D - Important Times

The guidelines below are procedures that you should be doing on a regular cycle to maintain your Advanced Accounting 7 system. The list notes how often you should perform certain maintenance tasks and can also help you prepare for accounting routines performed at end of month, end of quarter, or end of year. Although some of the individual items in this list may not apply to your business, there are many items that apply to anyone using Advanced Accounting 7. For example, the importance of backing up your files cannot be overstated.

Wherever applicable, the program associated with the guideline is provided in the left-hand column.

In addition to the items listed below, you should add any recurring transactions that you run periodically. GL-N, Generate Recurring G/J Transaction, SO-J, Generate Recurring Inv and AP-N, Generate Recurring Vouch allow you to set up templates for transactions that occur weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. See the documentation for GL-M, SO-I, and AP-M for information on how to create the templates for these recurring transactions.

A. THINGS TO DO DAILY

Program

GL-C	1. Be sure you have posted all general journal transactions entered during the day.

AP-F	2. It is advisable to complete any process requiring

GL-C	payment as part of the process. For example, print/

PO-D	post any Accounts Payable checks you have entered,

PR-D	print/ post any General Ledger transactions, receive purchase orders, and print/post payroll checks.

System

3. Back up your data files (*.B, or *.Bxx if you use company codes). We suggest you establish a set of backup media labeled for each day of the week.

GL-E	4. Print a Trial Balance using the current day's date for the beginning and ending date selection. Verify that distributions are correct and that the report column totals for debits and credits are in balance.

In the event of an out of balance condition, print the individual journals for the selected date to help locate the transaction in question. Under normal conditions each journal should be in balance.

If power failure or some other system interruption has created an incomplete posting, see Appendix C on "Making a One-Sided Journal Entry."

GL-D	5. You have the option to print individual journals to review daily activity in specific areas of your business. In particular, you may find it advisable to review the sales and cash receipts journals daily.

Your end of day amount in your sales journal should match your net sales transactions for the day. Your the end of day balance in your cash journal should match the current bank balance. If you "balance to cash" each day, you can correct any minor error before it becomes difficult to track.

SO-D,SO-B

6. Run and review your backorder listing and your open sales order listing. As stocks are received into available on-hand inventory, determine which orders should be released and which priority (if any) should be used to fill backorders.

B. THINGS TO DO WEEKLY

Program

System

1. Back up your data files (*.B, or *.Bxx if you use company codes). We recommend you rotate your weekly backup using at least three sets of diskettes: after creating backup sets A, B, and C, for the first three backups, re-use set A for the fourth backup, etc.

GL-G (GL-P)

2. Run financial statements (standard or custom) to review the effect of the week's business on your company's financial position.

C. THINGS TO DO MONTHLY

Program

System

1. Back up all files (*.*) to archive media and store in a safe place. We suggest you make archive backup sets for each month of the year.

AR-D	2. If you levy interest charges against overdue invoices, now is the time to run the Interest Charging program.

AR-F	3. Print an A/R Aging with detail, open and paid items.

AR-E	4. If you send statements which show both open and paid detail, you should print them now.

AP-G	5. Print A/P Aging with detail, open and paid items. The paid items will be purged from the detail during the month end process.

IC-D	6. Print an Available/Order Information report of the entire inventory. The 'total' figure on that report should equal the dollar value in your inventory asset general ledger account. If you have more than one inventory asset account, the report total should equal the sum of those accounts.

GL-G (GL-P)

7. Print financial statements (standard or custom). On the Balance Sheet print, answer 'Y' to the question: 'Do you want to close the G/L accounts?' This will perform a soft close of the income and expense general ledger balances to the current earnings general ledger account. Because this is a "soft close" (i.e., a non-destructive close), you can perform this operation as often as necessary.

GL-E, GL-D

8. Optionally, you may print the trial balance for the month and/or journals for the month.

D. THINGS TO DO QUARTERLY

Program

System

1. Back up all files to archive media (*.*) and store in a safe place. We suggest you set aside backup disks labeled for each quarter.

PR-E	2. Print employee information. Quarterly information will be cleared by the first payroll of the new quarter.

PR-F	3. Print quarterly payroll information. This information will be cleared by the first payroll of the new quarter.

PR-M	5. Transfer Payroll Taxes to A/P for payment. This operation may have to be performed more often, depending on the amount of your deposit. Please see your accountant for more information.

SY-L	6. This is a good time to think about clearing A/P and A/R vouchers and paid items, if your disk space is running low. See SY-L, Purge Old A/R & A/P Records for more information.

E. THINGS TO DO YEARLY - Calendar year end

You should perform these even if Dec 31 is not the end of your fiscal year.

Program

System

1. Back up all files and programs (*.*) to archive media. This set of backup media should be clearly labeled, write protected and placed in a secured place off site.

PR-G

2. Print W-2's. (This program also removes terminated employees from the employee master file.) When you are satisfied they have printed correctly, answer 'Y' to the clearing question: 'This is an end of year activity which clears quarter to date and year to date payroll data. Do you wish to clear this payroll data now?'

This step may be delayed up to the time you are ready to process your first payroll in the new year. You MUST complete this step prior to processing the first payroll in the new year; failure to do so will cause the closed year and the new year payroll data to be intermixed.

You may also choose to print W-2's to a disk file and print them on forms at a later time.

In an exceptional circumstance, if a full backup of your system is available and you have enough room on your computer to run the W-2's from your backup system, you can clear the year to date payroll information in your working system and run the W-2 information from your backup information at a later time. This procedure would require that you set up your backup system under a separate company code. See UT-C - Change Company Code, for information about creating company codes.

F. THINGS TO DO YEARLY - Fiscal year end

Program

System

1. If your accounting year end is other than the calendar year end, you should make a backup of all files and programs (*.*) to archive media and store in a safe place.

SY-I	2. Run the End of Year routine.

This routine performs several tasks:

a) Clears all year to date information in the customer, vendor and employee files, moves YTD to Last Year.

b) Gives you the option of clearing the G/L Transaction file. If you answer N, you will be able to keep the Detailed Trial Balance from one year to the next. If you answer Y, the G/L Transaction file will be cleared and all transactions will be moved into the Beginning Balance records. You will probably want to answer N here since this will give you the opportunity to make further transactions in the prior year and still get a complete Detailed Trial Balance when your really ready to close out the past year.

c) Increments the fiscal year start date in the system master information SY-A-A.

d) Shifts all the amounts in the G/L COA down 1 year.

e) When this is complete you're ready for the new year. The entire process should not take very much time and can easily be accomplished at the end of the last day in your business year.

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