General Ledger Overview The Service Assistant s General Ledger report presents a synopsis of all transactions during aspecified period of time, giving dollar amounts posted as both a credit and debit. It is basically a History report!
Let s set up a few things Go to Data Company Parameters Financial Parameters
We will start with the Chart of Accounts This is how this screen looks with your original default parameters
Definition: CHART OF ACCOUNTS is a list of ledger account names and associated numbers arranged in the order in which they normally appear in the financial statements. In other words: How do you want to group your dollars for the General Ledger?
Each account has four fields 1. Account number 2. Account Description 3. Cash Account checkbox 4. Account Type
1. Account Number These really mean nothing in SA, but should correspond to your accounting package s numbers (unless you export to QuickBooks).
2. Account Description This is important, especially for QuickBooks exports. There are several descriptions that SA needs (such as Accounts Receivable and Discounts ) and cannot be changed or deleted.
3. Cash Account checkbox Is this where the money goes?
4. Account Type Only needed if exporting to QuickBooks
Why so many Accounts? For income accounts, you could just have one that says Production. More than that is up to you and your accountant.
Next, we go to the Adjustments tab This is how this screen looks with your original default parameters
Each code is either a Credit or Debit A credit reduces the money a customer owes (like a payment does). A debit adds charges (like production). The way a customer s balance is affected is represented by Accounts Receivable (number 1100 here) Credit adjustments need to credit Accounts Receivable Debit adjustments need to debit Accounts Receivable
Prepay Adjustment Codes Some codes (such as Refund Prepayment ) affect Prepaid Services (4105) instead of Accounts Receivable Two adjustment codes (GG and KK) affect both Accounts Receivable and Prepaid Services
A quick look at the Payments tab.. What form of payment do you accept? And which cash account is to be affected?
There are a few more parameters Go to Data Product Parameters - Services/Programs/Specials And click on the Services tab
In the bottom left area, hit the second tab, marked Accounts You will select which income account will be hit (credited) by this service. ( Accounts Receivable will be debited) You may select separate accounts for Residential and Commercial customers (although the GL subtotals them automatically)
Advanced Options You can also choose alternate accounts for prepay discounts, regular discounts and surcharges to debit when posting different services. If left blank, they will post to the default accounts ( Prepayment Discount, Discount, Surcharge )
For jobs that are work orders Such as Landscape Jobs, you can leave the Account fields blank
Instead, we go into Products (Product Parameters Products Products tab) And assign account numbers to each Work Order product.
Let s look at some example transactions reflected on a GL For each transaction, an equal amount is posted to the credit and debit columns (they balance )
Regular Payment This example is run in detail, so that you can see the transactions affecting each account.
Regular Credit
Prepayment Example 1 For the exact, correct amount
Prepayment Example 2 For payment in excess of prepay (overpayment or payment of outstanding balance)
Prepayment Example 3 For slightly less than correct amount
Prepayment Example 4 After covered service had been completed
Production Example 1 Regular production (with sales tax)
Production Example 2 Prepaid service
Production Example 3 On a discounted service
Installment Example 1 Installment charge (with sales tax)
Installment Example 2 Production done on service covered by installment. There is no sales tax because there is no real charge to customer (not hitting AR)
How do we run the GL? Go to Financial General Ledger
For What Company/Branch? You will only see this area if you have multiple companies set up in parameters
For What Company/Branch? Note: If exporting to QuickBooks, you need to choose one Company at a time if you want to have separate QB journal entries.
What Date Range? Three different ways, three different results. Let s start with the bottom one.
Transaction Date Looks at the Date field from your transaction entry Problem if you use this to send daily to your QuickBooks: if you send Wednesday s transactions on Thursday, then add another Wednesday transaction on Friday, it will not be recorded.
Posting Date Runs by the date you actually enter the work (never run for Today ) Problem: If you run it daily, and forget a day, that day s work will not get recorded. Also, if one of your computers has the wrong date on it, you will have a HUGE mess.
General Ledger Date Every history record has a field called General Ledger Date which is not visible to the user. When posting transactions, whether they are Payments, Production, Adjustments or Installments, that field is blank.
General Ledger Date The button on the General Ledger screen that reads Post to General Ledger will look for all transactions that currently have a blank GL date, print a GL for them (ignoring whatever date range that may have been entered) and fill in the GL date with the current date.
General Ledger Date Then you would hit the button to Post to General Ledger Running by GL date for transfer to your accounting program is the best way to avoid doublecounting or missing transactions. You would select the GL date range From <blank date> To <blank date>
Export to QuickBooks You are now ready to Export to QuickBooks (do this before you Post to General Ledger )
Export to QuickBooks SA will create a file with the extension IIF (Interchange File), which is the type of file that QuickBooks can import We will need to say where we want to place this file and what to call it Let s look at the file SA has created Be consistent. You will need to find this file later
The bottom area shows the dollar amounts (credit or debit) that will go into those accounts Export to QuickBooks The top area indicates which accounts are in this file. If QuickBooks does not have them already, they will be created automatically (notice that there are no account numbers)
Export to QuickBooks You may need Administrator rights in QuickBooks to perform an import Go to File Utilities Import (this will be different on different versions of QuickBooks)
Export to QuickBooks You would then select the file that you created in your SA export The date for these entries will be the current date, not broken down by SA transaction date, so you will probably wish to execute this procedure on a frequent basis, rather than monthly or quarterly.
Reconciling with Aging Some people like to match the GL with their aging reports Let s go through the steps.
Reconciling with Aging First, check the parameter setup Financial Parameters Adjustments: Make sure that all credit adjustments credit your Accounts Receivable or Prepaid Services accounts (likewise with debits). Service Setup: Make sure that no services affect Accounts Receivable or Prepaid Services
Reconciling with Aging You will run the Detailed Balance Analysis twice First, run it as of the last day of the month previous to the month in question. In this example, since we want July activity, we will run it as of 6/30
Reconciling with Aging Secondly, we will run it as of the last day of the month in question (7/31)
Reconciling with Aging We will then run the General Ledger Use Transaction Date with the range being the beginning and ending dates of the month in question (7/1 7/31)
Reconciling with Aging In looking at the Balance Analysis, we only care about the bottom box
Reconciling with Aging In looking at the Balance Analysis, we only care about the bottom box As of 6/30, the net was <637.07>
Reconciling with Aging In looking at the Balance Analysis, we only care about the bottom box As of 7/31, the net was <257.69>
Reconciling with Aging Let s do the math <257.69> - <637.07> 379.38 Which represents how much the customers balances should have changed during the month
Reconciling with Aging In looking at the GL, We need only look at the Accounts Receivable and Prepaid Services accounts
Reconciling with Aging In looking at the GL, Here we can see the total net of each account (<577.64> and 957.02) This adds up to 379.38 (same as we calculated from the aging reports).