Month-end Closing Procedures

These procedures are designed to be a basic guideline to monthend procedures. Procedures for your company will vary according to your specific guidelines and your CPA's recommendations.

Accounts Payable:

Accounts Receivable:

General Ledger:

Inventory Control:

Point of Sale:

Purchasing:

System Maintenance:

The report generator is capable of reading a month of history, if a history path is defined. Each report generator report has an option to press [F8] to configure the history path. History is available for reporting in the following applications:

The source of what the path should be to these history directories can be found by reviewing the following menu options:
End of month/year procedure [Enter]
End of month history archive menu [Enter]
History path configuration menu [Enter]

The menu options listed on this screen will list each of the history paths. Highlighting each menu option and pressing [Enter], the history paths available are listed. When in the report generator, type in the path exactly as listed adding the YYMM code to the path, as exampled:

/work/companyname/history/ardl9710

This example would read history for the A/R daily register for the month of 9710. Note, when entering the YYMM code, you must also type in the code for the history database needed. The system will prompt you for the database code on the line in which you type the path. If you leave the path blank the system will read the current data.

Prompt	Code	Database History
apglnumb	apgl	A/P voucher expense database
apvouchr	apvo	A/P voucher header information
ardlyreg	ardl	A/R Invoice/Application Register
ardetail	arde	A/R detail
checkrec	chec	Check reconciliation
invtrack	invt	Inventory tracking
invtrnhd	ixhd	Inventory transfers header
invtrnhd	ixdt	Inventory transfers detail
possohdr	posh	Point of sale header
possodtl	posd	Point of sale detail
purchdtl	purd	Purchase order detail
purchhdr	purh	Purchase order header
salesreg	sale	Sales register

From Your Mailbox to Ours....Questions and Answers

Q: I have tried to use the Check Reconciliation application and don't seem to be able to make it balance. Am I missing something?
A: Enter a "B"alance entry which represents your beginning checking account balance. Without this entry, you will not be able to balance monthly. This is a onetime entry and should never be "R"econciled.

Q:I have never used the Check Reconciliation program and now would have to reconcile all the checks since we have been on the system. Is there an easy way to do this?
A: The easiest way to start is to determine a cut-off date and to clear the database as of that day. Then let the system begin to accumulate afresh. For example: If the bank cuts your bank statement on the 15th. Clear the database on the 15th. You will, of course, have checks that were outstanding at that point and the first month you would have to manually enter those checks back in, but after that you would be off and running. Establishing a "B"alance as of that date would be more easily done also.

Q: When will the next release be out?
A: At this point, we are looking at no sooner than an April release date.

Q: How do I correct a payment I overposted in A/R?
A: However you posted it, enter a (-) negative payment the exact same way. In other words, if you posted it as cash and posted it to invoice # 1000001. Post a negative payment as cash to invoice # 1000001.

Q: Can we have an option to switch companies when at the Inventory Transfer menu?
A: Yes, this is an excellent idea. We will add it in the next release.

Q: What happens if we don't archive history?
A: Large databases cause you and possibly your system to labor unnecessarily. You will find yourself having to scan through excessive closed data to find the open issues. Each time the system has to load the database it will have to search through more detail to report the specified information. Overall it is an unnecessary burden. There is no good reason to not archive history. For maximum efficiency for you and your system , archives should be done monthly.

Q: Should I archive my General Ledger batches?
A: If there is any obstacle in your way of being able to archive your G/L batches, I would find a way to remove it. The benefits of this option far outweigh any perceived problems. These archives will take up disk space, but they can be moved to tape after a reasonable period of time. In addition, you will no longer have to print the hardcopy detail..a major savings in paper and storage space. Trade that savings for the cost of a new harddrive if necessary. In exchange, you will enjoy the speed and convenience of allowing the system to search the detail when you need to know who, when, how, how much, etc. You will be able to drill straight down to the specific entries made on any given transaction, by using the reporting options available for archived detail. Let the system do the research.

To set this up, simply go to General Ledger, Maintenance procedures, Fiscal period dates and configuration, screen one. Set "Archive G/L batches" to [Y]es.

When you close the G/L each month, the system will ask if you want to "Clear G/L batch archives". In most cases, you would NOT want to do this. If you do choose to say [Y]es, make sure you have first done a history backup tape.

Q: How do you print a help screen?
A: Enter the help screen by pressing [F1]. Once in the help screen, press [F9] for a printer queue.

