NorthStar Club Management System

Transcription

1 NorthStar Club Management System The Version GL March 25, 2008

2 CONTENTS OVERVIEW OF THE GL (GENERAL LEDGER) MODULE... 5 ACCESSING THE GL MODULE... 6 GL INTRODUCTION:... 8 Inquiry... 8 Admin... 8 Journals... 8 FINANCIAL REPORT DESIGNER:... 8 Company... 8 Budgets... 8 Reports... 8 Additional Reports... 8 COMPANY... 9 GENERAL INFORMATION... 9 COMPANY - LIST DEPARTMENTS: ACCOUNT NUMBERING: CHART OF ACCOUNTS: CREATING AN ACCOUNT: Editing a GL Account: GL VIRTUAL ACCOUNT SETUP SCREEN ADMIN FISCAL YEAR FISCAL PERIOD CREATING AN ACCOUNT GL PROPERTIES SETUP PERIOD CLOSING ACCOUNT GROUPINGS INQUIRY ACCOUNT ACTIVITY INQUIRY REVERSING A JOURNAL ENTRY POSTING SEARCH JOURNAL SEARCH: JOURNAL ENTRIES MANUAL JOURNAL ENTRIES Creating Entries Using Existing Templates RECURRING JOURNAL ENTRIES Specifying Schedules Creating Entries Using Existing Templates Posting Entries Viewing History Configuring Properties to Post Entries Automatically ALLOCATING JOURNAL ENTRY Configuring Properties to Post Entries Automatically INTER-COMPANY JOURNAL ENTRY JOURNAL TEMPLATES: JOURNAL ENTRY IMPORTER Importing Journal Entries Page 2

3 REPORTS BALANCE SHEET INCOME STATEMENT: TRIAL BALANCE GL ACCOUNT TRANSACTION DETAILS BUDGET INDEX Page 3

4 NorthStar Technologies is the provider of Next Generation NorthStar Club Management System to city and country clubs, enabling the clubs to manage member information, automate business processes, and serve members efficiently. NorthStar Club Management System provides clubs with a proven set of industry-specific best practices, completely integrated suite of applications, and next generation technologies, empowering them to consistently deliver superior member experiences and provide the highest level of employee and management satisfaction. The General Ledger module forms a central part of Northstar, interfacing with every module and representing the accounting structure of the organization. Northstar s GL has been specially designed to reflect the club s management and financial accounting requirements. The General Ledger module offers the following plus more: Corporate or Subsidiary Company Setup Departments Setup within a Company Chart of Accounts Budgets Web Reports (Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, Income Statements) Journal Entries (Manual, Accrual, Recurring, Allocating, and Inter-company) Custom Reports Page 4

5 Overview of the GL (General Ledger) Module (Back to Top) The general ledger is a collection of accounts to which debits and credits are transferred. The action of recording a debit or credit in the general ledger is referred to as posting and posting of a journal entry to the general ledger accounts is a purely mechanical process using information already in the journals and requiring no additional analysis. Figure 1: An Overview of the GL Module On clicking on more >>> link at the bottom right hand corner, the detailed GL Home Page appears. Page 5

6 Accessing the GL Module When you log onto NorthStar Club Management System using the Login ID and Password (Figure 1), and if the option to display preferences screen upon login is selected, you will be presented with User Preferences screen (Figure 2). If it is not selected, you will be taken to module home page directly that has been set as default in preferences. Figure 2: User Log In From the User Preferences screen, you can access the GL accounts of multiple companies if your user rights are set to allow multiple companies. If you cannot see multiple companies in the drop down even though they are defined, then you should contact your administrator to set your user rights from the Admin module [Admin Home Page >> Users >> List >> User Information]. Select the company of your interest from the Login Company drop down list. Then, select the module General Ledger from the Login Module s drop down list (Figure 2). Pressing the button saves your preferences before opening the GL Home Page, while the button simply opens the module that has been set without saving your changes. You can now access the accounts of the selected company. Figure 3: User Preferences When you have successfully logged in, the NorthStar Application Bar (Figure 3) situated at the top shows the company name you are currently working on. To switch companies, click on the My Preferences icon to go to the User Preferences screen. Select the company you want to switch to from the Login Company drop down list. By default, the system picks up the current date but you can always change the date according to your preferences from the calendar provided under Default Date label. Page 6

7 Figure 4: Northstar Application Bar To make it easy for you to navigate, as on any other browser, buttons are provided on the top left of the page for: Home Forward one step Back one step Stop process Refresh page My Calendar My preferences Edit Default Date Northstar Documentation Figure 5: GL Overview Page 7

8 GL Introduction: (Back to Top) GL Home Page is divided into eight major function categories with each category comprising a set of related functionality (Figure 4). The eight function categories are: Inquiry From the Inquiry section, you can quickly search for Specific GL Account transactions, Postings made to GL, Journal entries posted from Sales, Receipts, Purchases, and Payment Journals and search for Accounts. Admin Perform administrative tasks such as setting up Fiscal Year when creating a company, setting up Fiscal Periods within the fiscal year, adding/updating accounts to your Chart of Accounts, Fiscal Year Setup, Fiscal Period Setup, Create Virtual Accounts, Properties Set Up, Close Periods, Accounts Groupings, and Journal Entry Importer. Journals From this section you can perform tasks such as entering Journal entries, creating Recurring, Manual, Allocating, Allocating Invoices, Allocated Invoice Items Inter Company Journal entries, and creating Journal Templates. Financial Report Designer: This section allows a user to benefit from the newly designed Financial Report Designer for various types of Accounts and Financial Reports. Company Create a new company or modify general information of an existing company by clicking on the Company link. You can also create departments for an existing company by clicking on the Departments link. The numbering scheme to be used for the Chart of Accounts is also defined from this section by clicking on the Account Numbering Scheme link. For an existing company, create Chart of Accounts or view the existing Chart of Accounts. Budgets The budget section allows you to define a new budget, view and update an existing budget or import the budget from an excel sheet. Reports Run different pre-defined web-based reports related to GL, such as Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Trail Balance. Additional Reports A list of additional Excel and PDF based reports can be found here. Page 8

9 Figure 6: GL Home Page You can also use the module tabs to switch between the modules. Clicking on the Home button takes you to the module that you have set as your default module. Company The Company section of the GL module contains all the relevant information about setting up the company, its Departments, Account Numbering and Chart of Accounts. Each of these sub-sections is described below. General Information (Back to Top) The General Information screen, as the name suggests, contains general information about the company. If you want to update the information, go to the respective field, make the changes and press the button. If you have multiple companies setup, you can switch to the other company from the GL Home Page >> Preferences Link on NorthStar navigation bar >> Login Company. The company set in the preferences will show up as your default company. Page 9

10 Figure 7: Company Information When setting up a new company, you might get a warning message Company Code has not been defined in the Account Numbering Scheme for this company! Ignore this message for now, but make a note of the format of the values you placed, later you will be making format masks for company codes and department codes. The Unallocated Dept Code is used to assign a department code to balance sheet accounts, such as 000 or 00. A Company is always either of Type Corporate or Subsidiary. If company type is subsidiary then it should be associated with an already known parent company. If you select Subsidiary as the Type, a new field (Parent Company) appears for you to select from one of the existing companies as the parent company. Company - List (Back to Top) To view the list of companies created, click on the GL Home Page >> Company >> List link to get the Company List screen. The list displays company name, its code, company type (corporate/subsidiary) and parent company. If you want to add another company, click on the button to get to the company information screen and create a new company as described earlier from the GL Home Page >> Company >> New screen; (Figure 8) Page 10

