Platform - General Ledger

General Ledger Overview

Successware was designed so that there is very little you will enter as a journal entry.  Many functions that you have previously entered as journal entries are handled through the other modules.

For instance, cash receipts that do not pertain to receivables are entered using miscellaneous cash receipts.  Doing so will post to the general ledger correctly and will update the undeposited receipts cash box so that the receipt will be included in your deposit along with the other monies received.

Miscellaneous payments can be processed through Accounts Payable or the Account Register.

Other adjustments to cash, such as bank fees, interest income, etc., are processed through the account register so that they will be available for reconciliation at month end.

You can also process monthly entries, such as depreciation, as journal entries.

Other General Ledger functions include:

• Compiling posted entries for reports,
• Viewing transactions, and
• Printing financial reports.

Journal Entries

You will post journal entries only for activity that cannot be entered through Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, or the Account Register.

You can open the Journal Entry by going to the Main Menu, click on Accounting, and then Journal Entries.

Creating Journal Entries

1. Click New.
2. Enter the Post Date.
3. Enter a Reference.  The reference is optional but we recommend that you use the reference to group entries in a batch.  You can find and print batches of transactions by the reference ID later.
4. Select the account number from the drop down list.  If the account is one that contains sub-accounts, select the correct sub-account.  If the account is an income statement account, you will be required to enter or select a department number.
5. Enter a Description for the transaction.
6. Enter the amount of the transaction in the appropriate field, either Debit or Credit.
7. Click Save.  The transaction will be listed in the grid below the data entry fields.
8. Click New, to enter the next transaction and continue until all entries have been made and the Total Debits and Total Credits balance at the bottom of the form.
9. Click Post to commit the transactions to the General Ledger.

Journal entries can be changed or deleted prior to being posted.  Once entries have been posted you must correct them by making reversing or correcting entries.

• To change an entry -- Click Edit and make the necessary changes then click Save.
• To delete an entry -- Click Delete and confirm the deletion.
• To delete all entries -- Click Delete All and confirm the deletion.

Creating Recurring Entries

You can create recurring entries to process transactions that you post periodically, such as depreciation.

To create recurring entries

1. Enter the transactions as you normally would.
2. Before you post the transactions, click Make Recurring.
3. Name the recurring group and click Save.

4. After naming the recurring group, you can post the entries.  If you do not wish to post the entries at this time, click Cancel.

Posting Previously Created Recurring Entries

1. Open the Journal Entry
2. Click Recurring Entries.
3. Use the drop-down list to select the group that contains the entries you wish to post.

4. Click Edit.
5. Enter the Post Date and change the Reference, if necessary.
6. Click Save to save the changes, then Post to commit the entries to the General Ledger.

If necessary, you can make changes to the entries, or enter additional transactions, prior to posting the recurring group.

Account Inquiry

In the GL Account Inquiry screen you can:

• View General Ledger activity by account, and
• Compile posted transactions for financial reports.

Features:

• Include or exclude subaccount information,
• Include or exclude Department information, and
• Show or Hide the detailed information.

To compile the posted transactions for a fiscal period, use the ellipsis and select Compute Report Balance. 

1. Select the fiscal year and account that you want to view.
2. If applicable, select the sub-account and/or department.
3. Select Go.

The initial grid shows account information by period:

• Period
• Date Range of period
• Beginning Balance
• Sum of the debits and credits for the period (Period Dr and Period Cr)
• Ending Balance
• Unposted debits and credits (if any, Unposted Dr and Unposted Cr)

To ensure that all General Ledger account balances are current (all transactions have been posted), use the ellipsis and select Compute Report Balances prior to running reports.

Financial Reports

Print financial reports from the Report Gallery.  The Report Gallery includes the standard financial reports and other reports that assist you in the financial analysis of your company.

The standard reports are:

• Balance Sheet -- allows you the option to include sub account information
• Income Statement -- allows you to print for All Departments, Selected Departments, or Multi-Department
• Trial Balance -- allows you to include sub account, department, and account detail

Other reports:

• Chart of Accounts
• Check Register
• GL Transactions (detail GL)

View financial reports from the Report Gallery.

Closing a Fiscal Period

Closing a period prevents any further accounting transactions from being made within the specified time frame.

You close a fiscal period from the Periods/Year tab of the General Ledger Setup screen.

