General Ledger Table of Contents

Transcription

1 General Ledger Table of Contents Return to Cover page 1 Getting Started The Maintenance Menu Column Creating accounts Creating budgets Formatting financial statements Defining a report format Maintaining allocations Defining divisions Defining departments Changing the Accounting Year Establishing accounting periods Setting up your company The Transaction Menu Column Entering journal transactions Printing the Journal Proof List Posting journal transactions Entering recurring transactions Printing the Recurring Proof List Posting recurring transactions Allocating accounts The Check Recon Menu Column Maintaining transactions Clearing reconciled items Printing the Balancing Report Printing the Out-of-Balance Report Printing the Outstanding Item Report Printing the Cleared Item Report Purging cleared items The Reports/Inquiry Menu Column Viewing account activity Printing the Chart of Accounts Printing a list of divisions and departments Printing financial statement formats Printing budgets Printing allocations Printing Journal Report by Source code Printing the General Ledger Report Printing the Subledger Report Printing the Trial Balance Report...49 (10/98) General Ledger

2 5.11 Printing financial statements Printing other reports Printing queued reports The Miscellaneous Menu Column Interfacing from other Down To Earth applications Closing at the end of the period Closing at the end of the year Purging the YTD Transaction File Maintaining financial statement formats Reconciling detail to control Copying the Chart of Accounts to another company Copying the Chart of Accounts by Division/Department Creating an account Creating Budgets Deleting account(s) Zeroing account amounts...71 Appendix A: Financial Statement Formatting Commands Appendix B: Troubleshooting / Common Down To Earth & DBL errors Appendix C: Record Layouts Index General Ledger (10/98)

3 General Ledger The Down To Earth General Ledger enables you to Bring together records from your other Down To Earth applications, classify and summarizes those records, and provide an overview of your company s finances Create as many custom financial statement formats as needed. Produce financial statements for individual companies or consolidate data to include all Companies defined in Down To Earth on a single report Maintain up to 9 different revisions of the original account s budget Allocate an expense or revenue to department(s), division(s), or account(s) by percentage, dollar amount, or ratio Enter general and accrual (auto-reversal)journal transactions Enter general and accrual (auto-reversal) recurring transactions Maintain checking account reconciliation entries including automatic entries for checks written in Payroll and Accounts Payable and deposits from Accounts Receivable Print master records, General ledger/trial balance reports, and financial statements Interface with your Down To Earth Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Payroll, and Fixed Asset applications Process two open years simultaneously to allow flexibility in timing your end of year process Copy an existing Chart of Accounts to a newly created company within Down To Earth Copy a Chart of Accounts for a single division code to another division code for all or specific department codes (10/98) General Ledger

4 4 Getting Started 1 Getting Started Select General Ledger from the Accounting menu column to access the General Ledger application and display its main menu bar. Before you begin using General Ledger, you must perform the following functions in the order specified below: 1. Set up the company into which you are logged by following the instructions in the section, Setting up your company. You need to enter the information required to define each company s options that are to be processing within the Down To Earth software. You must define the check reconciliation amount default, if you intend to allow out-of-balance entries, the current processing year, if you intend to keep sub-ledgers for summarized accounts, and if you are processing with an alternate account period file. 2. Define the company s accounting periods by following the instructions in the section, Establishing accounting periods. A valid company record 9step 1 above) and the accounting periods must be defined prior to entering the Chart of Accounts. In addition to the periods, you must define the retained earnings account default, if you intend to enter budgets on all or just P&L accounts, and what the current budget revision number is. 3. Optional. Make a list of the divisions for all companies and assign each division a unique (up to) four-character code and description. Then use the instructions in the section, Defining divisions, to enter the identification code and description for each division. Divisions codes must be defined prior to entering the chart of accounts if you intend to use divisional breakdowns. 4. Optional. Make a list of the departments for all companies and assign each department a unique (up to) four-character code and description. Use the instructions in the section, Defining departments, to enter the identification code and description for each department. Department codes must be defined prior to entering the chart of accounts if you intend to use departmental breakdowns. 5. Assign each of your general ledger accounts a unique (maximum of) sixcharacter identification code and enter each account into Down To Earth by following the instructions in the section, Creating accounts. Division and department codes must have been defined prior to chart of accounts entry. When creating your chart of accounts you establish a description, if the account is a balance sheet or P&L account, and a two character user defined account type (primarily used as a distinguishing code when defining financial statements). You also indicate if the balance is normally a debit or credit balance, if you want subtotals at this account on the trial balance, if the account is active, if units are General Ledger (10/98)

