SAGE ACCPAC. Sage Accpac ERP. General Ledger 5.5A. Update Notice

Transcription

1 SAGE ACCPAC Sage Accpac ERP General Ledger 5.5A Update Notice

2 2008 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Sage Software, Sage Software logos, and all Sage Accpac product and service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc., or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Sage Software, Inc. Publisher No part of this documentation may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, microfilmed, or otherwise duplicated on any medium without written consent of Sage Software, Inc. Use of the software programs described herein and this documentation is subject to the Sage Software License Agreement enclosed in the software package.

3 Contents Requirements...1 General Ledger Documentation...1 Before Installing the General Ledger Update...2 Installing General Ledger Changes in General Ledger New FR Statements...4 New Balance Sheet Summaries...4 New Financial Analysis Statements...4 New Forecasting Statement...5 New Income Statement Summaries...5 More Segments, Account Structures, Budgets, and Years of History...6 G/L Security Installs with G/L...7 Designate Rollup Accounts...7 Cautions...8 Support for Recognized Gain/Loss Revaluation Method...9 Revaluation Codes...9 Create Revaluation Batch...10 Other Changes in G/L Changes or Additions to the Online Help...11 Features Added in General Ledger Changes to G/L Account Groups...13 Automatic Batch Posting...13 Changes to G/L Reports...14 Changes to FR...14 Other Features Added or Changed in G/L Version 5.5 Update Notice iii

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5 Sage Accpac General Ledger Version 5.5 Update Notice This Update Notice outlines the improvements and additions in version 5.5 of General Ledger. Requirements General Ledger 5.5A requires: System Manager 5.5A, or later. General Ledger Documentation The Sage Accpac ERP 5.5 DVD includes the following General Ledger 5.5 documentation in the \DOCS folder: General Ledger Update Notice General Ledger Getting Started General Ledger User Guide Financial Reporter User Guide Financial Reporter Quick Reference When you install General Ledger, you also install the following General Ledger documents in the \DOCS folder where Sage Accpac ERP programs are installed (for example, Sage Software\Sage Accpac\DOCS\GL55AENG): README.wri contains specialized information about the program. Version 5.5 Update Notice 1

6 Before Installing the General Ledger Update GLTECHINFO.wri describes database tables, and changes to the General Ledger database or reports. GL SETUP.pdf is a checklist that lists the steps for setting up the General Ledger program. For a description of all the documentation included with General Ledger, refer to Chapter 1 of the Getting Started guide. New program features For information about the new features and other changes in General Ledger 5.5, see Changes in General Ledger, later in this notice. Before Installing the General Ledger Update Before installing the General Ledger update, take the following steps: Copy Customized Financial Reports. If you created customized financial reports, make sure that you copy them from the old General Ledger program subdirectory before you delete it. (For example, copy any customized financial reports from GL54A\ENG to another location, and then copy them to GL55A\ENG after installing the upgrade.) Process and Post Revaluation Batches. You should process and post your revaluation batches prior to upgrading to G/L 5.5 because you cannot activate G/L 5.5 when unprocessed revaluation records exist in Create Revaluation Batch. Post Batches Created by Unrealized Gain/Loss Method. If you are switching to the new Recognized Gain/Loss accounting method, it is best to post the old batches before installing the General Ledger upgrade. Get Activation Code. Before installing the General Ledger upgrade, you should get your program activation code from Sage Software, Inc. 2 Sage Accpac General Ledger

7 Installing General Ledger 5.5 Read System Manager Update Notice. For more information about installing and activating Sage Accpac ERP programs, and for getting activation codes, read the System Manager Update Notice and the System Manager Administrator Guide. Install System Manager. You must install and activate System Manager version 5.5 before you activate General Ledger 5.5. Installing General Ledger 5.5 Refer to the System Manager 5.5 Update Notice for information about: System requirements. Compatibility with prior versions. Installation and activation instructions, including what you need to do before and after installation, as well as the exact order in which to activate Sage Accpac ERP applications. Changes in General Ledger 5.5 With version 5.5, there have been changes or additions to: There are sixteen new FR statements. For details, see page 4. G/L Security is now installed with General Ledger. For details, see page 7. You can now designate an account as a rollup account to which you can add member accounts. For details, see page 7. Revaluation has been enhanced with support for the Recognized Gain/Loss foreign currency translation method. For details, see page 9. Version 5.5 Update Notice 3

