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Flow
through GL Accounts
So often
while teaching, I talk about ‘flow through
General Ledger account numbers’. I thought I
would expound on how I use these ‘flow
through GL account numbers’.
Using Bank
Reconciliation when you physically write a
check from one bank account to another you
cannot actually do a transfer because you
need to write an actual check and you need
to have the bank account you are taking the
funds from to have a disbursement to tag,
and you need a deposit into the account that
you are transferring it to. Writing the
check to the depositing bank account will
not give you an item in Bank Reconciliation
to tag. The way to handle this situation is
to set up a GL account within your current
assets that you will use as the line item GL
account in the payable when you enter it.
Next use Bank Reconciliation to enter the
deposit into the account that is receiving
the check using this same ‘flow through GL
account number. Now you have the check as a
disbursement and the deposit into the
receiving bank account AND you have items in
both accounts to clear when you receive your
bank statement. The check will debit the
‘flow through’ account and the deposit will
credit the ‘flow through account’. The net
effect is zero.
When you
enter an AP invoice to a vendor from which
you purchased and you now decide to pay that
vendor by credit card you can still save the
Vendor history for the actual vendor by
using a ‘flow through GL account’. Set up a
GL account within your current liabilities.
When the original invoice arrives enter it
to the vendor with the proper ‘expense’
account. Set up a Bank Account using this
‘flow through GL account. When the Credit
Card Statement arrives use the Bank Account
you set up and ‘pay’ this invoice using the
new Bank Account. Enter the invoice to the
Credit Card Vendor using the same General
Ledger Account as the Bank Account GL number
you set up. Processing the payment of the
original vendor invoice will credit the
‘flow through’ GL number and the entering of
the invoice to the Credit Card Vendor will
debit the ‘flow through’ GL account netting
it to zero.
To use the
‘accrual’ feature found in Purchase Order
you will set up four ‘flow through’ GL
accounts, Inventory, Accounts Payable,
Expense and Job/Project. When goods are
received there is a GL entry made to debit
Inventory, Job/Project, or Expense and a
credit to Accounts Payable. When the invoice
is received these entries are reversed and
then posted to the actual GL accounts for
Inventory, Expense, Job/Project and Accounts
Payable.
For keeping
up with Customer Deposits in Accounts
Receivable you can set up a current
liability for Customer Deposits, when you
receive a deposit enter as a cash receipt
without a customer ID and put the check
amount to this customer liability account,
using the customer ID for the invoice
number. When you invoice the customer set up
a method of payment as a write off using
this same GL account and apply the deposit
to the invoice with this method of payment.
Now the invoice will show the amount billed
to the customer and it will relieve the
Customer Deposit Liability account of the
amount that you applied to the invoice.
The whole
purpose of these ’flow through’ GL accounts
is to give you an account that basically
clears to zero on a periodic basis and if it
does not you can quite simply reconcile the
account for what any remaining balance may
be in that account.
If you need
assistance in setting up any of these ’flow
through’ account numbers just give us a call
and we can guide you through the process.
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Open
Systems Announcements regarding TRAVERSE
Wisconsin
State Withholding tax variables have changed
Paper
changes
to adjust the Wisconsin state withholding
tables for OSAS version 7.5x and 7.0x as
well as TRAVERSE versions 10.5x and 10.2x
are now available. If you have not received
these updates for the Wisconsin just give us
a call and we can get them to you.
TRAVERSE
Error 2709
A recent
Microsoft Security update has been found to
cause problems with Access 2003 Runtime in
certain installations. This error appears to
be related to Access Runtime SP3 and MS
Security update KB947319. Should you
receive this error 2709 (Global_PIA_OWC11)
when entering TRAVERSE give us a call and we
can guide you through the steps to correct
the error until Microsoft can come out with
a ‘hotfix’ for this security update.
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September Ends 3rd Quarter –
TRAVERSE
During the
last week of September, if you are
processing your first Payroll in October
before the end of September you must date
your workstation to be a date within the
fourth quarter when you calculate checks.
To change your workstation date “CTRL W” to
bring up the workstation calendar and move
your date forward to October. With
TRAVERSE SP3 all the time tickets entered
MUST be BEFORE the Period End date that you
enter when you ’Calculate Checks’. We
recommend you change your workstation date
to your period end date before you enter
time.
September Ends 3rd Quarter - OSAS
During the
last week of September, if you are
processing your first Payroll in October
BEFORE the end of September you must first
perform Quarter End Maintenance to move your
Payroll into the 4th Quarter. You can still
post your expenses or your checks to the
third quarter when you Calculate Checks and
Post Expense to GL, but in order to DATE
your checks within October you must perform
Quarter End Maintenance first.