5 Getting Started 5 required, and if the account should be summarized when interfaced from another application. 6. Optional. To add an account to the chart of accounts for all previously defined divisions or departments, follow the instructions in the section, Creating an account. To copy a chart of accounts from another, previously defined company, follow instructions in the section, Copying the chart of accounts. 7. Enter the current month s beginning balance for each general ledger account, by following the instructions in the section, Entering journal transactions. 8. Print a Journal Proof List and check your entries for accuracy. Follow the instructions in the section, Printing the Journal Proof List. When you re sure your entries are correct, follow the instructions in the section following, Posting journal transactions to post the transactions you entered in the previous step to the data files. 9. Print a Trial Balance Report for your records by following the instructions in the section, Printing the Trial Balance Report. This report should be kept as a permanent record of the beginning balances of each account. 10. Set up financial statement formats as needed to print required financial statements. Follow the instructions in the section, Formatting financial statements using the format codes described in the General Ledger Appendix A. When defining a financial statement format similar to an existing one, you can also use the Maintain financial statement formats in the Miscellaneous menu column to copy one format name to another and edit the new format. This same option is used to renumber the command lines (expanding line number values to allow inserted command line instructions) in a format or to delete a format no longer needed. 11. Optional. Create budgets for your general ledger accounts by following the instructions in the section, Creating budgets. You can create up to nine revisions of the original budget for any account by either entering each period s budget amount or entering an annual amount and have the system disperse the amount evenly for each period. 12. Optional. Set up records to allocate your costs or revenues to a number of departments, divisions, or accounts. Follow the instructions in the section, Maintaining allocations to allocate amounts based on a percentage, dollar amount, or ratio. 13. If you require financial statements with the beginning balance amounts, print them now. Follow the instructions in the section, Printing financial statements. The first time you print a financial format name using the standard set option, you must define at least one set with the company code, division (or * for all), department (or * for all), and the number of copies to print. Subsequent reports will retain this information as the standard set. (10/98) General Ledger

6 6 The Maintenance Menu Column 2 The Maintenance Menu Column From the Maintenance menu column you can Add an account to the Chart of Accounts Create budgets, financial statement formats, and allocations Define divisions, departments, and accounting periods Set up the company for which you are processing applications 2.1 Creating accounts To add an account to the Chart of Accounts or to change the data for an existing account, select Chart of accounts from the menu. In addition to the general ledger account number and description, you ll also define how each account will be handled within the General Ledger financial and Trial Balance reports and if summarized by date when interfaced. Since Down to Earth allows multiple year processing, you must also specify which year the account number is valid for. Creating new accounts for all divisions/departments: If the account you re adding requires all defined divisions and/or departments, you can use the Create account function from the Miscellaneous menu column instead of entering each individual account. The field entry is approximately the same with the addition of a field prompt Division required and Department required for each account number. For additional information, please refer to the Miscellaneous menu column section, Creating an account. Copying from the previous fiscal year: If you use the same Chart of Accounts from year to year, you can copy your chart for the new fiscal year by entering Yes at the Copy accts to new year prompt via the Close/open year entry in the Miscellaneous menu column. (Within the Close/open year selection window, you can choose the option Neither to simply copy the chart without closing the year.) For additional information, please refer to the Miscellaneous menu column section, Closing at the end of the year. Copying from another division/department: You may also add new accounts via Copy chart of accounts by div/dept in the Miscellaneous menu column. This process copies existing records for a division to a new division or department. For additional information, please refer to the Copy accounts by division or department section in this manual. For additional information, please refer to the Miscellaneous menu column section, Copying the Chart of accounts by division/department. General Ledger (10/98)

7 The Maintenance Menu Column 7 Copying from another company: You may choose to add new accounts via Copy chart of accounts to another company in the Miscellaneous menu column from within than existing Down To Earth company to a new Down To Earth company. For additional information, please refer to the Miscellaneous menu column section, Copying the Chart of Accounts to another company. Deleting an account: To delete a single account with a zero balance, enter the account number, division and department codes to display the account definition. Use the Delete shortcut to verify and delete the displayed account. Occasionally, a chart of accounts is defined incorrectly and the entire chart deleted. For more information regarding deleting the entire chart of accounts, see the section Deleting accounts in this manual. Select Chart of Accounts to display the Chart of Accounts Maintenance window. Chart of Accounts Maintenance window Year: The system will automatically display the default year as defined in the Company selection in the Maintenance menu column as the current fiscal year. You cannot override this field. If you want to enter an account number for a different year, select Change accounting year in the Maintenance menu column and enter a valid accounting year. You can then go back to the Chart of Accounts window and that new year will be displayed. When you exit General Ledger, the default year returns to the year defined as the Current fiscal year. Account number: You must assign a unique code to each general ledger account. You can enter up to six characters in this field (including leading zeros). It is suggested to number your accounts in the order you want them to appear on the balance sheet and income statement. The account you are defining will be referenced by this number throughout all Down To Earth applications. Your chart of accounts is unique but if defining one for the first time, a standard numbering series of accounts is as follows. Use all six positions in the field (100000, , etc.) if your company has an extremely large chart of accounts Assets Liabilities Stockholder s/owner s Equity Cost of goods sold Expenses Miscellaneous If you re using this menu entry to change an account, you can press the Find shortcut to search for the number of the desired account alphabetically, by account description, or numerically, by a portion of the account number. (10/98) General Ledger

