Year end research tips in General Ledger

As you wind down your company’s year end you may find yourself researching various issues that occurred during the year. Knowing when to use which report will save time in researching. Here are some comparisons of the GL Activity versus the GL Journal report:

The General Ledger Activity report lists the beginning balance for each account, all the transactions affecting this account, whether it has been posted to the GL Master, and the ending balance for each period for this account.

Looking at the dates within a particular period will tell you if something has posted to an incorrect period. For example, if on a calendar year you would expect the January GL period to only list January dates. Thus, if you see a July transaction date in January it might something to look into.

The GL Activity report is an excellent way to reconcile various accounts such as the AR or AP Aged Trial Balance. Accounts such as Customer Deposits or Payroll deductions can be reconciled quickly by matching debits and credits and seeing what entries remain.

Should you ever see the words “Missing Entries” in the GL Activity teport, either Journal transactions were deleted or the balance in the GL Master file has been changed and should be investigated further.

The General Ledger Journal lists only entries, without any beginning balances or ending balances for accounts.  

The GL Journal is an excellent way to see both sides of postings to the General Ledger.  You can run this report by source code such as only AP or manual (M1) entries. In TRAVERSE you can also print by Post Run to see just one posting. 

Printing for Unposted entries only in past periods in the past year helps pinpoint entries that may have posted to the wrong year. Printing in the new year for future periods will show entries that may have been posted incorrectly to the wrong year.

Should your General Ledger's Trial Balance ever be out of balance, use the GL Journal to pinpoint the application and GL period the imbalance is in so you can research and correct the imbalance. 

Calculating vacation and sick pay

If your company’s vacation and sick pay are given at the beginning of the year for all employees, enter these amounts right after the new year in Payroll has been created.

To do this go to Periodic Processing, Leave Adjustments, enter the Employee ID, select the Leave Type and enter the hours the employee should have for the year. If the vacation and sick pay is based on the employee’s anniversary date then the system will automatically calculate the VAC/SIC hours earned with each payroll based on tables setup for these calculations.

As vacation or sick time is used by the employee, it is entered as such through either Payroll Transactions or Manual Payroll and deducted from the hours earned.

Year end processing reminders

• Remember to update current year whenever you post to the General Ledger Master in the old year. This is particularly important when you are dealing with Bank Reconciliation.
• To make the reconciliation process smoother, do not post to the General Ledger Master in the new year for Period 1 until you have completed your December Bank Reconciliation.
• Purge all paid invoices in Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable before 01/01/08. This is helpful when you run Aged Trial Balances during January and later months.
• Load the Payroll Maintenance Update AFTER creating the 2008 Payroll year so the proper year will be updated with the new tax tables.
• If you posted to the wrong year you must reverse that entry in the incorrect year and re-enter the entries into the correct year. If it is the AP or the AR application that you posted to the wrong year, credit or debit memo the wrong year and re-enter it.

Additional tips for OSAS users:

• Make sure all transactions in Accounts Payable/Purchase Order and Accounts Receivable/Sales Order have been posted, then Create the new General Ledger year right away. This way you can continue to work in 2007 and 2008 at the same time, and the possibility of posting to the wrong year will be reduced.
• If December 2007 is not your Fiscal Year End, remember to perform Periodic Processing and move your 1099 information last year. You can adjust your 1099 amounts for a vendor if they are incorrect so that you can still run the correct 1099’s.

W2 and magnetic media tips

Remember, W2’s have changed for the 2007 reporting year in both the paper copies and magnetic media. If you are current on the annual software maintenance program,  you are entitled to these program changes at no additional charge. If you are NOT current and need to file either paper or magnetic media copies, give us a call for filing options.

To test W2 Magnetic Media submission you can download the AccuWage and AccuW-2C software. This software will allow you to check Forms W-2 and W-2C reports for accuracy BEFORE you send them to the Social Security Administration.   To download Accuwage and AccuW-2C go to www.socialsecurity.gov/employer/accuwage/ .

More year-end processing questions?

Complete Year End check lists and assistance are available:

• Go to www.basi-usa.com and click on Year-end Tips for "Year end in a Nutshell"
• Go to www.osas.com and sign in to eUser for Year-end Processing Checklists.  If you're not registered, contact us.
• Call BAS at 267-2277 (in Austin) or toll-free at (888) 246-1771 for personal assistance or login information for eUser.

At BAS, our goal is to provide flexible, simple-to-use accounting and business management systems and support to help your organization achieve unprecedented success.

If you would like to discuss issues you're experiencing in your organization and explore how we might help—call me today!

Sincerely,



Lillian and the BAS team

Helping your accounting make $ense

In this Issue

	Year end research tips in General Ledger
	Calculating vacation and sick pay
	Year end processing reminders
	W2 and magnetic media tips
	More year-end processing questions?

Just a thought...

Happy 2008!  As much as I enjoy seeing my family over the holidays, I'm glad to be getting back to business as usual. But first, we must close our 2007 books and proceed with 2008. 

This month's issue is devoted to helping you close 2007 with ease.  If you have questions, by all means give us a ring.

Until next time,

Lillian

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