance or a vendors balance for example, that is not associated with a new invoice or payment, an adjustment can be recorded. When making an adjustment you will identify the amount of the adjustment and then choose an adjustment code which will identify why you are making the change and what general ledger account will be affected by the transaction.

There are six adjustment codes that are used in Successware:

Accounts Receivable Adjustment Codes- These codes are used to make adjustments to customer AR balances from within the customer Billing Account History screen (F4).

Account Payable Adjustment Codes- These adjustment codes are used to make adjustments to Vendor balances from within the Vendor Account History screen (F4).

Cash Box or Check Book Adjustment Codes- These adjustment codes are used within your register accounts to make adjustments to account balances. Examples include Credit Card fees, bank fees, interest earned and finance charges.

Inventory Adjustment Codes- These adjustment codes are used to make changes to the asset value of your inventory to account for such things as physical counts or product loss.

Receipt Distribution Codes- These adjustment codes are used when recording Miscellaneous Cash Receipts from the Receivables Manger. They represent the reasons miscellaneous cash is being received into the system.

Check Distribution Codes- These adjustment codes are used when recording miscellaneous payments made from one of your register accounts.

Looking for a more interactive course on General Ledger Setup? Check out our Learning Management System (LMS)! Our courses are available to all Successware users. If you don't have a sign-in for our LMS, contact us at training@successware.com for a free account.

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