To close a fiscal period, select the period and select Update Period Status.  Use the drop-down list to click Close.

In addition to closing a fiscal period, you can update the period’s status to re-open or lock a period.

Your status options are:

• Inactive- the period is prior to the activation date.
• Open- the period is open for posting.
• Locked- the period is locked to prevent posting from other modules.  You can still make journal entries to the period.
• Closed- the period is closed to prevent posting.

Period End Checklist

At the end of each fiscal period, you will want to check certain balances to ensure the integrity of your financial reports.  Prior to checking these balances and printing financials, the following steps should be completed:

1. Jobs/Invoices- make sure that all jobs that should be closed in the fiscal period have been closed and that any related AR invoices have been posted.  This includes invoices that are entered to record paid work orders and invoices that are entered as Receivables and have a balance due.
2. Accounts Receivable- make sure that all payments and/or adjustments for the month have been entered.
3. Accounts Payable- make sure that all vendor invoices, payments and adjustments for the fiscal period have been posted.

Other considerations:

• Payroll
• Account Register
• Inventory
• General Ledger
• Items to Compare:
  • Cash
  • Deferred Revenue and the Agreement Reserve

Payroll

• If you are using the Payroll module of Successware, make sure that all payroll periods in the fiscal year have been completed and reconciled.
• If you are posting payroll as journal entries, make sure that journal entries have been made for all payroll periods in the fiscal period and that all paychecks have been recorded in the account register.

Account Register

• Undeposited receipts cash box- make sure that any cash receipts that were deposited during the fiscal period have been reconciled for deposit and cleared from the cash box.
• Petty Cash- make sure that all payments that were made from petty cash have been entered, all deposits to petty cash have been recorded and the account has been reconciled.
• Bank Accounts- make sure that you have reconciled all bank accounts according to the statement and that you have printed the outstanding items.

Inventory

Make sure that all receipts, adjustments, returns and requisitions have been posted and that all tags have been reconciled.

General Ledger

Make sure that any journal entries for items such as depreciation have been posted.  Once all data entry is complete and all transactions that affect the fiscal period have been posted, print the Balance Sheet for the fiscal period.  When the system prompts you to compile unposted transactions, be sure to answer Yes or the report will not be accurate.

These instructions were created with the assumption that your starting balances (and comparative detail) were entered in balance and that the prior fiscal period(s) balanced, and that all entries have been posted for the current period.

Cash

• Bank Accounts- compare the reconciled balance to the Balance Sheet’s balance for each account.
• Cash Boxes- print the Check Register report for each account, leaving From date blank and Thru date the last date of the fiscal period.  Select Not Cleared transactions only.  The uncleared items should match the account balance on the Balance Sheet.

Comparing Deferred Revenue with the Agreement Reserve

If you are using Deferred Revenue for Maintenance agreements or Agreement Reserve for Service agreements, you will want to compare those totals also.

Deferred Revenue

1. From the Report Gallery, select Agreements, then Agreement Deferral Analysis.
2. Date Range- enter the last date of the fiscal period in the End Date.
3. Click the Apply Filters button to run the report.
4. The Deferred Balance should match the Balance Sheet balance for the account.

Agreement Reserve

1. From the Report Gallery, select Agreements, then Agreement Reserve Analysis.
2. Date Range- enter the last date of the fiscal period in the End Date.
3. Click the Apply Filters button to run the report.
4. The difference between Reserve Amount and Reserve Charges should match the Balance Sheet balance for the account.

NOTE:  Check with your Accountant for advice on any other accounts and detail that you should be comparing.

General Ledger Budget

The Budget setup screen is primarily a grid that contains line items for each period, account, and department for a selected year or period.  When developing a new budget, the prior year’s budget figures, and if desired the actual figures, are also displayed.

NOTE: Before setting up your budget, check your Chart of Accounts and deactivate any accounts or departments that you do not use.  The budgeting process will progress smoothly if you can eliminate any unnecessary items from your budget setup view.

Budget Setup

To enter a new budget, or modify an existing budget, you will need to open the Budget Setup screen.

1. From the Main Menu, select Accounting, and click on GL Budget.
2. Select the fiscal year you wish to create a budget for from the drop-down menu.
3. Click Load Budget located at the bottom of the screen.