11 Figure 8: Company List Screen Figure 9: New Company Setup Fill in the required information in the fields (Figure 9): a. Company Name Enter name of the company being created. Page 11

12 b. Company Code Enter a short alpha/numeric code that can be used to identify the company. You might get a warning message Company Code has not been defined in the Account Numbering Scheme for this company! Ignore this message for now, but make a note of the format of the values you placed, later you will be making format masks for company codes and department codes. Refer to section Account Numbering Scheme c. Unallocated Dept Code Enter a value that can be used to identify accounts that are not directly associated with individual departments. d. Tax ID The requisite Tax ID has to be typed in this field. e. Contact Person Enter the name of contact person for the company f. Type Select whether the new company is a Corporation or a Subsidiary. Company is always either of Type Corporate or Subsidiary. If company Type is subsidiary then it should be associated with an already known parent company. g. Subsidiary Company - If the company Type is selected as Subsidiary, a drop down listing of already created company names will pop up. Select one of the existing companies as the parent company. h. Company Address & Contact Information In these fields enter the company mailing address, and contact information which includes 2 lines for addresses, a box each for City, Zipcode, Phone Fax, Address, Web Address, and drop down boxes for State and Country. Press the button to store the company information and on successful completion of the task, the system gives a message: Company information saved successfully! Figure 10: Department Information Page 12

13 Departments: (Back to Top) You can setup your company departments from GL Home Page >> Company >> Departments. Create any number of departments for your company by providing the required information in the Department Details section. To view the department details, click on a department from the list on left of the screen under the Departments heading. You can use the,, or buttons to update information, reset fields or create new departments respectively. Account Numbering: (Back to Top) Account Numbering Scheme allows you to have better clarity and understanding of an Account. With the Account Numbering Scheme provided by the system, you can easily identify the department and the company to which the account belongs. To setup your company Numbering Scheme, go to GL Home Page >> Company >> Account Numbering >> Chart of Accounts Numbering Scheme Setup screen (Figure 11). You can set the number of digits to be used when assigning Company, Department or Major Account codes. Figure 11: Chart of Accounts Numbering Scheme Setup In the Major Account code, the first digit denotes the account type against which this account lies i.e. if Prepaid Taxes have been assigned the major account code 1325, then the prefix 1 denotes an Assets account. Similarly, Liability, and Income accounts have a prefix of 2xxx, 3xxx and 4xxx respectively while 5xxx to 9xxx prefixes map to Expense accounts. Use separators between the codes to identify the respective digits for the company, department or the major account code. As a separator, you can use any alpha/numeric character or use space. Ex. /, - or. The Preview field displays on runtime how the code will appear as you make changes in the fields. Page 13

14 Chart of Accounts: (Back to Top) Chart of Accounts is the listing of all accounts displayed by account number, description, account type and whether it is a control account or not. You can create new accounts, view details of existing accounts and export the chart of accounts list to an Excel file. To add an account, follow the process described below or use the button to export the list of existing accounts as an excel file. Figure 12: Chart of Accounts Creating an Account: (Back to Top) To set up a GL Account, click on the button on GL Home Page >> Company >> Chart of Accounts screen (Figure 11). Fill in the required information in the following fields: a. Company Company name will be automatically populated with the company you are currently working in. b. Department Select a department from the drop down menu of available departments to associate the Account with the department. Select Unallocated to create an account at the company level. c. Account Number Enter the Account Number. It should follow the format outlined in the Account Numbering Scheme. Refer to the Account Numbering Scheme section for more details. d. Account Type Select an account type from the drop down menu of available account types [Liability, Income, Asset, Capital, and Expense] e. External GL Account This is reserved for linking an account from an external GL system to NorthStar s Chart of Accounts. Any information you enter here will be saved by NorthStar, but is currently not used. f. Description Enter description of the account i.e. Food Inventory, Trade Payables etc. g. Activation Date Select when activity on this the account should start by clicking on the calendar. As an example, choosing an activation date of 5/12/2004 on an account means it can be posted to by a transaction with a transaction date of 5/12/2004 or beyond. h. Termination Date Select when activity on this account should end by clicking on the calendar. i. Short Description Give a short description of the account. j. Control You can select which control accounts will be assigned to each account type. If an account is checked as a control account, you will not be able to manually post values to the account. Control account balances are based on the balances in individual sub-ledger accounts. Page 14

15 When creating an Expense or Income account for an Unallocated department, NorthStar allows you to quickly create that account in multiple departments by picking from the list of departments that appears on the right hand side of the screen. Figure 13: GL Account Setup Editing a GL Account: To edit up a GL Account, click on any account from the list of Accounts provided on GL Home Page >> Company >> Chart of Accounts screen. This will open the GL Account screen (Figure 14) with fields populated with the information provided at the time of setting up the account. Make the necessary changes and update the account using the button. You can also View Usage, View Activity, Add New, Copy, Delete or Cancel the information from already existing accounts, and make necessary changes, each according to the respective tabs provided at the bottom of the page. Page 15

16 Figure 14: GL Account Setup Edit Account GL Virtual Account Setup Screen One of the salient aspects in setting up a new account in GL is the option of creating a Virtual Account, a separate account set up alongside an existing account, or a newly created account. You can now use dummy or virtual accounts to distribute transactional amounts automatically. A virtual account is a placeholder for a group of other normal accounts. Virtual accounts can be set anywhere a regular account can be set, such as bill codes, add-ons, vendor items, etc. Whenever a transaction occurs on a virtual account, it is immediately distributed to its component accounts based on percentages that you define. You can create virtual accounts from GL Home Page >> Admin >> Create Virtual Accounts. When creating a Virtual Account a screen similar to the one shown below will appear when you navigate to GL >> Admin >> Create Virtual Accounts. Page 16

17 Figure 14-A: GL Virtual Account Setup Admin Perform administrative tasks such as setting up Fiscal Year when creating a company, setting up Fiscal Periods within the fiscal year, adding/updating accounts to your Chart of Accounts, setting up Control Accounts, Account Groupings, and Closing Fiscal Periods. Fiscal Year (Back to Top) To setup the Fiscal Year for the company, first determine when the fiscal period should begin (e.g. 1st of January or 1 st of July), and select the type of fiscal period to be used. To display the Fiscal Year Setup screen, click on GL Home Page >> Admin >> Fiscal Year Setup. Enter the relevant department information in the fields provided on the screen (Figure 14). i.e. against Day select the day of the month from the Fiscal Year of the company; against Month select the month, and then finally select the Fiscal Period Type from the dropdown [Monthly, 4-4-4, Quarterly, ]. Save the new Fiscal Year information by clicking on the Save button. Once the requisite information has been saved, the following message will pop up, Fiscal Periods for this Company have already been defined! Page 17

18 Figure 15: Fiscal Year Setup Fiscal Period (Back to Top) To display the Fiscal Periods screen go to GL Home Page >> Admin >> Fiscal Period Setup. If you are starting off with a fresh system or company, a warning message No Years have been defined. Please Add will be displayed. Enter a starting year in the textbox and click on the button to add the next fiscal period (Figure 15-A). The screen will refresh to display the added year on the left of the screen under the heading Fiscal Years. You can view information on available fiscal years by clicking on the link for the respective year. To add subsequent years click on the button. On our example case as shown in the above figure 15, the Fiscal Periods have already been defined. You may see the same message in red color. Fiscal Periods in a year are set automatically according to the Fiscal Period Type defined in the Fiscal Year Setup screen with the starting Day and Month set from the day & month drop downs. This can be observed in Figure 15-A below. Figure 15-A: Fiscal Periods Fiscal Period Setup Page 18