8 8 The Maintenance Menu Column Division: Optional. Enter the valid code of the division you re assigning to this account. Include leading zeros, if applicable. If no division is required, press <Return> to leave this field blank. You can search for the code of the desired division using the Find shortcut. If a code has not yet been assigned to the desired division, press the Field maintenance shortcut. Department: Optional. Enter the valid code of the department you re assigning to this account. Include leading zeros, if applicable. If no department is required, press <Return> to leave this field blank. You can search for the code of the desired department using the Find shortcut. If a code has not yet been assigned to the desired department, press the Field maintenance shortcut. After you fill the fields described above and press <Return>, the cursor moves to the lower half of the window. If the account number you entered has already been assigned, the data for that account will appear in the remaining fields; if the account number has not been assigned, enter the appropriate data in the remaining fields. Description: Enter a brief description (up to 25 characters long) of the account you are defining. This description will be printed on the Trial Balance Report, General Ledger Report, financial statements and all application distribution reports. Down To Earth also uses the description you enter here when it performs searches. P & L or Bal: From the selection window, choose whether you want this account to appear on the Profit and Loss Statement or on the Balance Sheet. The default value is P & L. This field also controls which records are considered when calculating the Net profit/(loss) for financial statements. To calculate the Net/profit/(loss), the system starts at the beginning of the chart of accounts file looking for accounts marked as P. For those accounts, the credits are subtracted from the debit balances to arrive at the Net profit/(loss). Accounts defined as B are not considered. If you are out of balance on a financial statement but do balance when a Trial Balance is printed, check this field on all accounts to insure it is defined correctly. Account type: Enter the two-character code for the type of account you are defining. Down To Earth groups the accounts together by these codes when it prints financial statements. You or your system manager should have assigned account type codes before you began entering accounts. For example, you might have assigned CA as the code for Current Asset accounts, CL as the code for Current Liability accounts, and IN as the code for Income accounts. Several formatting commands required you to define the beginning and ending accounts and the account type. This allows distinction within a group of accounts. For example, for the range of accounts from you want to group only accounts with an account type of AD for administration together. You could then General Ledger (10/98)

9 The Maintenance Menu Column 9 group the same account range for account type WA for warehouse. This is especially helpful when distinguishing different division and/or department codes within the same account number. Normal balance: From the displayed selection window, indicate whether this account normally has a Debit or a Credit balance. If the account s balance is the opposite of what you designate as the normal balance, it will appear on the financial statements with a minus sign ( ). The default value is Debit. Select Debit for all asset and expense accounts, including accumulated depreciation, and for your general ledger account for cost of goods sold. Select Credit for all liability, equity, and income accounts. Subtotals: This field determines whether a subtotal is printed after this account on your Trial Balance and General Ledger Reports. If you want these reports to include subtotals for each account type, enter No for all accounts except the last account of each type. When you define the last account of each type, enter either Yes or Page. Both options will cause subtotals to be calculated and printed, but the option Page, will also force a page break immediately after the subtotals line. If you select Yes or Page, all accounts that precede this account on the Trial Balance and General Ledger Reports (and for which you previously entered No at this prompt) will be included in the subtotal. Therefore, number your general ledger accounts carefully so that only the desired accounts are included in the subtotal. If no subtotals are desired for any account type, always enter No in this field. Status: From the displayed selection window, indicate whether the status of this account is Active or Inactive. If you choose the status Inactive, no new transactions can be recorded to this account. Units: If units are not allowed on this account, select Not allowed. If units are allowed, select either Optional or Required. If you select Required, a unit value must be entered for each transaction entered to this account. The units will then be available for printing on the financial statements. Summarize: Choose No if you want the entries to this account that are interfaced from other systems written to the year to date transaction file (glyear.ism) in detail. If you want the entries summarized into one record for each debit and credit, per day, choose Yes. If you choose Yes to summarize and the Subledger field value is also Yes in the Company selection of the Maintenance menu column, the interfaced detail records will be written to a separate subledger file. A listing of detail records is available by selecting Subledger from the Reports menu column. Many companies choose to summarize the accounts that consistently contain many detail records such as the Cash, Accounts Payable, and Account Receivable accounts. This eliminates the quantity of records in the General Ledger year to date file (glyear.ism). When you re sure the data you entered in the preceding fields is correct, press <Return>. Down to Earth clears the window so you can enter the next general ledger (10/98) General Ledger