If a budget is already loaded, skip to step 5.  Otherwise, proceed to step 4.

4. You will get a message stating that there is no current budget for the selected year, if this is the first time you’ve tried to create a budget for that fiscal year.
5. Select Create/Refresh Budget Items. This will create budget line items based on your particular setup of periods, accounts, and departments.  Please be patient as this can take some time.

At this point, you have two options.  You can either:

• Have Successware generate a budget for the entire year.
• Have Successware create a budget for the initial period of a new fiscal year.

Automatically Generated Budget for the Entire Year

1. Ensure that the Fiscal Period field at the top of the form is displaying <All periods>. If it is not, select All periods from the drop-down menu.
2. Select a fiscal year that you would like to base your budget on from the Copy from fiscal year drop-down menu.  This is typically the prior fiscal year.

NOTE:  Do not use this method if you want your initial budget to reflect the month-to-month changes in your actual income statement.

3. Click Load Budget button.
4. Click on the Prior Year Actuals radio button if you want to base your budget on previous profit and loss figures.

Click on the Budget radio button, found in the Copy from section if you want to base your budget on previous budget figures, provided they exist.  If this is your first budget, there will be no previous budget figures to base a new budget on.

NOTE:  If you so desire, Successware will automatically modify the imported budget information by a percentage that you determine.

• Enter a percentage in the With adjustment of field.
• Depending on whether you want to adjust the imported data up or down, click either the Increase or Decrease radio button found immediately below the With adjustment of
• Click Reset selected budget.

5. Edit the figures in the Budget Amount column to represent the budget requirements for the new fiscal year.
6. Click Save.

Automatically Generated Budget based on Fiscal Periods

1. Select the initial period (typically period 1) that you want to create a budget for.
2. Select a fiscal period that you would like to base your budget on from the Copy from fiscal period drop-down menu.
3. Click Load budget.
4. Click on the Actuals radio button found in the Copy from section if you want to base your budget on previous profit and loss figures. Or, click on the Budget radio button if you want to base your budget on previous budget figures, provided they exist.  If this is your first budget, there will be no previous budget figures to base a new budget on.

NOTE:  If you so desire, Successware will automatically modify the imported budget information by a percentage that you determine.

• Enter a percentage in the With adjustment of field.
• Depending on whether you want to adjust the imported data up or down, click either the Increase or Decrease radio button found immediately below the With adjustment of field.
• Click Reset selected budget.

5. Edit the figures in the Budget Amount column to represent the budget requirements for the new fiscal period.
6. Save the changes when you are satisfied with the numbers entered.
7. Select All periods from the Fiscal period drop-down menu.
8. Copy the budget to the remaining fiscal periods.  The process is as follows:

• Selecting the current budget,
• Select the period for which the budget was previously created,
• Click on the Budget radio button,
• Enter “0.0” in the With adjustment of field,
• Click the Reset selected budget

NOTE:  You can also use the period, department, account filters to limit the view so you can work on a particular period, department, or account at a time.

9. Edit the figures in the Budget Amount column to represent the new budget requirements.
10. Click Save, and then click Yes when the Confirm message displays.

Modifying an Existing Budget

1. Select a fiscal year that you would like to work on from the Copy from fiscal period drop-down menu.
2. Click Load budget.

NOTE:  You can also use the period, department, or account filters to narrow down the view so you can work on a particular period, department, or account at a time.

3. Edit the figures in the Budget Amount column, as appropriate.
4. Click Save, and then click Yes when the Confirm message displays.

NOTE:  It is advisable to save your work periodically by repeating step 4 on a routine basis.

Create/Refresh Budget Items

If you have added, deactivated, or deleted accounts or departments, or if you have modified your fiscal period setup, select Create/Refresh Budget Items.  This will remove obsolete budget items and create new ones based on your setup.

Any changes that you make in the Budget setup will not be reflected in your budget until you have accomplished this.

Reset Selected Budget

The Reset selected budget button in the Budget setup screen allows you to replace budget figures for a particular fiscal year or period based on either actual or budget figures from another year or period.  Typically, you would use the features found in this section as a starting point when creating a budget for a new fiscal year.  Budget values can be initially created based on either the prior year’s budget or the prior year’s actual figures.

Looking for a more interactive course on General Ledger? 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 [e-mail] for a free account.

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