19 Once this has been defined, you will not get this screen again and clicking on GL Home Page >> Admin >> Fiscal Period Setup will bring up the Fiscal Periods as also shown in Figure 15-A above. Under Fiscal Periods you will be able to view the Start Date, End Date, and Status of individual fiscal periods. Periods have three progressive states: Open Period, Reopen Period, Reset, and Add Year as the default status. Once a period has changed status, it cannot go back. A period that has been closed cannot be re-opened, and an unopened period has to be opened before it can be closed. To open a Period, check the box next to it and click Open Period button. Figure 15-B: Fiscal Periods Details When you click on a fiscal period, the details of the selected period are displayed (Figure 15-C). This screen also has options against which properties can be set which checks for module wise activity. If a module is checked, no activity will be allowed on that module for the selected Fiscal Period i.e. no activity will be allowed in: o Payments, Adjustments, and Member Charges in AR. o Invoices and Payments in AP o Posting Checks in F&B POS o Posting Checks in Retail POS o Checks and Deposits in Banquet o Posting of Journals from corresponding sub ledgers. Selecting the checkboxes has no effect on G/L Activity. G/L does not close for a period unless a period is explicitly closed. Creating an Account (Back to Top) Refer to the Chart of Accounts section for creating a New GL Account. GL Properties Setup (Back to Top) The GL Properties Setup has been divided into the following groups: o Accounts Setup: Used for setting up Profit, Revenue and Expense accounts. The Profit Account dropdown field also allows non control accounts such as an Equity (or Retained Earnings) account to be selected. This feature was not available in the previous version. Page 19

20 o o o o Control Account Setup: Used for defining the Control Account Journal Postings Setup: Used for setting up detailed or summarized posting. For example, if you would like to list each line item individually, use the Detailed option. The Payments and Purchase dropdowns default to Detailed setting until changed by user. Scheduled Postings Setup: Used to setup user control and auto posting for Recurring and Allocating Postings. Accounts Selection Criteria: Used to define how an account would be selected e.g. as Department and Short Description or as a Major Account Number and Short Description. The GL Properties Setup includes both Control Account Setup and Journal Posting Setup. A Control Account represents the total balance of a sub ledger such as AR or AP (GL Home Page >> Admin >> Properties Setup). For editing accounts in their respective sections, use the drop down boxes with options to select. Once done, press the Update button provided at the bottom of the screen as shown in Figure 16 below. Control accounts for Profit, Revenue, Expense, and AP are used internally by NorthStar for end of year profit posting. To reset the fields, use the Reset button. Figure 16: GL Properties Setup Page 20

21 Period Closing (Back to Top) Close a fiscal period from here. The Close Period screen displays the Period Start and Period End dates, Next Period to Close, a list of potential un-posted activities in different modules, Postings made, Trial Balance statement, and Period Income statement. In order to help ensure that no transactions are accidentally excluded from being posted to G/L, a list of potential un-posted activity in AR, AP, F&B POS, Banquet, Retail POS, GL, and Journals is shown for your reference. Please note that NorthStar allows a period with un-posted activity to be closed as long as all Journals (Sales, Receipts, Purchases, Payments) for that period have been posted to G/L. As an example, you can close a period having two un-posted POS checks, but no un-posted Journals. Figure 16-A: Period Closing From the GL Home Page >> Inquiry >> Posting Search, you can select a source from the drop down box provided with the title Source. These include GL, Sales, Purchases, Payments, and Receipts (Figure 16-A). To view details of the individual entry, click on the respective Post ID (Figure 16-B). A report can also be generated in either PDF or Excel format for the selected. Page 21

22 Now, when closing the Last period, and subsequently closing the year, the Profit Accounts can be edited for selection of a different account as shown in the third Account for P/L example below. This feature for overriding profit accounts was not available in the previous version and has been added to assist in Year End Closing process. Figure 16-B: Year End Processing Page 22

23 Figure 16-C: Posting Search Figure 16-D: - Search Results for Journal Entries Post List with GL selected as Source Page 23

24 Figure 16-E: Transaction Details for Selected Posted Journal Entry ID 14 with GL as Source Similarly, you can view the Trial Balance (Figure 17) of the posted entries by clicking the button [GL Home Page >> Admin >> Close Period >> Trial Balance button]. Use the mouse to view the account details of the individual account, which appears as mouse-over text. Clicking on an account will open up the Account Activity Details screen with all the activity details for that account between the dates specified for the Trial Balance report. Figure 17: Trial Balance Screen for the Month of February, 2007 In similar context, a Period Income/Income Statement or Trial Balance can be obtained for a given period from the same screen (16-A). An example of a Trial Balance and an Income Statement each for the month of February of 2007 is shown in Figure 17 and 18 respectively below. Page 24

25 Figure 18: Income Statement for the Month of February, Both the Trial Balance and the Income Statement as shown in Figure 17 and 18 respectively can also be obtained by following the path of GL Home Page>>Reports>>Trial Balance and GL Home Page >> Reports >> Income Statement respectively. In both the cases the dates have to be selected from the Trail Balance Selector and the Income Statement Selector. Both these Selector figures are shown below in Figure 19 and Figure 20 respectively. Figure 19: Trial Balance Selector Figure 20: Income Statement Selector Page 25

26 Account Groupings (Back to Top) Account groupings are a way to group account ranges to show on the Additional (Excel, PDF based) reports. The name of an account grouping corresponds to heading names in the corresponding excel template file. Normally you will not have to change the excel files since they should have been set at the time of install. However, if you change the name of a grouping the corresponding excel file will have to be changed as well. Therefore, do not change grouping names. Figure 21: Account Groupings When defining an Account Range, you should define the range logically and in sequence, i.e to 2300, 1001 to 1050 etc. Also the Account Range Begin and Account Range End range numbers should map to the same account type i.e. one of Asset, Liability, Income, Capital and Expense. Set the status to Active or Inactive and save the information. The Account Grouping you created should now be available in the list in the Grouping Set dropdown combo. You can also edit an existing account grouping by clicking on the grouping name under List Account Groupings. When you have selected an account grouping, the fields populate with the details for that account grouping and, buttons replace the, buttons respectively for you to update the changes or delete the grouping. Creating an Account Grouping To create a new Account Grouping go to the GL home page >> Admin >> Account Groupings. The top half of the page (above the Save, Reset, Cancel, Add New Grouping Set, Generate Default Groupings buttons) shows you information about the grouping that you are setting currently, while the bottom half of the page shows you a list of available groupings in the system, under the heading List Account Groupings. You can filter the list view by selecting a particular Grouping Set. Now the list will only show groupings for that particular set. Click on a particular row in the list to show its detail information on the top half of the page. Change the information if you like and press Update to save your changes. Select departments from the drop down combo, which shows which accounts are included in the currently selected grouping and which are not. The accounts used in the grouping are determined from the range specified for this grouping. You can specify multiple account ranges for a grouping. Simply create another Grouping in the same set and give it the same name. Page 26