10 10 The Maintenance Menu Column account. When you re finished entering accounts, press the Exit window shortcut to return to the Maintenance menu column. 2.2 Creating budgets Budget Maintenance window To create a budget for a general ledger account or to change or delete an existing budget, select Budgets from the menu. The budget function allows you to create budgets for any valid accounting year, storing up to nine revisions for each year s budget. You can enter an annual amount to be divided equally among the accounting periods, or you can enter a different amount for each period. You can also use the inflate option to calculate budgets for periods two through 13, based on the period one amount and a user-defined inflate percentage. If you create a budget, you can later compare budgeted amounts to actual amounts by printing them on financial reports, or you can print a list of budgets by selecting the Budgets entry from the Reports menu column. Year: The system will automatically display the year that was entered in the Current fiscal year field via the Company entry in the Maintenance menu column. You cannot override this field. If you want to enter a budget for a different year, select Change accounting year from the Maintenance menu column to change to another valid account year. You can then go back to the Budget Maintenance window and that new year will be displayed. Revision: Enter the number of this budget revision. If this is the original budget for this account, just press <Return> to accept the default, 0 (zero). Account number: Enter the identification code for the general ledger account for which you are creating a budget. (If you haven t yet assigned a code to the desired account, you can do so now by pressing the Field maintenance shortcut.) If the account already has a code, you can use the Find shortcut to search for that code by account description or by a portion of the code. Division: Optional. Enter the code that was assigned to the division for which you are creating a budget. You can use the Find shortcut to search for the desired division by its description or a portion of its code. Department: Optional. Enter the code that was assigned to the department for which you are creating a budget. You can use the Find shortcut to search for the desired department by its description or a portion of its code. Press <Return> to process the data you just entered. If a budget already exists for the specified account number and revision number, additional data for that budget is displayed in the remaining fields. You can change an existing budget using the editing features of the Input menu column. If you want to leave the budget as it is, just press <Return>. General Ledger (10/98)

11 The Maintenance Menu Column 11 Method: From the displayed selection window, choose Annual to divide an annual amount equally among the accounting periods, Period to enter a specific dollar amount for each accounting period, or Inflate to enter an amount in period one and have the system calculate the remaining periods using a specified percent. For example, if you have a new product, and you project that sales will increase 5% each month for the rest of the year, you would choose Inflate, enter an inflation percentage of 5%, and enter an initial budget amount for period 1. The amount calculated for each following period will then be 5% more than the prior period. The default value is Annual. If you select Annual, the cursor will move to the Annual amount field. If you select Inflate, the cursor will move to the Inflate % field. Otherwise, the cursor will move to the Period 1 field. Annual amount: Enter the amount to be allocated equally among the accounting periods. If the budget amount is the opposite of the account s normal balance, place a minus sign ( ) either before or after the budget amount. For example, if the account normally has a debit balance but the budgeted amount is a credit, use a minus sign. If you are entering dollar amounts for each accounting period, the system automatically calculates the sum of the budgets for each accounting period and displays the total in this field. The maximum size of this field is 99,999,999, Inflate %: Enter the percentage by which you want the initial amount inflated for each period. Period 1-13: If you re entering an annual budget to be prorated among the accounting periods, the system automatically calculates the budget amount for each period and displays these amounts in the remaining data fields. If you selected Period at the Method prompt, you must manually enter the dollar amounts to be applied to each of the accounting periods. If you selected Inflate at the Method prompt, enter an amount in Period 1 only; the system will then automatically calculate the budget amount for each period and display these amounts in the remaining data fields. The maximum size of this field is 9,999,999, When you re sure your data is correct, press <Return>. Down To Earth clears the window so you can create another budget. If you re finished creating budgets, use the Exit window shortcut to return to the Maintenance menu column. 2.3 Formatting financial statements Select Financial statement formats from the Maintenance menu column either to design your own financial statement and store it for future use or to change an existing financial statement format. (10/98) General Ledger