8 Changes in General Ledger 5.5 New FR Statements G/L accounts in Sample Data have been updated with new account group codes that can be used by the following new FR reports. New Balance Sheet Summaries Balsum01.xls. Summary of the balance sheet as amounts and as a percentage of total assets/liabilities, printed on separate pages. Balsum02.xls. Summary of the balance sheet as amounts and as a percentage of total assets/liabilities, with a graph placed in a fixed area of the spreadsheet on a separate page. The Balsum02.xls report is updated from data generated at fixed cell locations by Financial Reporter. The generated report may not reflect correct information when generating with the report option. Also, labels on charts in different versions of Excel may be located in different positions. Balsum03.xls. Summary of the balance sheet for the period specified by users. Balsum04.xls. Summary of the balance sheet for the current and previous years. Additionally, the report prints variances between the current and previous years numbers (in amount and percentage), on the same page. Balsum05.xls. Summary of the actual and budgeted balance sheet for the current year. Additionally, the report prints variances between the actual and budgeted numbers (in amount and percentage), on the same page. New Financial Analysis Statements Finratio01.xls: financial ratios for the current period, grouped into five main categories. Finratio02.xls: financial ratios of the company and financial ratios of an average company in the same industry (benchmarks), and variances between those ratios. 4 Sage Accpac General Ledger

9 Changes in General Ledger 5.5 Finratio03.xls: financial ratios of the company, compares them with benchmarks, and displays the results in graphical format. The Finratio03.xls report is not generated by Financial Reporter, but is from data generated from fixed cell locations, and may not reflect correct information when generating with the report option. Also, labels on charts in different versions of Excel may be located in different positions. Finratio04.xls: financial ratios of the company for the current and previous years, and variances between them. Finratio05.xls: financial ratios of the company for the current and previous years, and benchmarks, displayed in graphical format. New Forecasting Statement Forecast.xls: Allows you to create forecasts and to perform what if analyses, with a summary of the income statement and balance sheet for the current and previous years. Additionally, the report prints a forecast of the income statement and balance sheet for the next three years. The forecast is based on the percentage of sales revenue growth. New Income Statement Summaries Incsum01.xls: Summary of the income statement as amounts, and, on separate pages, displays all amounts as a percentage of sales revenue. Incsum02.xls: Summary of the income statement in the regular format (as amounts), displaying percentages of total revenue in graphical format. The Incsum02.xls report is not generated by Financial Reporter, but is from data generated from fixed cell locations, and may not reflect correct information when generating with the report option. Also, labels on charts in Version 5.5 Update Notice 5

10 Changes in General Ledger 5.5 different versions of Excel may be located in different positions. Incsum03.xls: Summary of the income statement for a specified period. Incsum04.xls: Summary of the income statement for current and previous years. Incsum05.xls: Summary of the actual and budgeted income statement for the current year. More Segments, Account Structures, Budgets, and Years of History With this version, the following changes have been made to: Number of Account Segments: In Sage Accpac 100, you can now add 3 segments. In Sage Accpac 200, you can now add 4 segments. Number of Account Structures: In Sage Accpac 100, you can now add 3 account structures. In Sage Accpac 200, you can now add 4 account structures. Number of Budgets: In Sage Accpac 100, you can now have 2 budgets. In Sage Accpac 200, you can now have 3 budgets. Number of Years of History: In Sage Accpac 100, you can now accesss up to 7 years of history. In Sage Accpac 200, you can now accesss up to 7 years of history. 6 Sage Accpac General Ledger

11 Changes in General Ledger 5.5 G/L Security Installs with G/L G/L Security is no longer a separately licensed product. With version 5.5, it is installed with General Ledger and is included in General Ledger activation. As before, to use G/L Security, you choose the Use G/L Security option on the Account tab of G/L Options, then close and reopen your company database. (The Account Permissions icon is located in the G/L Accounts folder.) Designate Rollup Accounts You can now designate an account as a rollup account to which you can add member accounts. You will be able to create multiple levels of account relationships. Note: This feature is available only in the Sage Accpac 500 ERP version of the product. You can print rollup information on the following reports: Chart of Accounts: The Rollup Accounts report is an additional selection in the Report Format field on the Chart of Accounts report. The Rollup Account/Members report displays all rollup accounts and their directly related rollup member accounts. The Rollup Accounts/Rollup Accounts report on the Chart of Accounts report displays the member accounts only if it has parent rollup accounts. The Fiscal Set Comparison Report has an option to include rolled up amounts. Transactions Listing report. Trial Balance reports. Version 5.5 Update Notice 7