27 Note: Department and Account range information specifies which accounts should be included in this group. Balance information for these accounts is summed and displayed accordingly on the reports. An account range MUST contain the same type of account (available types are: assets, liabilities, income, and expense). In other words, a group cannot have more than one type of account such as assets and liabilities. Inquiry From the Inquiry section, you can search for Account Activities, Postings, Journals and Accounts from the GL Home Page >> Search link. Account Activity Inquiry (Back to Top) Account Inquiry allows you to see what transactions occurred within an account over a certain time period. Figure 22: Account Activity Inquiry It also allows you to view any specific account transactions from GL Home Page >> Search >> Account Activity. This will bring up the Account Activity Inquiry screen (Figure 22). Enter information required in the fields: Account Number Select the Account number to open a drop down list of all available accounts, including control accounts. An important feature of this function is the choice of selecting multiple accounts to obtain details. Pressing the Shift key along with the arrow key will allow the user to select multiple accounts. Starting Date/Ending Date Use the calendar function to select starting date for transactions (Not selecting a start date or end date will return all transactions that occurred within the account). Finally click on the Search button to view the account transactions (Figure 22-A). Page 27

28 Figure 22-A: Account Activity Inquiry To view more information (Figure 16-C) on individual transactions, click on the Post ID link of the entry from the page of GL Home Page >> Inquiry >> Posting Search. Figure 22-B: Transaction Details Post ID Search Page 28

29 Figure 23: Details of Sales Journal Search Another feature on the Transaction Details screen is the button. You can save the selected transaction as a template and use it to create other transactions. Templates saved can be retrieved when creating Manual, Recurring, Allocating, Inter Company Journal Entries from the Journal Entries section. You can also post a Reverse Entry against this posting using the button. Posting Template List screen as well as one that allows Removal, Update, Delete or Resent is shown in Figures 24 and 25 below respectively. Figure 24: Posting Template List Page 29

30 Figure 25: Posting Template Reversing a Journal Entry A Reversing Journal Entry is made in the journal to correct any incorrect entry that has been posted in the journal. There are a number of ways to Reverse a Journal entry: First Method Select GL Home Page >> Inquiry >> Posting Search Select GL from the Source drop down bar. Press Search Click on any Journal Entry from the posting search list. Press Reverse from the bottom of the page of Transaction Details Post ID selected. 2nd Method Select posted checks from the List Checks screen from POS/RPOS and click on their Check #. The Check Details screen will show the button for Reverse and Posts Check at the bottom of the screen. 3rd Method AR Module >> Inquiry >> Transactions Search for posted adjustments, payments or finance charges. Select the ones that need to be reversed and click Reverse and Suppress. This will create a reversing entry in the GL for the transactions being reversed and suppressed. Note: Posted bill run charges can only be reversed by a manual adjustment or undoing the bill run. POS/RPOS transactions billed to member charge have to be undone from their modules or with manual adjustment. 4th Method AP module Voiding a Journalized Invoice or a Paid Check will create a Reversing Entry in the GL. Note: A paid invoice can only be voided once the respective check has been voided and the payment has been Unauthorized and Unscheduled. Page 30

31 5th Method Using Manual Journal entry option from the GL Module also allows you to manually enter a reversing journal entry for an already journalized entry. Posting Search (Back to Top) Posting search gives you the ability to find journal entries posted to GL based on Post ID, when transactions occurred, when posting occurred, type of posting, and where the post originated (GL, AR, AP etc.). To search for journal entries that are posted to GL, go to the GL Home Page >> Search >> Postings. This will bring up the Posting Search screen (Figure 26). Provide the criteria for your search for the following fields: a. Post ID Most concise method of searching for posts. b. Search Label Searches by the label given to posting journal entry at the time of posting. Figure 26: Posting Search c. Transaction Date Search based on transaction date i.e. when the transactions occurred. d. Post Date Search based on posting date. e. Type Searches by different Types of postings (Allocating, Year Closing, Reversing, Inter Company, Manual, Recurring, Accrual, and System). To highlight more than one type in a row, hold the Shift key down while making your selection. To highlight selective Types, use the Ctrl key on our keyboard. f. Source Where the post originated (GL, AR Sales, AR Receipts, AP Payments, AP Purchases, etc.) The Journal Entries Post List displays, listing of posts that fit requirements set in search screen. You can use the button to export the screen in PDF or Excel format. Page 31

32 Figure 27: Posting Search List of Posted Journal Entries Figure 28: Transaction Details for Reversed and its original Journal Entry Page 32

33 More detailed information on individual posts can be viewed by selecting the Post ID number as shown in the Figure 28 above. A notable change in this screen is the view of Reversed entries which appear on the same screen as soon as the entry is posted for reversing. This allows for a quick referral to the original entry as well as the Reversed entry. Journal Search: (Back to Top) Journal Search allows you to search either of the four Journals i.e. Sales Journal, Receipts Journal, Payments Journal, and Purchases Journal (Figure 23 in the preceding pages). An example of the Search for Sales Journal is provided in the figure shown below. Figure 29: Journal Search You can search the journal entries of different journals from GL Home Page >> Inquiry >> Search Journals to view any specific Journal Entry. From the Journal Search screen, enter information in the appropriate text fields: a. Journal Type Select the Journal of interest. This field has a drop down list of all Journals [Sales; Receipts; Payments; Purchases]. b. Transaction Date: From Click on the Calendar icon to select starting date for transactions c. Transaction Date: To Click on the Calendar icon to select ending date for transactions d. Post Id s Enter comma or space separated Post Id s to get the results of the selected posts. Page 33

34 e. Journal Entry Id s Enter comma or space separated Journal Entry Id s to get results of the selected Journal Entries. f. Account Number - Journal Searches can also be narrowed down to search thru major account #. This can be accomplished by clicking on the magnifying glass adjacent to the box of Account #. g. Source Type Journal Searches can be further refined to select from either of the following: Billing Adjustment Billing Charge Chit Credit Book Finance Charge h. Sub ledger Account This is yet another search criterion which allows a user to refine his/her searches thru a Sub ledger Account. By pressing the magnifying glass adjacent to the box of Sub ledger, a new window pops up. This can be viewed in Figure below. After filling up the required fields and pressing Search, the data is automatically populated on the Journal Search page. Figure 30: Search Membership from Sub ledger Account GL Post Status Select from All, Posted, or Un-posted GL Posts to the respective results. When you have made your choices for the search criteria, click on the button to view the account transactions, as also shown in Figure below. Page 34

35 Figure 31: Search Results for Sales Journal Entries Search results for the selected Journal displays listing of Journal Entries that fit requirements set in search screen. Detailed information on individual journal entries can be viewed by selecting the Journal Entry ID. In the example shown below, Journal ID 4 was selected. Pressing the Back tab at the bottom of the individual Journal Detail Summary page will take the user back to the list of Search Results of Journal Entries. You can also use the button to create report in PDF or Excel format. Page 35

36 Figure 32: Individual Journal Search Results - Summarized Account Search: (Back to Top) Performs an Account Search by Account #, Description, Account Type, Status (Active or Inactive), and Usage Type (Regular, Control, or Virtual). a. To view details of any specific Account go to the GL Home Page >> Search >> Accounts. This will bring up the Account Search screen (Figure 33). Enter the required information in the text fields to display the results based on the selected criteria: b. Major Account # Enter the specific Account that needs to be searched for. You can also enter multiple accounts separated by a blank space i.e etc. c. Description Search by the Account Description. d. Account Type Select the Account Type (e.g. Expense). To search under multiple account types hold Ctrl while selecting types to search by. e. Departments Select the Department the Account belongs to. f. Control Select from the drop down list to search for type of accounts i.e. select All to get the entire list, Yes to get only Control Type accounts and select No to get only Non Control Type accounts. Page 36

37 Figure 33: Account Search Finally click on the Search button to view the account transactions (Figure 34). If none of the options are used, all the results get displayed. To view or edit an account, you can click on the account number to get the GL Account Setup screen with account details displayed in the respective fields. Page 37