12 12 The Maintenance Menu Column Down To Earth is shipped to you with formatting commands that enable you to create balance sheets, income statements, funds flow statements, cash flow statements, and supporting schedules. Through a displayed list of commands, you determine which type of statement you re formatting, where each general ledger account appears on the report, which accounts are added together, what headings appear, whether amounts are underlined, and where blank lines are included. Before you begin: Before you enter formatting commands into Down To Earth, we suggest that you use graph paper and prepare a format by hand to determine where headings and columns should be placed on the report. Allow 18 spaces for columns that will include dollar amounts and six spaces for columns that will include percentages. It is also suggested that you review Appendix A for a complete list of commands available for use when creating a financial format. Once a basic template format is created, use the Miscellaneous menu selection, Maintain financial statement formats to copy a format to a different name and make any necessary changes. Reasons financials are out of balance: If the financial statement is out of balance when printed, the first step to find the reason is to verify if the problem is in the formatting commands or the account amounts. If you print a Trial Balance for all accounts and the total report is in balance, the problem lies in the formatting. Print out a current Chart of Accounts and a format listing for comparison. The primary causes for formatting problems are: An account number in the chart of accounts is not considered in a range of formatting commands, usually the AC (Accounts) or CON (Consolidated) command. An account number was added and is included in a range of accounts but has an incorrect account type, incorrect upper/lower case entry, or no account type. To be included in the report, the account type defined in the command must be exactly as the Chart of Account number is defined. A balance sheet account was added but incorrectly identified as a P&L account or P&L account entered and identified as a balance sheet account. This will cause a miscalculation in the Net profit/(loss) amount. There are no accounts defined as Inactive (Status field in the chart of accounts) that have an ending balance. Active accounts may inadvertently be changed to inactive but still have an outstanding balance. An account was deleted in error that does have a balance. This is only allowed if deleting accounts via Delete accounts selection in the Miscellaneous menu column. Deleting accounts with balances is not allowed via the Chart of accounts selection of the Maintenance menu column, delete function. Select Financial statement formats to display the Financial Statement Maintenance window. General Ledger (10/98)

13 The Maintenance Menu Column 13 Financial Statement Maintenance window Format name: Assign a name to the financial statement format, or enter the name of the existing format you want to change. The format name can be up to eight characters in length. You can use the Find shortcut to display a list of the previously defined financial statement formats. If the specified financial statement has already been formatted, the data for that statement is displayed in the remaining fields. To change the displayed data, use the editing features in the Input menu column. To leave the data as it is and move the cursor to the Line number prompt, press <Return>. You can now add additional line numbers and commands or you can change the commands on existing lines. If the specified financial statement has not been formatted, enter data in the remaining fields, which are discussed below. Description: Enter a description, up to 60 characters in length, of the financial statement you are formatting. This description is printed on the financial statement index and in the Find shortcut display window. Page width: You can define financial statements to have as few as 80 columns or as many as 252. Enter the number of characters you want printed across the report page. Most financial statements are either 80, 132, or 252 columns wide. NOTE: An error will occur when printing the financial statement if the commands require more than the page width specified in this field. To insure accuracy, determine the spacing of the report prior to defining the format. Multi-comp: Select Yes to format a consolidated statement that includes companies that use different account numbers in their Charts of Accounts. Otherwise, just press <Return> to select the default value, No. If the report you re formatting will be used to consolidate accounts from companies that use the same account numbers in their Charts of Accounts, select No. In this case, specify which companies you want to include in the consolidated report when you print the report (via the Financial statements entry in the Reports menu column) by selecting Sum at the Use standard set prompt and entering the account, division, and department combinations that you want included in the Standard Set window. Print div/dept: Select Yes if you want to print each division and department separately. If you want to consolidate and display the data for more than one division or department under their respective account numbers, press <Return> to enter the default value, No. Divisions and departments are always listed separately on schedules regardless of how you answer this prompt. Press <Return> to accept the data you just entered and move the cursor to the Line number prompt. (10/98) General Ledger

