FACCTS Accounting System - Application Notes

General Ledger Procedures

There are several important procedures to note in running the general ledger system; although some installations may wish to modify these instructions to suit a particular circumstance, this should be done only with a full understanding of the reason for the procedures.

Daily Procedures

Daily posting is not required by the FACCTS system, but it is important to consider that on-line systems such as FACCTS are often expected to have up-to-date information at all times. If posting is done less frequently, and on-line inquiry into the status of an account such as cash or A/R control will yield "old" information.

Monthly Procedures

The monthly procedures are somewhat more complicated. Parts of this sequence may have to be repeated if problems are found or late entries must be made.

For purposes of this discussion, it is assumed that the monthly procedures for all other FACCTS subsystems have been completed prior to starting the monthly procedure for general ledger.

1. Make any final manual entries required.

2. Make all recurring entries as appropriate.

3. Complete a daily cycle to ensure that all activity is posted.

4. If you are running A/R and/or A/P, check the account balances in the control accounts against the aged trial balance totals. If there is any difference, it must be due to incorrectly made journal entries or incorrectly distributed invoices. If the balances match, proceed to step 5. If there is a difference, run the account analysis report on the incorrect control account; examine the report for misplaced entries. The summary at the end of the report shows the types of entries that hit the account; look for entries other than the subsystem generated ones. Correct the problem in the subsystem then return here.

5. Reconcile your bank statements: 6. If the month is to be closed at this point, perform the close month procedure. If it is to remain open, skip this step.

7. Run a trial balance for the month. This will assist in interpreting the other reports if needed. It is good practice to have a final trial balance for each month on file.

8. Run the report writer reports as needed. Normally, you will run a balance sheet and income statement at the end of each month.

Year-End Procedures

The closing of a year may take place up to several months following the actual end of the year, since there may be final entries required after an audit. For this reason, we suggest that the last month of the fiscal year not be closed until the adjustments are made. There are thus two different procedures to be followed, one for the actual end of the year and one when the year is closed.

At actual year end; do monthly procedures except for close. Then run the "Calculate FY2 Beginning Balances" step. This takes the current ending balances for FY1 balance sheet accounts and installs them as opening balances for FY2. The P/L accounts are always started at zero balances.

The FY2 balance procedure should be re-run as often as necessary to reflect changes in position in FY1 resulting from adjustments and additional entries. It is not necessary to run this procedure after every change in the old year, but it is important to understand that this is the only connection between the two years in the general ledger.

The procedure for closing a year should be followed exactly and carefully since it is not reversable. The steps are summarized below:

1. Close each unclosed month using the procedure given above.
2. Calculate FY2 balances.
3. Run final ledgers as required. We suggest that a full-year ledger be run as a permanent record.
4. Run other required reports; normally this would include a balance sheet for the year end and an income statement for the fiscal year.
5. Take a FULL BACKUP of the database.
6. Run the "Roll Fiscal Year" process.

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