38 Figure 34: Account Search Results Journal Entries To make Manual, Recurring, Allocating and Inter-Company Journal entries, click on GL Home Page >> Journal Entries, and click on the respective Journal Entry type. For enhanced performance and ease of use, this version of the application uses grid type display and controls using auto-complete and quick entry where ever a journal entry appears for creation or editing. Manual Journal Entries (Back to Top) Manual Journal Entry allows you to manually post transactions on a line item basis. Successful posts are given ID's, which can be used to find posted journal entries later. To post a Manual Journal Entry, click on GL Home Page >> Journal Entries >> Manual. This will bring up the screen for adding Line Items (Figure 36). Enter the appropriate Journal Entry information. Except for Transaction Date, all fields are optional: a. Transaction Date Transaction date will be automatically filled. You can also select a date from the calendar, which falls within a defined open period. b. Search Label Enter a label to be associated with the Journal Entry, to search the posting by label. c. Checkbox for Reversing Date As you click on the checkbox, a date field appears for selecting the same or a future date on which the Reversing Entry is to be created. Clicking on the checkbox also brings up the reverse entries table. This table allows Reverse entries to be seen from the same screen. d. Comments Enter comments to be associated with the journal entry. The comments you enter here also get reproduced in the comments field in the Add Line Items window. There is also a checkbox for Copy Comments which lets you replicate the same comments against all entries, even for the Reverse Entries, eliminating the need to repeatedly enter the same comment over and over again. Creating Entries Using Existing Templates The templates created from the Journal Templates tab now automatically appear for selection from the dropdown just above the Line Item table. Simply select one from the ones available and click on the Get button. A pop up dialog will list the entries in the template, click on the OK button to load the template. Unlike the previous version, the entries in the template cannot be edited from the pop up dialog, but you can edit the Line Items once the template has been loaded in the Line Items table. To edit the entries in the template, use the Journal Templates section. A notable feature in this release is the account details that appear on the right hand corner of the screen as soon as an account is selected. These details remain until the next account is selected. In this way a handy reference is available on this screen for account information such as the Account Number, Account Type, Long/Short Description, Usage Type, Postable Duration From and To and Last Changed Date. Note: Remove entries by clicking on the x next to them. You cannot Post unless Debits and Credits are balanced. Page 38

39 Figure 35: Journal Entry Manual Posting Quick Entry of Add Line Items allows you to quickly enter Line Item information for a Journal Entry by navigating between fields (Account #, Amount, Comment) using the Tab or Enter button on your keyboard. Auto-complete feature has also been re-implemented to faster results and to assist in quick entry of available accounts. Just type the first letter of the account name to get a drop down of all accounts beginning with letter typed. If the list is long, simply use the down arrow key on your keyboard to select the desired account instead of having to use the mouse to scroll down and select. When line item is completed, it gets listed in Transaction Line Items list window. Add button adds the line item to the list. When the item has been added, the cursor returns to the Account # field. This process makes it easier to enter multiple line items manually in a quick way. Use the Reset button to clear fields and start all over. The feature to maintain the order of line items entered has been implemented so the line items appear as they are entered rather than being sorted automatically as debits and credits. Once the entries are balanced, the Post button allows posting of the Journal entry. Upon successful posting, the system returns a Post Id. Clicking on the Post button against unbalanced entries returns an error message informing about the non-zero balances. Recurring Journal Entries (Back to Top) For journal entries that occur on a recurring basis, you can create a schedule to ensure they are posted on predefined schedule into the GL. When creating a new Recurring Journal Entry, much of the information is similar to the Manual Entry screen with some notable exceptions. Page 39

40 Figure 36: Recurring Journal Entries On the Recurring Entries page (GL >> Journals >> Journal Entries >> Recurring), a user has a choice of selecting Recurring Entries from Unprocessed, Processed, or All. Selection of either option will bring up the list of existing Recurring Entries in the GL set up of the application. To view details and summary of a recurring entry, click on the required Journal Recurring entry from the Recurring Entries page. The Recurring Entries screen has a number of options at the bottom of the page which include New, Post, Post All, and History. As the names suggest new entries can be created, a single or all entries can be posted, and the history of a selected Recurring Entry can be viewed. Creating a new Recurring Journal Entry To create a Recurring Journal Entry, go to the GL Home Page >> Journal Entries >> Recurring >> Recurring Entries >> Recurring Setup >> Add New. Click on the New button at the bottom of the screen to bring up the Recurring Setup screen (Figure 37) and enter the required information: Name Enter a name for the Recurring Journal Entry that is being created. Status Select from Activated, Deactivated or Inactive status. Comments Enter comments to be associated with the journal entry. The comments you enter here also get reproduced in the comments field in the Add Line Items window. Specifying Schedules Under Specify Schedule, you have to set the schedule of the posts: Start Date Enter the start date for the Recurring Entry Post Every Post Every field indicates how often you want the post to occur (per Month, Week, or Day etc.), while the field next to it defines how often to post within the time period selected in the Post Every field. For example, to post every other month you define 2 and select Month". End Date Enter the end date for the Recurring Entry Number of Entries Enter the number of entries to be created and the system equally divides the amount accordingly. Perpetual Create recurring entry schedules that run perpetually. An end date is not provided in this case. The system keeps posting the recurring entry every month (or whatever the schedule specifies) unless manually stopped. The application allows you to edit some information even after the entry has been posted. The following fields, which would become inactive in the previous version of the application, can now be changed: Status After the Recurring Entry has been posted, you can now change its Status e.g. set the status of an Active Recurring Journal Entry to Inactive. End Date You can now change the End Date to a date ahead of the one defined previously or to a date which is greater than the Start Date, to extend or reduce the frequency of the postings. Number of Entries Similar to the End Date field, you can increase the number of entries based on the entries that remain un-posted. Page 40

41 Perpetual This mode of schedule can also be changed to select from one of the above modes i.e. from Perpetual to End Date or Number Entries. You can also change between End Date and Entries or from Number of Entries to an End Date selection. Figure 37: Journal Entry Recurring Journal Schedule Setup Creating Entries Using Existing Templates Saved templates can be retrieved from the Templates dropdown list from within the Add Line Item window. You can then select a template and click on the Get button. This will bring a pop up screen with the journal entry template. Make the required adjustments in Amount and Comments sections of the template. Click the OK button on the pop up to load the template in the line items area. Balance the Debits and Credits and Save to continue as with creating other Recurring Entries. Note: Remove entries by checking on the checkbox next to them. You cannot move to next step unless Debits and Credits are balanced. To edit, click on the item you want to edit (amount, comments) in the added line items to populate the input fields and update the information when done. During the process of adding Line Items, the Quick Entry allows you to quickly enter Line Item information for a Journal Entry by navigating between fields (Account #, Amount, Comment) using the Tab or Page 41