14 14 The Maintenance Menu Column Created: Display only. If a format with the name you entered at the Format name prompt already exists, the date that format was created is displayed in this field. Changed: Display only. If the specified format already exists, the date that format was either created or most recently changed is displayed in this field. Last line: Display only. If the specified format already exists, the last line number of that format is displayed. This field enables you to add additional lines to the end of the report, as needed. Line number: Enter the line number on which you want to add a command or change an existing command. If this is a new report, it is recommended that you space your lines 10 numbers apart (i.e., 10, 20, 30, 40, etc.). This allows you to insert additional lines when changes are required. If you press <Return> without entering a line number, Down To Earth enters a 0 in the field, and no new line is created on the report. If you need to add commands in the middle of your report format but you didn t number the command lines to allow for additions, you can select Maintain financial statement format from the Miscellaneous menu column and the option to renumber the command lines. Printing a list of the existing commands and the corresponding line numbers is suggested for easier editing. Select Financial statement formats from the Reports menu column and choose the correct format name to print. Command: From the displayed selection window, choose the appropriate command for the line number you entered at the Line number prompt and press <Return>. For a list of available commands, see Appendix A. If the command you selected requires additional information, another window will be displayed below the Financial Statement Maintenance window. Otherwise, the cursor will return to the Line number field. For detailed description of each field requiring entry, see the command, listed in alphabetical order, in Appendix A. Follow the instructions in the following section Defining a report format, as guidelines for defining your report format. Once you have completed all command entry, press the Exit window shortcut to return to the Maintenance menu column Defining a report format To define your report format, you must enter the commands in the following order. Any Heading (HE) or Ending date (END D) command defined prior to the first Top of Page (TOP) command prints as a heading at the top of each subsequent page. Commands issued after the first TOP command are printed in the order that they are issued. 1. Enter one of the two-character commands from the following list to specify the type of report you re formatting. It is very important that this command be the first command in your format. BA Balance sheet General Ledger (10/98)

15 The Maintenance Menu Column 15 IN Income statement CA Cash flow FU Funds flow SH Schedule 2. To define your report headings, use the Heading command (HE). For example, you would usually include your company name, a title of the report, and the column headings for the amounts/ratios to be printed. If you want to include blank lines either before the report heading(s) or within the report heading(s), define them using the Heading command and specify blanks to print. (Use the Advance line command (AD) only after the first Top of Page (TOP) command. 3. Optionally enter the period ending date as a heading by using the END D command. (The format of the date depends on the type of format established on the first line.) 4. Enter the Top of page command (TOP). 5. If you re defining the format for an income statement that will include a ratio column, enter the Compute revenue command (COM) to specify which accounts will be included in the ratio computation. 6. Use the Column tabs command (COL) to specify the information that should be included on the report and to specify the columns in which the information should be printed. To indent the text as an outline format, repeat the column command with the same parameters except for the Text field. 7. To format the report body, enter the appropriate commands from Appendix A. 8. Enter the appropriate command from the following list to indicate the end of the report format. If you re defining a separate format name for schedules or when defining supporting schedules, you don t need to enter an END command. END B END C END F END I End Balance sheet End Cash flow End Funds flow End Income statement 2.4 Maintaining allocations Down To Earth enables you to allocate a cost or revenue by either percentage, dollar or ratio to a number of departments, divisions, or accounts. To set up records of the allocations you want processed, select Allocations from the menu. You can then process the allocations on record by selecting the Allocate account(s) entry in the Transaction menu column. (10/98) General Ledger

16 16 The Maintenance Menu Column The processing of allocation entries is made of 3 different steps: 1. Creating the (master) allocation distribution of a G/L account number and amount to several other accounts, based on a percentage, dollar or ratio. The allocation master is defined via the Allocations selection in the Maintenance menu column. 2. Calculate the allocation distribution when ready to process allocations. Select Allocate accounts from the Transaction menu column. Enter the criteria as requested, choosing List, not Post at this time, to print a list of what is to be allocated. Verify the distributions are correct, edit the allocation master, if needed, and re-print the allocation listing. 3. When allocation distribution is correct, choose Post, to process the allocation transactions. You are allowed up to 998 (to) allocations per (from)account. Because each allocation may not calculate exactly even, the rules for processing the differences are as follows: Percentage allocation takes the total dollars posted to the (from) account and distributes the percentage indicated to the (to) accounts. If the total Percentage of allocations does not equal 100%, that percentage remains in the account being allocated from. In the following example, 90% is allocated to division/department accounts and 10% automatically remains in the (from) account, with no division or department. The percentage distribution is... From: 5600 Telephone Expense 10% To: Telephone Expense 20% Telephone Expense 20% Telephone Expense 25% Telephone Expense 25% Dollar allocation breaks out the exact dollar amount indicated for the (to) account. If the dollar amount to be allocated (account balance at the time of allocation) is more than the combined allocation amounts set up, the overage remains in the (from) account. For example, $ is to be allocated to each division and department with the balance in the (from) account equal to $2,400.00: The result is... From: 5600 Telephone Expense $ To: Telephone Expense $ Telephone Expense $ Telephone Expense $ Telephone Expense $ If the dollar amount to be allocated is less than the combined amounts defined, the allocation will be based on an equal percentage of each account. For General Ledger (10/98)

