GL Maintenance

From aeonscope

Contents

Chart of Accounts

Setting up and maintaining the the Chart of Accounts in aeonscope is managed through the Account Entry window. From the aeonscope icon Image:aeicon.jpg in the taskbar select General Ledger → Account Entry.

Account Entry

As is standard with accounting packages the subledgers are divided into Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, Cost of Sales and Overhead. Each of these is represented by a large grey button.

Account Entry Section Buttons

Accounts are further broken down into Categories, Elements and Accounts. Categories are marked with a Image:category.jpg, Elements are represented with a Image:element.jpg, and Accounts with an Image:account.jpg.

Creating a New Category Image:category.jpg

Select the Account Title the new element will be found under by clicking on the corresponding grey button in the Account Entry window. Click on the Image:addcat.jpg button. The Add New Category window will open.

Add New Category Window

Type the name of the new Category in the Enter a new name field. The Code prefix will be automatically filled with the code correlating to the section the new Category will be found under. Type a single digit code into the Enter Code field. This number must be unique to other numbers in this Category, but does not need to be chrolological. Click Ok to create the new account Category.

Creating a New Element Image:element.jpg

First select the Account Title the new element will be found under by clicking on the corresponding grey button in the Account Entry window. Highlight the Category to file the new Element under. Click on the Image:addelement.jpg button. This will open the Add New Element window.

Add a New Account Element

Type the name of the new Element in the Enter a new name field. The Code prefix will be automatically filled with the code correlating to the Category the new Element will be found under. Type a two digit code into the Enter Code field. This number must be unique to other numbers in this Category, but does not need to be chrolological. Click Ok to create the new account Element.

Creating a New Account Image:account.jpg

Highlight the Element in the Account Entry window relating to your new Account. Click on the Image:addaccount.jpg button. This will open the Add new Account window.

New Account window
  • The Account Code will be automatically filled with the number for the parent Element. Add at least two characters to this number to become the Account Code. Account codes can be alpha numberic and up to 21 characters long.
  • The Account Location is a drop-down list of locations, select the one that best matches the new Account. Locations refer to Departments, also known as a Unit Leaf. These are created in the Admin → Production Setup window, in the Unit Leaf section.
  • The Account Name is a basic discription of the Account
  • Opening Balance must be set to $0 for any Profit and Loss Account (an account within the Income, Cost of Sales or Overhead titles) Balance sheet (Asset, Liabilities and Equity) type accounts may have an opening balance with a dollar value.
  • Current Financial Year Ends will default to the current Financial Year, but can be changed if necessary.

Click Ok. Your new Account is ready to have transactions allocated to it.

Deleting

Categories, Elements and Accounts can only be deleted if there have not been any transactions allocated towards them. To delete an unused category/element/account highlight the title in the list and right-click on it. Select Delete.

deleting an account element

A confirmation dialogue box will ask if you wish to proceed. Click OK.

Reordering Categories & Elements

It is possible to change the order in which Categories and Elements appear in the Chart of Accounts. To move a Category or Element, right-click on it in the Account Entry or Account Maitenance window, and select either Move Up or Move Down.

reordering categories and elements

Repeat this process until the list is in the order you prefer.

General Ledger Opening Balance

After creating the Account Codes, use the Opening Balance window to record the opening balance for each account. The Opening Balance window can be accessd from the aeonscope Image:aeicon.jpg in the taskbar, selecting General Ledger → Opening Balance.
  • Enter the current year in the Year (Beginning) field.

All Profit and Loss accounts can be set with a $0 balance by clicking on the Set All Image:multiadd.jpg button.

Balance Sheet accounts need to have their opening balances set individually.

  • Type the account code in the Account Code field, or use the Search/Lookup Image:search.jpg button to locate the correct account. The Name of the account will display in the Name field.
  • If the balance for this account is 'Not Set', click on the New Image:add.jpg button. Enter the opening balance in the Balance field. Click OK.

Accounting Periods

The Accounting Periods window can be accessed via the aeonscope Image:aeicon.jpg in the taskbar, selecting General Ledger → Account Periods.