12 Changes in General Ledger 5.5 FR has been enhanced to include the following: Rollup commands in FRAMT, FRAMTA, FRDEBIT, FRCREDIT. The rollup command has a prefix of R (for example, FRAMT(ʺRBALPʺ). RD consolidation switch (for rollup account detail) to show only the top level rollup accounts within the selected range. Cautions You should be aware of the following when setting up rollup groups: Parent/Child A parent account cannot be a child of itself. That is, when you create a rollup group, you cannot add the top account as a member of that same group. New accounts New accounts do not get added automatically to existing rollup groups. Prohibit Posting option When you prohibit posting to a rollup account, you can still post to that account in other ledgers (A/R, A/P etc), but not in G/L. Security rights Be aware that if a user is granted security rights to view a parent account, they also will be able to view the member accounts in the group. Member of multiple groups An account can be a member of more than one rollup group. Double balances Be careful how you set up the rollup groups so as to avoid double balances in reports. 8 Sage Accpac General Ledger

13 Changes in General Ledger 5.5 Support for Recognized Gain/Loss Revaluation Method We now support the Recognized Gain/Loss foreign currency translation method. Exchange gains and losses will be recognized when the foreign currency monetary items are revalued or settled using the exchange rate in effect. Fluctuations in exchange rates are considered permanent. Exchange gains and losses will be shown on the income statement and will be included in the determination of net income for the current period. Exchange gains or losses recognized in one fiscal period (at the time of the balance sheet date) will not be reversed in the next fiscal period. Exchange gains or losses resulting from revaluation and settlement must be shown on the Income Statement and are taxable immediately. Post old batches before upgrading to G/L 5.5 You should process and post your revaluation batches prior to upgrading to G/L 5.5. Otherwise, you won t be able to activate G/L 5.5 when unprocessed revaluation records exist in the Create Revaluation Batch. Also, if you want to switch to the new Recognized Gain/Loss accounting method, it is best to post the old batches before upgrading. See Switch Currency Translation Methods in the Tasks book of General Ledger help. Revaluation Codes If the Recognized Gain/Loss method is selected in the Company Profile in Common Services, the field labels for G/L accounts are changed on the G/L Revaluation form as follows: Unrealized Exchange Gain Account changes to Exchange Gain Account. Version 5.5 Update Notice 9

14 Changes in General Ledger 5.5 Unrealized Exchange Loss Account changes to Exchange Loss Account. To create a revaluation batch, G/L accounts must be assigned to the revaluation codes. Create Revaluation Batch The Revaluation process will: Calculate new functional currency values for each specified source currency using the specified exchange rates. Create a batch with revaluation transactions that will adjust the original functional currency values to new functional currency values for the specified account(s). Other Changes in G/L 5.5 Multi-user entry/posting Changes to multi user entry and posting: Batches are not allowed to be posted if it is being edited by someone or if data is being poured into it (import, generation). Batches can be posted concurrently. Multiple users can now enter entries in the same batch. If both of them add the same entry at the same time, the program will attempt to assign the other entry to a different one. Security permission You must set the batch status as Ready to Post before you can post a batch, therefore, you need the Set Batch Ready to Post security right. Separate rights Journal Posting rights and Journal Entry rights are now separated: 10 Sage Accpac General Ledger

15 Changes in General Ledger 5.5 Allows better separation of duties so that when a user is assigned Journal Posting rights only, the system will not automatically assign Journal Entry rights to them. Journal Posting rights gives access to Post Batches and inquiries associated with posted transactions. Journal Entry rights are not automatically given when Journal Posting is assigned to a user. Create Recurring Entries Batch enhancement Create Recurring Entries Batch has been enhanced to include options for creating the recurring entries in a new batch or appending to an existing batch. Security permission A new security permission, Dashboard, has been added as a security access for customization of the dashboard Website and for future versions of dashboards. If you have access to G/L Dashboard, you will be able to access dashboard pages (if any) based on data stored in General Ledger. Changes to FRACCT The FR function, FRACCT, has been changed. In G/L 5.4, if the field name for this function was ACCTGRPCOD, the return formatted/unformatted value was the Account Group code. With version 5.5, when you request a formatted value, the function returns the Account Group description. When you request an unformatted value, the function will return the Account Group code. Changes or Additions to the Online Help Feedback You can now send feedback directly to writers of Help topics. Click the feedback link at the bottom of Help pages to open your e mail program and start a new message addressed to our documentation team. You write your comments in the body of the message. Version 5.5 Update Notice 11