42 Enter button on your keyboard. This process makes it easier to enter multiple line items manually. Use the button to clear fields and start all over. In the same way, the button removes all the entries from the Transaction Line Items window and clears the fields for entering new data whereas the button removes only those entries which have check boxes checked against them. Click on the button to view the total posting schedule based on Schedules defined in the Specify Schedule window. You can edit and update the schedules as long as no scheduled postings have been posted. Even if any one of the scheduled postings is posted, the entries become locked for editing and saved information cannot be updated. The system will also not allow entries to be posted if the Recurring Entry status is not set to Active. When you have finished adding Line Items, click on the Save button to save the Recurring Entry. Posting Entries To post a single Recurring Journal Entry, a selection of Entries, or all of them, use the respective buttons provided at the bottom of the screen. As you click on the Post button, the Recurring Posting screen, with the details on the next post, opens up. Here the Post button appears once again. Clicking on this button opens a pop up dialog prompting for confirmation. The same process is followed when the Post All button is used, the difference being that instead of selected entries all the scheduled entries get posted. Viewing History Once the Journal Entries have been posted successfully, you can view details using the History button. The Journal Entries Post List screen lists posts against the selected Recurring Entry, while the Recurring Entry itself and its details are displayed on the top portion of the screen. The details include End Date, Last Post and the Number of Posts made. Figure 38: Journal Entries Post List The Number of Posts information is also displayed on the Recurring Setup screen i.e. when you view the details of the entry by clicking on the entry from the GL Home >> Journal Entries >> Recurring >> Recurring Entries List. Configuring Properties to Post Entries Automatically It is also possible to schedule the Recurring Entries to post automatically according to the specified schedule. You can achieve this by setting the Auto Post Recurring option to Yes under GL Home >> Admin >> GL Properties Setup >> Scheduled Posting Setup. This will setup the application to post the next scheduled entry to post automatically as soon as the date changes. The option to manually post from the Recurring Entries home screen does not get overridden by this setup and you will still be able to post manually. On the next date change, the application will then look for the remaining un-posted entries and post the next scheduled entry. Page 42

43 Since the entries will be posted automatically, a user must be selected to for the Posted By field. Also, the application will not allow the information to be updated if the automatic posting option is set to Yes and user not defined. You can select a user from the User dropdown on the properties screen. Allocating Journal Entry (Back to Top) For single or multiple entries that need to be allocated (to more than one department, for example), the Allocating Wizard takes you on a step by step process of creating cumulative entries, determining time period over which allocation will take place and specifying how entries will be allocated. To create an Allocating Journal Entry, go to the GL Home Page >> Journal Entries >> Allocating Entries >>New (Figure 39). This will bring up the Allocating Entry Setup wizard. Figure 39: Allocating Entries Figure 39-A: Allocating Entries Wizard Step 1 - Definition a. Name: Enter the name of the Allocating Entry b. Status: Select Active from the drop down box. If Draft status is used initially, then on Step 4, the wizard will prompt and set the status to Active before the wizard completes. c. Comment: Enter comment if required. (This is not an optional field.) Page 43

44 Step 2 Specify the Cumulative Entry a. Enter the Dollar Debit Amount. (The Credit Amount is not an optional field.) b. Enter a Comment if required. (Comments are also not a required field). c. Select the Matched Account from the drop down list. d. In the Add Line Items, Quick Entry allows you to quickly enter Line Item information for a Journal Entry by navigating between fields (Account #, Amount, Comment) using the Enter or Tab button on your keyboard. This process makes it easier to enter multiple line items manually. Figure 39-B: Step 2 Specifying the Cumulative Entry Entering Cumulative Journal Entry using existing Templates Saved templates can be retrieved from the Templates dropdown list from within the Add Line Item window. You can then select a template and click on the Get button. This will bring a pop up screen with the journal entry template. Make the required adjustments in Amount and Comments sections of the template. Click the OK button on the pop up to load the template in the line items area. Balance the Debits and Credits and Save to continue as with creating other Allocating Entries. Entering Cumulative Journal Entry using a Posted Transaction This feature allows you to use any posted transaction (manual, recurring etc) and use it to create a Cumulative Entry: a. Click on the Use a Posted Transaction button to open a new Search Transactions window. b. Provide the criteria and search as you normally would for a Posted Entry. c. From the Journal Entries Post List, select the Post by clicking on the Post Id you would like to use to create the Cumulative Entry. d. Details for that Post appear in the Transaction Details for the selected post. Towards the bottom of the screen, there is a button for Use Entry. Click on it to load the entry in the Line Items area. e. Under Which Transactions to Allocate? select one from Debits or Credits. Page 44

45 f. At this stage you can save the information to be used as a Template using the Save as Template button. g. Continue to Step 3 using the Next >> link. Note: Remove entries by checking on the checkbox next to them. If you have opted to use a posted transaction to create allocating entries, the checkboxes will not be available as the system will not allow deleting of posted entries. You cannot move to Step 3 unless Debits and Credits of the Cumulative Journal Entry are balanced. To edit, click on the item you want to edit (amount, comments) in the added line items to populate the input fields and update the information when done. Step 3 - What Time to Allocate Over? Enter Allocating Journal Entry schedule. This is the third step of the Allocating Entries Wizard (Figure 39- C). Fill in the required information to setup the schedule as to how you want the entries to be made. This could be over a certain time period, or over a specific number of entries. a. Start Date Enter the schedule start date of the Allocating Entry b. Post Every This field indicates how often you want the post to occur (per Month, Week, or Day etc.), while the field next to it defines how often to post within the time period selected in the Post Every field. For example, to post every other month you define 2 and select Month". c. End Date Enter the schedule end date of the Allocating Entry. Figure 39-C: Step 3 What Time to Allocate Over Number of Entries The Number of Entries field allows you to define the exact number of entries over which the amount will be allocated. Click on the View Schedule button to view the total posting schedule based on what was defined. The information is displayed in a new window. Select Next >> to proceed to the Step 4 of the Allocating Entry Wizard. Step 4 Allocated Installment Information Page 45

46 Enter allocation details as to which accounts the entries are being allocated to. This is the fourth step of the Allocating Entries Wizard. Check whether the debits and credits balance and if they do not then add line items providing the balance amount or the percentage allocation. Continue to allocate until the total amount is accounted for. (You can delete entries by clicking on the x next to them.) Figure 39-D: Allocated Installment Information Click on the Next >> button to move to the summary screen (Figure 40) listing all the information you just entered. Confirm whether the information you entered is correct and click the Next button. If you would like to change something, you can go back to the previous steps by pressing Previous button. Page 46

47 Figure 40: Allocating Journal Entries Wizard Summary Screen Page 47

48 Note: No information is actually saved until you complete all the steps of the wizard. To view the existing Allocation Journal Entries go to the GL Home Page >> Journal Entries >> Allocating. This will bring up the Allocating Entries List. To view the details of any Allocation Journal Entry, click on the Allocation Entry. Figure 41: Allocating Entries List The Post button allows the user to post the current scheduled entry (Figure 41) or if there are more than one Allocating Entries. To view the posting details of the Allocation Journal Entry, click on the radio button to the left of the Allocation Entry and click the History button. This will bring up the Allocation Journal Entry postings. If you have not posted Allocating Entries or Cumulative Entries, there will be no records to view in the Journal Entries Post List screen. Configuring Properties to Post Entries Automatically It is also possible to schedule the Allocating Entries to post automatically according to the specified schedule. You can achieve this by setting the Auto Post Allocating option to Yes under GL Home >> Admin >> GL Properties Setup >> Scheduled Posting Setup. This will setup the application to post the next scheduled entry to post automatically as soon as the date changes. The option to manually post from the Allocating Entries home screen does not get overridden by this setup and you will still be able to manually post the Allocating Journal Entries. On the next date change, the application will then look for the remaining un-posted entries and post the next scheduled entry. Since the entries will be posted automatically, a user must be selected to for the Posted By field. Also the application will not allow the information to be updated if the automatic posting option is set to Yes and user not defined. You can select a user from the User dropdown under Scheduled Posting Setup on the properties screen. Page 48

