INTRODUCTION TO SETTING UP THE GENERAL LEDGER

 

 

 

The following steps should be taken to set up the general ledger in SkilMatch.

 

1. Design (but do not enter) general ledger account numbers (refer to document Menu GLMANT, Item Accounts.

 

2. Design (but do not enter) your financial statement tailoring (refer to document Menu GLMANT, Item Tailoring).

 

3. Enter company names (refer to document Menu GLMANT, Item Company).

 

4. Create and enter names for the cost centers (refer to Menu GLMANT, Item Cost Center Descriptions).

 

5. Enter general ledger account numbers for the balance sheet accounts and one cost center (refer to document Menu GLMANT, Item Accounts).

 

6. Use the system to create the additional cost center account numbers (Menu GLMANT, Item Copy Chart of Accounts).

 

7. Add and delete account numbers to the completed Chart of Accounts (Menu GLMANT, Item Accounts).

 

8. Enter financial statement tailoring (refer to document Menu GLMANT, Item Tailoring).

 

9. Set retained earnings numbers for current and prior year earnings (refer to Menu GLMANT, Item Retained Earnings).

 

10. Set group number for percentage calculations (refer to Menu GLMANT, Item Set Group).

 

11. (Optional) Establish consolidations (company and/or cost center) (refer to Menu GLMANT, Item Consolidations or Menu GLMANT, Item Division Consolidation).

 

12. Enter budget and/or prior year data (refer to Menu GLMANT, Item Budgets and Prior and Menu GLMANT, Item Duplicate Budget).

 

13. Activate budget and/or prior year data (refer to Menu GLMANT, Item Activations).

 

14. (Optional) Enter beginning balances (refer to documentation concerning ‘Beginning Balances in General Ledger’ in document Menu GLJOUR, Item Data Entry).

 

15. (Optional) Maintain valid posting periods for all SkilMatch accounting applications. (refer to Menu GLMANT, Item GL Posting Periods)

 

 

 

HOW TO MAINTAIN TAILORING FILE RECORDS

Use this option to add or change financial statement format (tailoring) information.

 

“Tailoring” refers to the design of your balance sheet and income statement.  There are 3 basic elements to a financial statement.  HEADINGS: the words that describe what is to be printed (like Current Assets); SUMMARY: words that describe the dollars to be printed (like Cash in bank); and TOTALS: the adding of figures to make totals.

 

You should begin this process with a sample of a summarized balance sheet and income statement for a single cost center, and one for G&A.  On the samples, assign a number to each printed line in sequential order.

 

For the balance sheet, start with 0050 and continue through 3999.  Skip numbers as you go along, to leave room for additional lines in the future.

Example:

Assets              0050

Current assets    0100

Cash in bank      0150

Accts Recv        0200

Prepaid Expense  0250

Total Current     0400

 

For the income statement, start with 4100 and continue through 9999.  Skip numbers as you go along, to leave room for additional lines in the future.  Example:

Income             4100

Temporary sales 4150

Direct hire fees   4200

Billed expenses   4250

Total sales         4500

 

Financial statements do NOT print in order by general ledger account number, but by group number.  A “”group” is a series of one or more like accounts (Like Payroll cash account, Operating cash account, Savings account; or federal withholding payable, FICA payable, and Medicare payable).

 

You have a choice when printing financial statements of printing a Summarized version that follows the tailoring (Cash in bank – with a grand total of all cash accounts in the group) or a Detailed version (prints a separate line for each account in the group – Payroll account, Operating account, etc.)

 

You will also have the opportunity to assign indentions to each line, and to control the insertion of blank lines wherever you like.

 

After you have completed the design on paper, you will need to back to the Chart of Accounts option and add the group numbers to every account in your chart of accounts through Menu GLMANT, Item Accounts.

 

To begin, on the “General Ledger Master” menu, click [Maintenance].

 

 

The screen will display:

 

 

Click [Tailoring].

 

The screen will display:

 

 

Group Number:

A “group number” simply refers to a number assigned to a line that is to print on your financial statements.  By numbering lines in numerical order, you are instructing the program the order in which to print the lines of your statement.