16 Features Added in General Ledger 5.4 Tasks-oriented links Look for a new heading in the Help Contents called ʺWhat do you want to do?ʺ Under this heading are subheadings for groups of tasks you can perform, such as Maintain Accounts, or Enter and Post Transactions. Each task will have a Help topic. Topics for particular tasks, for example, Add a New Account, or Edit a Batch provide step by step instructions for performing the task. They may also include steps you need to complete before or after the task, and links to related topics, as well as additional information pertinent to that task. Changes to the table of contents When you open a System Manager online Help topic, you will see Help folders for all activated Sage Accpac ERP applications (G/L, A/R, I/C, etc) at the bottom of the System Manager Help table of contents. Each application has its own folder, containing the complete set of Help topics for that application. This allows you to do a quick search for a topic in General Ledger for example without having to open General Ledger itself. The following sections describe changes or additions to General Ledger that occurred in version 5.4. Features Added in General Ledger 5.4 ACCPAC Advantage Series General Ledger is now Sage Accpac ERP General Ledger. ACCPAC Advantage Series Enterprise Edition is now Sage Accpac 500 ERP. ACCPAC Advantage Series Corporate Edition is now Sage Accpac 200 ERP. ACCPAC Advantage Series Small Business Edition is now Sage Accpac 100 ERP. 12 Sage Accpac General Ledger

17 Features Added in General Ledger 5.4 Changes to G/L Account Groups You can now create an unlimited number of your own account groups to assign to General Ledger accounts. You can change the descriptions of the standard account groups that are shipped with G/L to personalize them for your own business. Account group codes can have a maximum of 12 characters. You can now delete account groups you created or delete any of the standard ones shipped with G/L that you are not using. There is a new standard blank account group, with the description, ʺUnclassified Account Groupʺ, with a Sort Code of ZZZZZZZZZZZZ. If you do not wish to specify the account group when creating an account, you can choose this group. If Use Account Groups is unchecked in the G/L Conversion dialog box when you convert from ACCPAC Plus for DOS, all accounts converted will have a blank account group, which is the default account group. Conversion checks that the 16 account groups are in the table; if they are not, the conversion process creates them. To print reports displaying some account groups but not others (for example, account groups that are not in consecutive order), you can now give the same sort code to all account groups in a set, specify that you want to print by sort code order, and then choose the sort code you assigned to that set. Automatic Batch Posting Batches from other applications will be posted automatically when you choose Creating and Posting a New Batch as the Create G/L Batches By option in G/L Integration forms. Version 5.5 Update Notice 13

18 Features Added in General Ledger 5.4 Changes to G/L Reports You can now exclude accounts with no activity when printing the Chart of Accounts report. The Batch Listing report now includes the General Ledger Account Description. In a multicurrency database, if you select Functional Currency, you can also include Reference and Description details and Comments details. This is also the case when you select the Source and Functional currency option; however, if you then select the Letter/A4 paper type, you cannot include these details, as those options will not be available. You can sort the following reports by account group sort code when you select the option, ʺSelect Account Groups by Sort Code Rangeʺ: Chart of Accounts report Trial Balance report Transactions Listing report Source Journals report Transaction Details Optional Fields report Create Accounts Preview report. In the Batch Listing report, you can include the reference and description detail lines and comment detail line. Changes to FR FR can now sort by account group code using \\acctgroup, or by account sorted group, using \\acctgroupsort. FR can also consolidate using D(acctgroup) and p(acctgroup) for account group, or using D(acctgroupsort) and P(acctgroupsort) for account sorted group. 14 Sage Accpac General Ledger

19 Features Added in General Ledger 5.4 You can sort the following by account group sort code by selecting the new option, ʺSelect Account Groups by Sort Code Rangeʺ: G/L Financial Statement Designer. G/L Print Financial Statements. Other Features Added or Changed in G/L 5.4 You can now set an optional field as Required without also requiring a default value. Note though, that the Auto Insert option for the required optional field must be set to Yes for a Required optional field. View the year to be created in Create New Year. Account optional fields and values can now be displayed in Finders: Any screen that has a Finder for G/L accounts will have support for optional fields. To use this feature, click Settings in the Finder, then click Columns to open the Columns selection box (shown below). Then include your defined optional fields in the Selected list. Version 5.5 Update Notice 15

20 Features Added in General Ledger 5.4 The following displays two optional fields (Cash Flow Type and Account Class) in the Finder after the Columns selection box is closed: Values assigned to these optional fields are also displayed. Account History and Transaction History the GO button is no longer used as the data you are inquiring about automatically appears in the grid after changing input fields. 16 Sage Accpac General Ledger