49 Inter-Company Journal Entry (Back to Top) Inter-Company transactions are possible if multiple companies have been setup in the NorthStar application. The company into which you have logged in serves as your source company. To be able to log in to other companies, you must have user rights that are defined in the Admin module [Admin >> Users >> List]. If you do not have access to the Admin module, ask your administrator to provide you with a multiple company login against your user ID. If you have access to the admin module, click on the user name from Admin >> Users >> List, that you use to log in and view details under User Companies. Step 1: Specify Source Company To obtain details of a company, click on GL Home Page >> Company>>List link, which opens the Company List with the current company selected as the source company as shown below. Figure 42: Company List Step 2: Add Another Company As also stated above, Inter-Company transactions are possible if multiple companies have been set up in the Northstar Application. To add another company Press Add Another Company tab which will open a new screen as shown below for addition of a new company. Once done press Save. Step 3: Enter Transaction for the Source Company In the next step of the wizard, enter the transaction for the source company by first entering the Transaction Date, Search Label and Comments to associate with the transaction. The comments you enter here also get reproduced in the comments field in the Add Line Items window. To Enter Inter-Company Journal Entry Manually In the Add Line Items, Quick Entry allows you to quickly enter Line Item information for a Journal Entry by navigating between fields (Account #, Amount, Comment) using the Tab button on your keyboard. When line item is completed, it gets listed in Transaction Line Items list window. When the item has been added to the list, the cursor returns to the Account # field. This process makes it easier to enter multiple line items manually. Account # Select an account from drop down list of accounts. Debit or Credit Amount Enter dollar amount in the fields. Comments Enter comments to be associated with the journal entry. Click on the Add button. Balance Debits and Credits Page 49

50 Figure 43: Company Information To Enter Cumulative Journal Entry using existing Templates Saved templates can be retrieved from the Templates dropdown list from within the Add Line Item window. Select a template. Click on the Get button. This will bring a pop up screen with the journal entry template, as shown in Figure 44 below. Make adjustments in Amount and Comments in the template. Click the OK button on the pop up. Balance Debits and Credits Page 50

51 Figure 44: Web Page Dialogue when clicking the Get button on the Template screen. Note: Remove entries by checking on the checkbox next to them. You cannot move to next step unless Debits and Credits of the Inter-Company Journal Entry are balanced. To edit, click on the item you want to edit (amount, comments) in the added line items to populate the input fields and update the information when done. Page 51

52 Figure 45: Inter-Company Transactions Wizard Source Transactions Step 4: Enter Transaction for the Target Company In the next step of the wizard, repeat the Add Line Item process as described in Step III, for the Target Company also. Make sure that the Transactions for the Source Company and the Target Company balance out otherwise the tab for Next will not appear and you will not be able to move on to the next step. Step 5: Review Transactions in Source and Target Companies The review screen displays the journal entries made in both Source and Target companies. Use the Previous link to navigate to the previous screens and edit the information if required. To edit, click on the item you want to edit (amount, comments) in the added line items to populate the input fields and update the information when done. Click on the Finish link to post the entries. When the page refreshes, a message is displayed on the top indicating successful completion of the posting, with the new post IDs of the Source and the Target Companies. The finish button is replaced by New link to create another Inter-Company Journal Entry. Page 52

53 Journal Templates: (Back to Top) Templates are used as a quick entry method to add line items in journal entries. If a number of items have to be added to a journal, entering similar values again and again makes the task tedious and time consuming. To make the journal entry process easy, you can create many templates with predefined values and use the templates with the saved values or with slight modification in the fields to create new entries (GL Home Page >> Journal Entries >> Journal Templates List >> New). Figure 46: Posting Template List To create a template, go to the GL Home Page >> Journals >> Templates. Click on the button to open the template screen, as also shown in the Figure above. Select a Template and Press Details on the Journal Templates List page, and entire populated fields will emerge at the bottom as shown in the next Figure. Figure 47: Posting Template Details Page 53

54 Adding line items to the template. Quick Entry of line items allows you to quickly enter information for in the template by navigating between fields (Account #, Amount, Comment) using the Enter or Tab button on your keyboard. When the item has been added to the list, the cursor returns to the Account # field. This process makes it easier to enter multiple line items manually in a quick way. Account # Select an account from drop down list of matched accounts. Debit/Credit Amount Enter dollar amount in this field to enter in the respective debit/credit side. Comments Enter comments to be associated with the journal entry. Click on the button. In the same way add as many items as you like with different account and amount values to create your template. When you are done adding items, click on the button. To remove line items, use the x mark against the entry. A delete confirmation message will appear to verify your action. This is also a new feature as the previous version used to just delete the entry without prompting as soon as the delete button was clicked. To save the template as your personal template, check the checkbox next to the Personal Template label. A new window opens up when you press the button. In this way personal templates will only be accessible to your login and other users will not be able change or delete it. The Personal Template checkbox only appears when creating a new template. Another feature added to this version of the application is the ability to save the template with zero amounts as seen from the screen below. This allows you create blank template and add amounts later. Figure 48: Saving Templates with Zero Amounts Page 54

55 Journal Entry Importer One of the salient features of the GL Module is the Journal Entry Importer through which a user can import GL accounts saved in either CSV or XML format into the Northstar Application, thus saving precious time when creating Journal Entries manually. The Journal Entries Importer tool can be found at GL Home Page >> Journal Entries >> Importer >> Journal Entries. Figure 49: Journal Entry Importer Importing Journal Entries The following points need to be considered when Importing Journal Entries: 1. File Format The importer accepts files from Microsoft Office Excel Comma Separated Values (csv) format. A sample file can be downloaded from the application using the Sample CSV File link on GL Home >> Admin >> Journal Entries >> Importer screen. Clicking on this link will prompt to open or save the file. The information in the csv file is displayed in the following format: Date Account Amount Description Cash Cash-II Cash Cash-II The columns are described in detail below. Please note that as with any other Journal Entry, the credit and debit amounts should be balanced. a. Date The first column represents the date of the journal entry. i. Make sure the date is entered in the MMDDYY format. ii. Remove any special characters like quotes, double quotes etc (, ) iii. The entries will not be imported if the date format is different than the one described. iv. You can enter dates in the Journal Entry Importer before Club s Go-Live date. b. Account Number The second column is for the Account Number. i. The Account Number should follow the same numbering scheme as the one in use by the Company for which the accounts are shown i.e. with the same sequence of numbers defined for the Department Code, Major Account and the Separators being used. c. Amount Page 55

56 The third column is for the debit or credit amount against the account in each row. i. For all types of accounts, enter positive numbers for debiting and negative numbers for crediting the account. ii. Please make sure that the debit amounts are balanced by the credit amounts. d. Description The last column is for the description of the account of the entry. The description can be provided in alpha, numeric or using both alpha-numeric characters e.g. Cash-3. The description entered here is also displayed as comments against the Journal Entry. 2. Importing the file You can use the sample file or create one for yourself using Microsoft Office s Excel program or a text editor as long as the information entered meets the requirements against each field described above and the file is saved as a csv file. i. Once the information is complete, save the file and use the Browse button on the Importer screen to select the saved file (GL Home >> Admin >> Journal Entries >> Importer screen). ii. Then click on the Import button to run the importer. The file should import successfully. If you encounter any errors, recheck the information i.e. account number if they exist in the system, balance entries, date formats etc. Reports Balance Sheet (Back to Top) The Balance Sheet reflects the current balance of everything since the business began. Balance Sheet is a snapshot of the financial condition of a company at a certain point in time. To view the balance sheet for a certain period, go to the GL Home Page >> Reports >> Balance Sheet and press View. This will bring up the Balance Sheet Selector screen (Figure 30-A). To see the comparative data in the Balance Sheet report as offered in the options below the calendar, select the relevant check boxes e.g. Show Last Year Actual, as shown in the figure above. Other options include Show Variance between Last Year and Current Actual, and Show Accounts with Zero Balances. (Figure 50). Figure 50: Balance Sheet Selector Enter a date in the Select a Date field from the calendar to see the balance sheet as of that date (GL Home Page >> Additional Reports >> Balance Sheet). Press View to bring up the respective Balance Sheet for the selected dated. This may be viewed in the figure 51 shown below. Page 56