17 The Maintenance Menu Column 17 example, $ allocated to each of the four division and department breakdowns. The total (from) account balance is $1,500.00, resulting in... From: 5600 Telephone Expense $.00 To: Telephone Expense $ Telephone Expense $ Telephone Expense $ Telephone Expense $ The ratio calculation creates a percentage based on a ratio of all of the (to) account s balance to each other. For example, account balances equal $300.00, $500.00, $1, and $ The percentages calculated are 12%, 20%, 40%, and 28%. The calculation performed to arrive at the percentage is the balance of each (to) account divided by the combined total of the (to) account balances. The total percentages will always equal 100%. Allocation (from) Maintenance window Reference: Assign a code of up to eight characters for the allocation you are entering. If you are allocating phone expenses, for example, you might choose phone as your reference. When you post your allocations, the system creates entries that are displayed on the General Ledger Report, and each entry is referenced by the code you enter at this prompt. If the code you enter has already been assigned, the data for that allocation is displayed in the remaining fields. Type: Press <Return> to select the default value, General, if you want the allocation transactions created by the system to be general entries. If you want the systemgenerated allocation transactions to be automatically reversed during period close, select Automatic reversal. Allocate: From the displayed selection window, indicate whether you will be allocating a Percentage of the total, a specific Dollar amount, or a Ratio of the total dollar amount to each account, department, or division. The default value is Percentage. Percentage allocation takes the total dollars posted to the (from) account and distributes the percentage indicated to the (to) accounts. Dollar allocation breaks out the exact dollar amount indicated for the (to) account. The ratio calculation creates a percentage based on a ratio of all of the (to) account s balance to each other. Account: Enter the number of the account from which you are allocating. If you haven t yet defined the account, you can define it now by pressing the Field maintenance shortcut. If you ve already defined the account, you can search for the (10/98) General Ledger

18 18 The Maintenance Menu Column Allocation (to) window number by account description or by a portion of the account number using the Find shortcut. Division: Optional. Enter the code of the division from which you are allocating. If you aren t allocating from a particular division, press <Return> to leave this field blank. You can use the Find shortcut to search for the desired division by its description or a portion of its code. Department: Optional. Enter the code of the department from which you are allocating. If you aren t allocating from a particular department, press <Return> to leave this field blank. You can use the Find shortcut to search for the desired department by its description or a portion of its code. After you enter the department code, the message Make corrections or press <Return> to complete input appears on the information line at the bottom of the screen. If the data you typed in the above fields is correct, press <Return> to enter this data. The Allocation window is displayed in the lower right corner of the screen, and the cursor moves to the Account field. Total: This field displays the total dollar amount or percentage allocated. When you enter an allocation in the Allocation window, the amount of the transaction is added to the total displayed in this field. Entry: The number of the allocation entry is automatically displayed in this field. You can change this code using the editing features of the Input menu column. Account: Enter the number of the account to which you are allocating. If you haven t yet defined the account, you can define it now by pressing the Field maintenance shortcut. If you ve already defined the account, you can search for the number by account description or by a portion of the account number using the Find shortcut. Division: Optional. Enter the code of the division to which you are allocating. If you aren t allocating to a particular division, just press <Return>. You can use the Find shortcut to search for the code of the appropriate division. Department: Optional. Enter the code of the department to which you are allocating. If you aren t allocating to a particular department, just press <Return>. You can use the Find shortcut to search for the code of the appropriate department. If you entered Dollar or Ratio in the Type field, the cursor now moves to the Amount field; if you selected Percentage in the Allocate field, the cursor now moves to the Percent field. Amount: Enter the dollar amount to be allocated to this account. Any dollar amount that is not allocated will remain in the account from which you are allocating. The maximum size of this field is 9,999,999, General Ledger (10/98)