Q: Where does the W-2 get it's information from?
A: It reads the data stored in the employee record. Box 13, reads properly configured 401k contributions.

Q: We often use the "Description by keyword" search for POS items. Is there a way to have it automatically go that option?
A: Press [F1] on the "Item number" field in POS. In the Help screen you will see an option to press [`]to have the system automatically jump to the "Description by keyword" query.

Q: Our state payroll tax tables have changed. Do we automatically receive those changes from you?
A: Don't assume we have done that for you. If your tax tables have changed, fax or mail us a copy of the annual tax percentage table from your state. We will verify or make the changes as needed, within 24 hours.

New features are being added to make the tremendous job you have of guarding and growing your assets more easily done.

Inventory Min/Max Populator

Allow the system to auto-calculate your minimum and maximum stocking levels. Using sales history and lead time averages, the system is now able populate the minimum and maximum stocking levels of your inventory items. No more guessing. Let the facts set the limits.

Accounts Payable Reports

All applicable Accounts Payable reports now read history. A clean sweep through the reports has standardized them to include all of tools needed to manage your A/P activity.

Purchase orders, miscellaneous charges, and manifest charges or taxes may now be tracked when prepaid. Vouchers generated prior to receiving may be marked as prepaid in the purchase orders. If so marked, the system will not generate another voucher. In addition, once the PO is received, the system will auto-reverse the prepaid vouchers expense distribution and expense it to the normal expense G/ L account. This flexibility will allow you to accrue these prepaid expenses to G/L accrual accounts, such as "Prepaid inventory". Once the PO is received, the accrual entry will be reversed and the normal expense account will be updated.

The Check Reconciliation menu has been modified to allow the tracking of cash deposits. Enter the deposit date, amount, rep, deposit slip number, and G/L accounts to update and the system will post the deposits to the General Ledger. Reporting options added will allow you to track your deposits and balance them with your deposit slips.

Are you balancing your inventory value to the G/L inventory value everyday? If so, you will appreciate this new tool. If not, this tool will eliminate all excuses to not do so. Balancing your inventory could save you significant dollars, not to mention minimizing that physical count variance surprise you are probably experiencing. Improper procedures are the number one cause of inventory balancing problems. Finding out how your staff is impacting the value of your inventory can pay immediate rewards from uncovering over or understated profits.

The End of Day has been modified to include a new inventory balancing report. This report will summarize the inventory changes made that day from all possible sources. The value yesterday, plus or minus the value changes made today, bounced against the actual value at the end of the day will give you an opportunity to review the day's impact for reasonableness variances.

Time and development have caught up with the Inventory Maintenance screens. To ease the volume of data now being stored, we have signifcantly re-arranged the screens. It will take a little getting used to, but the obvious benefit is apparent. All of the price and costing options are again on one screen. All purchasing configuration and reporting is now on one screen. Each of the screens have been standardized using the same logical commonality among fields.

Dear Customer: If you are using STATEMENT FORMAT#6. are you tired of folding statements twice instead of ONE TIME?

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Last month we sent our statements using IMIGIT. This includes the customer's statement followed by reduced images of the signed invoices for the current month. The Signature Statement Run is a time, money, and labor saving device.

1) No more daily sorting and filing of invoices in to the customer's folder in the filing cabinet.

2)No more retrieving the invoices from the filing cabinet

3) No more sorting of invoices to place with the customer's statement.

4) Immediate access to the signed invoice copy from the terminal.

5) Reduced postage fees.

An example of IMIGIT'S money and time saving capabilities can be seen in an example from one of our customers: Plyler's Home Center's statement run was taking 4 employees 4 days to complete. Through IMIGIT this task has been reduced to 1/2 a day for the same employees. Another savings is gained in the reduction of postage due to the fact that invoices are printed 4 to a page instead of 1page each. At Plyler's their largest customer statement cost $3.00 to mail using IMIGIT the cost is now $1.70.

On January the 21st during the Advantage Acadamy session, 20 customers attended a demonstration of the statement run, the purchasing and accounts payable modules, and the WIMG maintenance and access tool into the filing cabinets.

Advantage is proud to be to be the only company in our industry to offer a fully integrated imaging software package.

*Next month we will discuss the Accounts PayableVoucher Entry module .

For more information contact our Marketing Coordinator at 1-800-991-7283 ext.242