Image:accountper.jpg

Each of the Account periods will be marked as either Closed, Open or Future. It is sensible to only leave Open the periods you work with daily. This prevents accidents that could take hours to remedy from occurring.

Opening an Accounting Period

To open a period that is flagged as Closed or Future, highlight it in the list and click the Open button.

Image:openper.jpg

Closing an Accounting Period

To Close a period that is flagged as Open or Future, highlight it in the list and click the Close button.

Image:closeper.jpg

End of Year Roll

Rolling a Financial Year will reconcile all accounts for that year and prevent any further transactions from being posted to that year. Often it is practical not to Roll a financial year until a date at least 6 months in the future from the end of that financial year. You may wish to leave the year Closed, but with the Adjustment period open until you are certain that no more tranactions for that financial year will need to be accounted for.

Years must be rolled in chronological order ie: it is impossible to roll the financial year ending 2003 before rolling the financial year ending 2002.

Before a year can be Rolled all GL Periods in that year must be Closed. In the Accounting Periods window click the Close Year button.
Closing the Financial Year
A dialogue prompt will open alerting you to the opening of an Adjustment period:

You may wish to leave your accounts for this year at this point. If you are absolutely certain that there are no further transactions for this Financial year that need to be accounted for, then proceed to the next step.

Click on the Roll Year button.
Rolling the Financial Year
A warning dialogue will alert you that the following steps must have been completed before you can proceed:
Click Yes. You will then be prompted as to what to do with the profit or loss for this financial year:

Click Yes. This will close the financial year from any further activity. All GL periods for this year will be flagged as Rolled.

Bank Accounts

To set up or edit details of the Financial Institutions that your business has accounts with open the Bank Acount area of the General Ledger. From the aeopnsope icon Image:aeicon.jpg in the taskbar select General Ledger → Bank Accounts.

This will open the Bank Accounts window:

Image:bankwin.jpg

Creating a New Bank Account

If you have created a new account with a financial institution the details of this account must be entered in the General Ledger Bank Accounts window before transactions can be allocated to the Account.

In the Bank Accounts window click on the New Image:add.jpg button. This will open the Edit Bank Account window.

new bank account

This window is divided into three sections:

1. Name

  • In the Code field create a new code for this account. The code can be a combination of numbers and letters. You may find it useful to make the code an abbreviation of the bank account name, eg: if the account is a National Australia Bank chequing account you may wish to call it NAB.
  • The Name field should contain the name of the new account and the institution providing the service.

2. GL Account - these fields relate to account codes from the General Ledger Chart of Accounts

  • In the Code field enter the General Ledger account code allocated to this account. To search for an account use the Search/Lookup button to the right of this field.
  • The Name field will contain the account name of the GL Account specified in the Code field.

3. Bank Contact - if an entry for this bank does not exist in the [[[Contacts|Contacts]] database create a new Company Contact entry for this institution before proceeding.

  • In the Code field enter the contact code for this company, or use the Search/Lookup Image:search.jpg button to open a Company Lookup window.
  • The Name field will be completed with the name of the company as specified in the Code field.

The Cheque Account box should only be checked if the account is only used for issuing cheques. If this box is selected you will be restricted to entering numeric reference numbers when making a payment from this account.

Deleting a Bank Account

Bank Accounts can only be deleted from aeonscope if there have not been any transactions allocated to this account. If the account has had no activity, highlight the account in the list in the Bank Accounts window and click the Delete Image:delete.jpg button.

Budgets

The GL Budget window is for recording the allocated budgets for each department in your company. From the aeopnsope icon Image:aeicon.jpg in the taskbar select General Ledger → Budget.

This will open the GL Budget window.
General Ledger Budget window
  • Enter the financial year in the Year Ending field.
  • Enter the account code in the Acct Code field, or use the search/lookup button Image:search.jpg to search for the account record. The Name field will display the name of the Account specified in the account code field.
  • Enter the yearly budget for that account in the Budget field.
  • Click on the Image:start.jpg button to calculate the monthly budget.
  • Amounts for each month can be adjusted or deleted entirely using the Edit Image:edit.jpg and Delete Image:delete.jpg buttons.