G/L Flow Of Events
At this point, you are ready to enter new journal entries as they occur. Establish your own time frame for day-to-day procedures based on the volume of General Ledger activity in your office. The Flow of Events provides a general outline for these procedures.
General Ledger processing can be divided into four main activities:
1) maintaining the MASTER files
2) entering journal entries
3) printing monthly reports
4) year-end processing
The Flow of Events described below is a guideline of options to follow for General Ledger processing. When you are using an option for the first time, please read the entire Option Description for detailed instructions on using that option.
Maintaining The Department Master File:
As new accounts (or departments) are created, add new accounts and departments to their respective MASTER files.
Whenever changes are made to a master file, it is a good practice to reprint the master file report to have a current hardcopy on hand.
Entering Journal Entries: (Options from the G/L Processing Menu)
Use the G/L Journal Entries Maintenance option to enter journal entries as necessary.
Use the G/L Journal Entries Report option to check for accuracy. This report should also be printed each time journal entries are entered or posted from other modules. If necessary, use the G/L Journal Entries Maintenance option to make corrections.
Use the G/L Journal Entries Posting option to post the entries to the G/L CURRENT and MASTER files.
If you are using recurring journal entries, use the G/L Recurring Journal Entries Posting option as necessary.
Printing Monthly Reports: (Options from the G/L Reports Menu)
Reports in the General Ledger module may be run at any point in time. However, we suggest reviewing reports each journal entries are posted. If this is not feasible, hardcopies of these reports should be printed, verified and filed at least once a month prior to month-end processing.
G/L Balance Sheet Report - is used to review the assets and liabilities.
G/L Income Statement Report - is used to show Revenue and Expenses expressed as a Percentage of Sales, or as a comparison to Budget Amounts or Prior Year figures.
G/L Trial Balance Report - is used to review the balances in the General Ledger and make sure it is in balance.
G/L Current Journal Report - is used to review amounts posted to the General Ledger Accounts
G/L Source Report - is used to review the journal entries by Source Code
Year - End Processing: (AT THE END OF THE FISCAL YEAR)
To insure the integrity of the data in your General Ledger files, the following steps should be completed before any new entries are posted from the G/L TEMPORARY file for the next month!
1) Complete posting options as necessary from all other modules.
2) Complete entry and posting of additional entries as necessary.
3) Post all entries from the G/L Temporary file.
4) Print and verify all financial reports.
5) Backup data (see the procedures provided with your backup device).
6) Complete the G/L YTD Zeroing and G/L Detail Zeroing options on the G/L Zeroing Menu.