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Setting Budgets for 2010 in OSAS
As fourth
quarter approaches Companies are setting
their budgets for the coming year.
A quick way
to enter budget information for each account
based upon any previous or current year’s
‘Actual’, ‘Budget’ or ‘Forecast’ can be
found in General Ledger, File Maintenance,
Copy Accounts Balances. Select the General
Ledger account segment range you want to
bring in, then select to copy ‘Actual’, ‘ CY
Budget’, ’Last Year figures’, ‘Forecast’ or
‘NY Budget’ amounts to bring into the year,
and if you want to add or deduct a
percentage amount from these figures.
Using this
feature you can set a budget to increase
your sales by 10 percent by selecting only
your sales accounts and applying 10% to the
actual figures from this year. If you know
your costs will increase 11% for the 10%
increase in sales, select the COGS accounts
only and apply 11% to the actual. Once the
figures are entered you can then adjust
those individual accounts as necessary.
Need help
with Budgets give us a call and we can
assist.
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Robert Half
Offers “Rebound” Checklist
Accounting
and finance staffing company Robert Half
Management Resources offered advice for
companies to position themselves to take
advantage of a future recovery:
1. Keep
re-assessing budgets Financial staff
must be prepared to continually modify
budgets to reflect progress or setbacks
2. Evaluate
your bench strength. Some firms are
realizing they have cut staff too deeply.
This can be an ideal time for a “talent
upgrade,” as many skilled professionals are
in the market.
3. Revisit
compliance requirements. Companies
should be prepared to evaluate financial
reporting competencies, information
technology controls, risk assessment
procedures and documentation.
4. Anticipate
next-generation financial reporting. Be
proactive and offer education and training
to help staff better understand
International Financial Reporting Standards
5. Invest
in your people. Organizations that
scaled back on training and development in
recent months should consider re-instituting
these initiatives. Professional development
also boots employee job satisfaction.
6. Upgrade
IT systems. Outdated financial systems
can impair a business’s ability to compete,
but conversions take time and resources.
Companies that are planning upgrades should
insure that they have the budget and
staffing resources to manage the
implementation.
7. Prepare
for new products and services. This is
the time to ensure that new offerings can be
introduced quickly when the economy
rebounds. Cost accountants, analysts and
others who can ensure that projections are
sound can positively impact the success of
the initiative.
8. “Re-recruit”
your best people. Don’t be surprised if
top performers are approached with offers
once the economy turns around. Managers
should meet with their best people now to
discuss their careers and remind them how
much they are valued.
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ATB’s Period vs Date in TRAVERSE
When running
Aged Trial Balance Reports for Previous
Periods it is recommended that you run these
reports by ‘Period’ rather than ‘Date’. This
will then bring in all invoices that were
posted to a particular period regardless of
the actual date of the invoice.
More often
than not, especially in Accounts Payable an
invoice will be entered for it’s actual date
so that it will age properly on the Open
Invoice Report, but it is an old invoice
that will not be posted to a past period.
Running the ATB by ‘Date’ will not match the
General Ledger Account Number for Accounts
Payable because of ‘timing issues’ with the
date vs period. Running the ATB using
‘Period’ will match up all invoices to a
period regardless of the date of the
invoice, allowing you to match your
subsidiary file to your General Ledger.
Purging Open
Invoices periodically is recommended.
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Deleting Inventory Items in TRAVERSE
Sometimes,
even when the Quantity On Hand, Committed,
and In-Use are all zero if you try to delete
an Inventory Item it will tell you that you
can not delete the item because these fields
are not zero.
What is
actually happening is that there may be
‘zero quantity buckets’ for this item. These
‘zero quantity buckets’ come about when
items are sold from the ‘purchased buckets’
and even though the quantity is zero the
actual line is still within the Inventory
item. This line with zero quantity must be
removed.
To remove
all zero quantity buckets perform a
‘Physical Inventory’ setting the quantity to
zero and update the Physical Inventory. Once
updated all the zero quantity buckets will
be removed and you can then call up each
Inventory Item individually and simply F3 or
select Delete.
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Contact Us
Maple Business Software
Consulting LLC
59113 Timber Trail
Goshen, IN 46528
574-742-9241 - Office
574-312-8056 - Cell
574-975-2755 - Fax Number
email:
rvandaele@maplebusinesssoftware.com
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