Setting Up the General Ledger
The following steps will prepare the system for daily use. The steps are not particularly difficult, but in order to get started on the right foot, they must be followed precisely. The good news is that you only have to do this once! When a particular section of the program is mentioned, refer to that section in the manual for detailed procedures.
1. If you do not choose to use the default chart of accounts, go to the Chart of Accounts and adjust the chart to your needs.
We recommend submitting your chart for final approval by your accountant before proceeding with live data entry.
2. Enter your bank accounts into FILES|Banks, specifying the G/L accounts to which each bank account will be assigned.
3. If you haven’t already, go to FILES|Set Up Global Options and fill out all tabs as instructed. Pay particular attention when entering the number of periods per year, the current accounting period and the accounting year. Make doubly certain that the field POST TO G/L is left unchecked.
4. Enter your employees into FILES|Employees. This should include all salespeople and anyone who will be doing data entry.
5. Set up the starting balances for each G/L account. You cannot enter starting balances directly into each account. You must create these balances from one or more starting transactions.
A. Obtain correct starting balances from your old system as of the last day of the last Period Update on that system.
B. Enter a single transaction into the G/L|Audit Trail. The transaction should be posted into the previous period with the last day of the previous period under the TRANSACTION DATE.
1. Enter the Line Items. Enter one Line Item for each account that has a starting balance. Enter either a debit, or a credit as appropriate, and a simple note, such as “STARTING BALANCE” under the DESCRIPTION field.
2. When you are through, you’ll need to enter a final Line Item to make the transaction balance. Use your Retained Earnings account.
3. Save the transaction.
C. Print a pre-posting report to proof your work.
D. Close the Period by executing the Period Update task. This sets the current accounting period and activates G/L posting of transactions.