 

You will NOT have a separate group number for each account number.  Many accounts will belong to the same group, other groups will only have a single account.  Remember that Balance Sheet accounts belong to group numbers 0001-3999.  Income and expense accounts belong to groups 4100-9999. (Do NOT use group numbers 4000-4099).

 

Key an existing group number that you wish to change.

OR

Key a new group number that you wish to establish.

 

To proceed, click [OK].

 

The screen will display:

 

 

HEADING/SUB-TOTAL/TOTAL:

Choose one of these 3 choices to establish what kind of element this group number will represent.

 

HEADING is strictly a title - there are no dollars associated with it (like CURRENT ASSETS).

SUB-TOTAL means there will be one or more account numbers with dollars belonging to this group (like CASH IN BANK).

TOTAL will combine up from 1 to 22 SUBTOTAL groups together as a single figure (like TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS).

 

Select one of these 3 choices, and press the <TAB> key for additional keying.

 

 

Skip to New Page First:

If you wish to begin a new page when this group number prints, click this selection. A black dot will appear.

If you do NOT wish to begin a new page, leave this area blank.

 

 

Skip Lines Before Printing:

Key the number of blank lines to be inserted before printing this line.

Select 0, 1, 2, or 3.

Note:  if you enter 0, then you must enter 1,2, or 3 in the area Lines After.

Note:  if you enter 1 in both Lines Before and Lines After, the system will double-space before and after the line is printed.

 

 

Skip Lines After Printing:

Key the number of blank lines to be inserted after this line is printed.

Select 0, 1, 2, or 3.

Note:  if you entered 0 in the Lines Before area, you must key 1, 2, or 3.

 

 

Title:

Key a title or description for this group.  There are 25 characters available.  If you do not wish to have a title, key a ‘.’ (period).

 

 

Column To Print Heading:

You have a choice of three indentions for the TITLE.

          1 prints the title against the left margin.

          2 indents three spaces before printing the title.

          3 indents six spaces before printing the title.

 

 

Column To Print Dollars:

You have a choice of three indentions for the DOLLARS.

          1 indents to the middle of the page before printing the dollars.

          2 indents to the right of position 1.

          3 indents to the right of position 2.

 

 

Reverse Sign:

If this group number prints dollars, selecting this area will causes the amount's sign to be reversed.

Example:  credit balances are negative numbers and debit amounts are positive numbers.  Therefore, credit balances will appear with a negative sign (-), and debit amounts will print without a (-) unless you select this area.

Note:  generally, liability accounts have reversed signs.

 

 

If This Is A Total Line.  Fill In The Group Numbers Which Should Be Included In The Total:

If this is a Total line, key the group numbers whose sums are to be added together.  You may enter up to 22 group numbers, and they must be keyed in numerical order.  We suggest that if you have more than 22 group numbers that need to be added together for a grand total, that you find a way to divide them into smaller groups that have a Heading, then add together these smaller groups into a total line.

 

For example – don’t have an all-inclusive Heading that reads EXPENSES and lists all expenses alphabetically.  Instead, break them into smaller groups like Recruiting Expenses (advertising, marketing, customer and employee gifts), Operating Expenses (like rent, utilities, telephone) etc.  Then you can form a Total Line group that will add these individual groups.

 

Do NOT leave any blank spaces!  Your total line will not calculate correctly if there are

Include only group numbers that are lower than the group number displayed at the top of the screen.

 

 

If you are satisfied with the setup displayed, click [OK].

Note:  if you have neglected to fill in all the necessary fields, the screen will display the error, and you may move the cursor to the appropriate field to make the entry. 

 

If at any time you wish to discontinue this entry and erase everything you keyed on this particular group number, click [Don’t change]. The system will return to menu without updating the files.

 

If at any time you wish to delete this entry and erase everything you keyed on this particular group number, click [Delete this group]. The system will delete this group number and return to menu.

Note: If the group you are deleting has been assigned to account numbers, you will need to go to the account and change to a valid group number.

 

 

Repeat the preceding steps until all statements are tailored to your satisfaction.  Click [Exit] to end the job and return to menu.

 

The screen will display:

 

 

Click [OK].  You will receive an edit report.  Verify the accuracy of the entries.  If everything appears correct, you are finished with this option.  If you see errors, you must re-enter the option to make corrections.