57 Figure 51: Balance Sheet Page 57

58 Income Statement: (Back to Top) The Income Statement is also known as the Profit and Loss (P&L) Statement. Just as the Balance Sheet is a snapshot of the financial condition of a company at a certain point in time, the Profit and Loss statement shows the results of financial operations over a period of time. The amount of time could be a month, a quarter of a year, a half-year, or a year etc. To view the Income Statement report for a certain period of time, go to the GL Home Page >> Reports >> Income Statement. This will bring up the Income Statement Selector screen (Figure 52). As in the Balance sheet, first Select/Enter the parameters for the Income Statement report to be generated i.e. Department Select the desired Departments to be included in the statement. To select multiple departments, hold Ctrl while selecting items to be included. Start Date Select the start date from which the transactions are to be included in the Income Statement. End Date Select the end date up to when the transactions are to be included in the Income Statement. Compare With Budget Select Year to see the comparative data in the Income Statement report. Figure 52: Income Statement Selector Screen Enter a date in the As of Date field from the calendar to see the Income Statement sheet as of that date. Please see Figure below (GL Home Page >> Additional Reports >> Income Statement). You can also select the check boxes next to the options like, Show Last Year Actual, to see the comparative data in the Income Statement report. When you have made your selections, click on the View button to view the Income Statement report (Figure 53). Hovering your mouse on an account shows more information about the account. Clicking on an account shows you the Account Activity Inquiry for the selected dates for this account. Page 58

59 Figure 53: Income Statement Trial Balance The Trail Balance process totals debit balances and credit balances of all accounts to confirm that total debits equal total credits. To generate a Trial Balance for a given period, go to the GL Home Page >> Reports >> Trial Balance. This will bring up the Trial Balance Selector screen (Figure 54). Figure 54: Trial Balance Selector Screen Select/Enter the parameters for the Trail Balance report to be generated by giving the Start Date and End Date where the End Date is required fields i.e. select the End Date up to when the transactions are to be included in the Trail Balance. Finally click on the View button to view the Trial Balance report (Figure 55). Page 59

60 Figure 55: A Trial Balance Report Hovering your mouse on an account shows more information about the account. Clicking on an account shows you the Account Activity Inquiry for the selected dates for this account. GL Account Transaction Details (Back to Top) The GL Account Transactions Details report, as the name suggests, gives a detailed breakdown Figure 56: GL Account Transaction Details Selector Screen Page 60

61 of transactions made based on the selected account. You can select/deselect the multiple accounts by pressing the Ctrl key on your keyboard while making your selections (Figure 56). Selecting the Start and End dates from the calendars can further narrow down the transaction details report. Similar to Account selection field, Posting Type and Posting Source fields have been provided for drilling down by Posting Type and Posting Source. When you are done selecting your preferences, click on the button to generate the report (Example shown in Figure 57) or use the button to clear your selections and start all over again. Figure 57: Generated Report GL Account Transactions Details Budget Budget (Back to Top) To view existing Budgets go to the GL Home Page >> Budgets >> List. This will bring up the Budget List screen. Figure 58: Budget List To view budget details, select the radio button against the budget and click on the Edit button. This will open the Budget Summary Information screen. Page 61

62 Figure 59: Budget Summary Information As the names of the buttons suggest, this screen allows you to update the information on this screen, delete the budget entirely, reset fields to allow new values to be defined, show details of the of the budget, toggle default status or import budget information. Of these options, there have been enhancements in the Budget screen which comes in up from the Show Details, and on Budget Importer. The Show Details button opens up the Budget. Major changes on the budget screen include the ease of viewing by freezing the first row and first column of the budget sheet. This allows GL Accounts and Fiscal Periods to be visible all the time while viewing the budget. Previously, while scrolling down and to the right of the sheet, the accounts (or the fiscal periods) used to disappear making it difficult to relate the entries with their respective GL Accounts (or fiscal periods). Another change is the availability of the Account Type and Department filters on the top of the budget sheet screen. You can use these in combination or individually to filter the budget results on these two parameters. The Save button allows you to save the results when changing the values in the sheet. Figure 59-A: Account Type and Department Filters on Budget Sheet The budget sheet now also supports navigation across cell using the keyboard as well as quick entry, editing values in the cells and distributing amounts in the Working Total column across fiscal periods based upon equal distribution or proportional to actual from previous budget. To change the values in a cell, simply click on the desired value to make it editable. Use the number keys on your keyboard to enter new amount and then use the arrow keys to move to the next cell. To move vertically down in the same column, use the Enter key on your keyboard. Page 62

63 In the Working Total column, if you have entered a value and it is displayed in red (Figure 59-B), then the value is not consistent with the distribution over the fiscal periods and needs to be changed or redistributed again. Figure 59-B: Account Type and Department Filters on Budget Sheet The new budget sheet allows the working total amount to be distributed in the following two methods i.e. Equally and Proportional to Actuals. Figure 59-C: Distributing Working Total on Budget Sheet Once the cell is highlighted and a new value entered, click on the link, shown in red in the above figure, to open Equally or Proportional to Actuals screen tip. Clicking on the Equally will distribute the amount equally across all the fiscal periods available. You can also use the shortcut from your keyboard to perform the same function by pressing the Shift and the Right Arrow key. The amount gets distributed equally. The Proportional to Actuals link distributes the amount in each fiscal period proportionally with the amount in the previous fiscal period. With the addition of these new features, it has become very easy to perform adjustments across GL accounts in the budget sheet quickly and efficiently, with fewer clicks on the keyboard. Editing an Existing Budget The Import button allows you to make changes to an existing budget or to update some accounts only in the default budget. This option has been added to import the values that need to be changed. You can do this by going to the imports screen (Budget >> List >> select a Budget >> Import >> Update Budget). Locate and select the file which has the updated information using the browse button and click on the Import button. Only the accounts those that need to be changed get updated while the rest of the accounts remain unchanged. Page 63

64 In case there is no existing or previous Budgets, system will show the following message stating No Records Found : Figure 60: Budget List No Records Found. In order to create a new Budget, click the New button. This will start the Budget Setup Wizard. Figure 61: Budget Wizard Step 1 Enter the following information in the Step1: Year Select a Year from the drop down list of years for which the newly created budget applies to. Name Enter a name for the new Budget. Description Enter the Budget description. Click on the Next>> to proceed to Step 2. You can always navigate between previous steps from the current step of the wizard. Page 64

65 Figure 62: Budget Wizard Step 2 Select one of the 3 choices in Step 2: Manually enter data This option requires you to enter data manually in the budget screen. Import from excel file This option lets you import data from an excel sheet. Copy from [Year] Income Statement Copy data from Income statement. Note: If no previous budget is found, the last two options will not be displayed. Click on the Next>> to proceed to Step 3 Figure 63: Budget Wizard Step 3 Enter budget allocation for various accounts and then Click on the Next>> to proceed to Step 4. In the Yearly Total column under the amount field, the > button distributes the yearly total equally amongst all periods, while < button adds all individual period totals to give an updated yearly total. Page 65

66 You will be prompted to confirm to replace the status as default for selected fiscal year. Clicking on Yes will set it as replace and set as default. Select your option and click on the >Finish< link to complete the new budget definition. Figure 64: Budget Wizard Step 4 Page 66