The Service Assistant’s General Ledger report presents a synopsis of all transactions during aspecified period of time,

giving dollar amounts posted as both a credit and debit.

Overview

It is basically a History report!

General LedgerGeneral Ledger

Let’s set up a few things…

Go to Data –

Company Parameters

Financial Parameters

We will start with the Chart of Accounts

This is how this screen looks with your original default parameters

CHART OF ACCOUNTS is a list of ledger account names and associated numbers arranged in the order in which they normally appear in the financial statements.

In other words: “How do you want to group your dollars for the General Ledger?”

Definition:

Each account has four fields

1. Account number

2. Account Description

3. Cash Account checkbox

4. Account Type

1. Account Number

These really mean nothing in SA, but should correspond to your accounting package’s numbers (unless you export to QuickBooks).

2. Account Description

This is important, especially for QuickBooks exports.

There are several descriptions that SA needs (such as “Accounts Receivable” and “Discounts”) and cannot be changed or deleted.

3. Cash Account checkbox

“Is this where the money goes?”

4. Account Type

Only needed if exporting to QuickBooks

Why so many Accounts?

For income accounts, you could just have one that says “Production”. More than that is up to you and your accountant.

Next, we go to the “Adjustments” tab

This is how this screen looks with your original default parameters

Each code is either a Credit or Debit

Credit adjustments need to credit “Accounts Receivable”

Debit adjustments need to debit “Accounts Receivable”

A credit reduces the money a customer owes (like a payment does). A debit adds charges (like production).

The way a customer’s balance is affected is represented by “Accounts Receivable” (number 1100 here)

Prepay Adjustment Codes

Some codes (such as “Refund Prepayment”) affect “Prepaid Services” (4105) instead of “Accounts Receivable”

Two adjustment codes (GG and KK) affect both“Accounts Receivable” and “Prepaid Services”

A quick look at the Payments tab..

What form of payment do you accept?

And which cash account is to be affected?

There are a few more parameters

Go to Data –

Product Parameters -

Services/Programs/Specials

And click on the “Services” tab

In the bottom left area, hit the second tab, marked “Accounts”

You will select which income account will be hit (credited) by this service.

(“Accounts Receivable” will be debited)

You may select separate accounts for Residential and Commercial customers (although the GL subtotals them automatically)

Advanced Options

You can also choose alternate accounts for prepay discounts, regular discounts and surcharges to debit when posting different services.

If left blank, they will post to the default accounts (“Prepayment Discount”, “Discount”, “Surcharge”)

For jobs that are work orders

Such as Landscape Jobs, you can leave the Account fields blank

Instead, we go into “Products”(Product Parameters – Products – Products tab)

And assign account numbers to each “Work Order” product.

Let’s look at some example transactions reflected on a GL

For each transaction, an equal amount is posted to the credit and debit columns (they “balance”)

Regular Payment

This example is run in detail, so that you can see the transactions affecting each account.

Regular Credit

Prepayment Example 1

For the exact, correct amount

Prepayment Example 2

For payment in excess of prepay (overpayment or payment of outstanding balance)

Prepayment Example 3

For slightly less than correct amount

Prepayment Example 4

After covered service had been completed

Production Example 1

Regular production (with sales tax)

Production Example 2

Prepaid service

Production Example 3

On a discounted service

Installment Example 1

Installment charge (with sales tax)

Installment Example 2

Production done on service covered by installment. There is no sales tax because there is no real charge to customer (not hitting AR)

How do we run the GL?

Go to

Financial –

General Ledger

For What Company/Branch?

You will only see this area if you have multiple companies set up in parameters

For What Company/Branch?

Note:  If exporting to QuickBooks, you need to choose one Company at a time if you want to have separate QB journal entries.

What Date Range?

Three different ways, three different results.

Let’s start with the bottom one.

Transaction Date

Looks at the Date field from your transaction entry

Problem if you use this to send daily to your QuickBooks: if you send Wednesday’s transactions on Thursday, then add another Wednesday transaction on Friday, it will not be recorded.

Posting DateRuns by the date you actually enter the work (never run for “Today”)

Problem: If you run it daily, and forget a day, that day’s work will not get recorded. Also, if one of your computers has the wrong date on it, you will have a HUGE mess.

General Ledger Date

Every history record has a field called “General Ledger Date” which is not visible to the user. When posting transactions, whether they are Payments, Production, Adjustments or Installments, that field is blank.

General Ledger Date

The button on the General Ledger screen that reads “Post to General Ledger” will look for all transactions that currently have a blank GL date, print a GL for them (ignoring whatever date range that may have been entered) and fill in the GL date with the current date.

General Ledger DateRunning by GL date for transfer to your accounting program is the best way to avoid double-counting or missing transactions. You would select the GL date range “From <blank date> To <blank date>”

Then you would hit the button to “Post to General Ledger”

Export to QuickBooks

You are now ready to Export to QuickBooks (do this before you “Post to General Ledger”)

Export to QuickBooks

SA will create a file with the extension “IIF” (Interchange File), which is the type of file that QuickBooks can import

We will need to say where we want to place this file and what to call it

Be consistent. You will need to find this file later

Let’s look at the file SA has created

Export to QuickBooksThe top area indicates which accounts are in this file. If QuickBooks does not have them already, they will be created automatically (notice that there are no account numbers)

The bottom area shows the dollar amounts (credit or debit) that will go into those accounts

Export to QuickBooks

Go to File –Utilities –Import (this will be different on different versions of QuickBooks)

You may need Administrator rights in QuickBooks to perform an import

Export to QuickBooks

You would then select the file that you created in your SA export

The date for these entries will be the current date, not broken down by SA transaction date, so you will probably wish to execute this procedure on a frequent basis, rather than monthly or quarterly.

Reconciling with Aging

Some people like to match the GL with their aging reports

Let’s go through the steps.

First, check the parameter setup

• Financial Parameters – Adjustments: Make sure that all credit adjustments credit your “Accounts Receivable” or “Prepaid Services” accounts (likewise with debits).

• Service Setup: Make sure that no services affect “Accounts Receivable” or “Prepaid Services”

Reconciling with Aging

You will run the Detailed Balance Analysis twice

First, run it as of the last day of the month previous to the month in question.  In this example, since we want July activity, we will run it as of 6/30

Reconciling with Aging

Secondly, we will run it as of the last day of the month in question (7/31)

Reconciling with Aging

We will then run the General Ledger

Use “Transaction Date” with the range being the beginning and ending dates of the month in question 

(7/1 – 7/31)

Reconciling with Aging

In looking at the Balance Analysis, we only care about the bottom box

Reconciling with Aging

As of 6/30, the net was <637.07>

In looking at the Balance Analysis, we only care about the bottom box

Reconciling with Aging

As of 7/31, the net was <257.69>

In looking at the Balance Analysis, we only care about the bottom box

Reconciling with Aging

Let’s do the math<257.69>

- <637.07>379.38

Which represents how much the customers’ balances should have changed during the month

Reconciling with Aging

In looking at the GL,

We need only look at the Accounts Receivable and Prepaid Services accounts

Reconciling with Aging

In looking at the GL,

Here we can see the total net of each account (<577.64> and 957.02)

This adds up to 379.38 (same as we calculated from the aging reports).

Reconciling with Aging