19 The Maintenance Menu Column 19 Percent: Enter the percentage to be allocated to this account. If the percentages that you enter are less than 100, the remaining amount will stay in the account from which you are allocating. If the percentages are greater than 100, Down To Earth will only allocate up to 100 percent. The maximum size of this field is 999, After you ve entered the necessary data in the Allocation window, press <Return> to enter the allocation, clear the window, and display the number of the next allocation in the Entry field. When you are finished allocating from this account, press the Exit window shortcut to return to and clear the Allocation Maintenance window. The Total field is automatically updated. You can either enter another allocation or press the Exit window shortcut again to pull down the Maintenance menu column. 2.5 Defining divisions Select Division codes from the menu to define the divisions you will be using with your general ledger accounts. Divisions must be defined prior to entering your chart of accounts. Select Divisions/departments from the Reports menu column to print a list of the divisions defined. Division Maintenance window Division: Assign a four-character code, or enter the four-character code of a division whose description you want to change. If you don t know the division code, you can use the Find shortcut to search for the appropriate division by its description or a portion of its code. Description: If the division code you entered has not already been assigned, enter a description for that division. The description can be up to 25 characters in length. If the division code you entered has already been assigned, the description for that division is displayed. Use the editing features of the Input menu column to change this description, or press <Return> to leave the description as it is. You can either define another division, or you can press the Exit window shortcut again to pull down the Maintenance menu column. 2.6 Defining departments To define the departments you will be using with your general ledger accounts, select Department codes from the menu.. Departments must be defined prior to entering your chart of accounts. Select Divisions/departments from the Reports menu column to print a list of the departments defined. (10/98) General Ledger

20 20 The Maintenance Menu Column Department Maintenance window Department: Assign a four-character code, or enter the code of the department whose description you want to change. You can search for the appropriate department by its description or a portion of its code using the Find shortcut. Description: If the department code you entered has not been assigned, enter a description for the department. The description can be up to 25 characters in length. If the department code you entered has already been assigned, the description for that department is displayed. Use the editing features of the Input menu column to change the existing description, or press <Return> to leave the description as it is. You can either define another department, or you can press the Exit window shortcut again to pull down the Maintenance menu column. 2.7 Changing the Accounting Year To change the accounting year for certain maintenance functions, inquiries, and reports, select Change accounting year from the menu. Once you change the year, the new year will be used as the default value in all Year fields until you change it again, or exit General Ledger. Changing the year back and forth allows you to access data from multiple fiscal years. The value you change the year to remains so until you process data for a different year, change it again, or exit General Ledger. When you return to the General Ledger application, the current fiscal year (defined via Company maintenance) becomes the year field default value. To change the current fiscal year default, enter the new year via Company selection of the Maintenance menu column. Changing the current fiscal year must be entered manually, it is not automatically changed when the close year function is performed. Choose Accounting Year window Year: Enter the accounting year within which you want to work. Note that this field is for maintenance functions, inquiries, and reports only. All transactions will automatically determine the correct accounting period and year according to the date of the transaction. Reports that print by period will also change this year if the requested period falls outside of the current year. The year you choose must have a valid accounting period record on file. After you ve entered the accounting year you want, press <Return> to pull down the Maintenance menu column. General Ledger (10/98)

21 The Maintenance Menu Column Establishing accounting periods To define the accounting periods for the company into which you are logged, select Accounting periods from the Maintenance menu column. Your accounting year can consist of twelve or thirteen periods; the twelve months of the year, or thirteen periods of four weeks each. (If you are processing with twelve calendar months of the year, the thirteenth period is not used. In this case, the starting and ending date values for period thirteen are 00/00/0000.) Your accounting year can be either the calendar or a fiscal year. Alternate accounting periods: If you choose to use the alternate account file option (which was set via the Company selection in the Maintenance menu column), you can also set up a second set of accounting periods for the same year (up to 53 periods). You also specify the number of valid periods in the year, the current period, your retained earnings account, whether to allow budget entry to all accounts or just P&L accounts, the number of the active budget revision, and whether the year is open or closed. NOTE: The accounting periods are automatically defined for the new fiscal year when the End of Year ( Close/open year selection in the Miscellaneous menu column) function is completed. When you select the option to copy the chart of accounts to the new year, the accounting periods are also copied, using the same period definitions, with the new year s dates. Any period changes or allowance for leap year must be entered manually. Period Maintenance window Year: Enter the fiscal year for which you want to enter accounting periods. The default is the current fiscal year entered in the Current fiscal year field in the Company entry in the Maintenance menu column. Press <Return> to accept this year, or type over it to enter accounting periods for a different year. Accounting periods: Enter the number of accounting periods defined for this company. The number of accounting periods is usually 12 or 13 and must remain the same throughout the current fiscal year. In the alternate period file, this number can be from 1 to 53. Current period: The number of the current accounting period is displayed in this field if the accounting periods have already been defined for the company you are processing. If the accounting periods have not been defined, enter the number of the current accounting period. The current period is automatically updated when you perform the end-of-month closing. Therefore, you only need to enter a value in this field when you first establish the accounting periods for your company. Retained earnings account: Enter the number of the general ledger account to which balances from the income and expense accounts should be posted during end- (10/98) General Ledger