General Ledger Inquiry Screens

Welcome! General Ledger In this presentation you will learn the basics of the inquiry screens, setting up a new fund, a new packet reporting option, using recurring journal entries and electronic check reconciliation.

GL Main Menu Select Option #1 – Inquiry from the General Ledger Main Menu.

GL Search and Select Enter the division and fiscal year needed. Enter the account number you want to inquire on, or leave blank to scroll all accounts. You can also enter an account number to start scrolling from. You can also enter a screen number, account type or reporting sequence.

GL Inquiry Press <F5> to see the available screens.

GL Chart of Accounts Screen 1 – Chart of Accounts – The top half of the screen displays the division, fiscal year, ledger number, ledger type, account description and name.

GL Chart of Accounts Screen 1 – Chart of Accounts Account Type : Specifies the type of account and how the system will handle this account. The most common account types are: A-asset; L-liability; R-revenue; X-expense; B-equity; XX-dummy. Account types are defined in Office Manger, Account Type Definitions. Balance Sheet Type: This field should be blank. It is used for school bookkeeping only. No Manual Entry: A “Y” in this field means no manually-entered transactions are allowed on this account. “N” will allow manual entry.

GL Chart of Accounts Screen 1 – Chart of Accounts Dummy Account: A“Y” indicates that this is a dummy account. It could be used to duplicate or collection information from other accounts for easier access to complex information. Information entered on Dummy Accounts has no affect on the Balance Sheet and similar reports. A “N” indicates is not a dummy account. Profit/Loss Account: A “Y” indicates that this account should print on the Profit/Loss Statement. An “N” means it will not. [H]eader or [T]otal: Some accounts can be setup as header or total accounts to make reporting easier. They do not carry balances nor can transactions be posted to them. “H” indicates a header account. “T” a total.

GL Chart of Accounts Screen 1 – Chart of Accounts Total Number: Applies only to header and total accounts. The number entered here (1-10) represents how much data is covered by the header or total account. The smaller the number the more specific the total will be. Spaces After: This is the number of blank lines to be inserted after this account on reports. Subsystem Type: This is used to tie information about certain account numbers together. For example, you are using the Plant Accounting system and you enter “WO” (work orders) in this field on the construction in progress account. When an inventory control item is entered against this account it prompts the system to ask for the WO# associated with this item. Delete at year end: From time to time you will want to delete unused accounts. Enter a “Y” to delete this account at year end. This does not delete the history on the account. It just keeps if from rolling into the new Fiscal Year. Enter a “N” if the account should not be deleted.

GL Chart of Accounts Reporting Sequence: The reporting sequence can be used with many of the standard GL reports to group account numbers for reporting purposes. Contact the Support Center for more info. Commission Code: This is used with the Dataquest Receipting system and is used to determine how much commission (if any) should be diverted from this account. Commission Codes are defined in Office Manager. User defined Codes: These fields are no longer used. Access Codes: The account can have up to 10 access codes. This can be any alpha/numeric code. Access codes are used to limit user access to certain accounts. You would need to update the User Profile for any user(s) that do not need access to this account, with this same code. Reporting Sequence 2-5: Like the reporting sequence mentioned above, these can be used to further sequence the accounts for reporting purposes.

GL Ledger Links Screen 2 - Ledger Links – This screen displays any linking information about the account. It is possible within the GL system to post a transaction to account X and have the system automatically generate that same transaction for account Y. For example, this account is setup so that all transactions that hit the account also make an auto entry to ledger number 100.-11130. This option is most often used by County Governments.

GL Ledger Links Act (Action): his field determines the action the transaction will have on the linked account. “S”=same or “O”= opposite. If the original transaction is a debit and you enter “S”, the transaction on the linked account will be a debit also. Or if you were to enter “O” the transaction on the linked account would become a credit. In order for this option to work, it must be answered “S” or “O”. Only Trans: If left blank all transaction types will create an entry. Or you can specify only certain transaction types like CR (cash receipt), JE (journal entry), MR (misc. receipts) etc. Sup Det (Suppress Detail): If answered “Y” the transaction will post to the linked account, but will not display any detail or description about the transaction. If answered “N” the transaction will post to the linked account with detail and description. “N” is recommended.

GL Ledger Links Sum (Summarize): If answered “Y” all transactions of a given type will be grouped together/summarized into a single transaction on the linked account. “N” will post each transaction individually to the linked account. “N” is recommended. Sup Ver (Suppress Verification): If answered “Y” the system will ignore these linked transactions in the GL Packet Verification process. “N” will cause them to appear in the verification process. “Y” is recommended since most of these transactions will be considered one-sided entries. Div (Division): Enter the Division for this entry to hit. Ledger: Enter Ledger number for this entry to hit. You can enter up to 12 links on each account.

GL Period Balances Screen 3 displays Balances by Period. Enter the period wanted in the Period to Process field. You then have several options at the bottom of the screen to select from. We will start with Balances. Press <F3> - Balances.

GL Period Balances <F3> displays the balances for the period selected. The left side of the screen is the current period. The right side shows the YTD balances. You can use the up/down arrow keys to advance to different periods.

GL Account Analysis Press <F4> from screen 03 for Account Analysis by period. This lists all transactions for the period with the running balance. From this screen you can jump to Accounts Payable. Press <F5> for AP History or <F6> for AP Invoice inquiry.

GL Encumbrance Analysis Press <F6> from screen 03 for Encumbrance Analysis by period. This lists all EC transactions for the period. From this screen you can also jump to Accounts Payable. Press <F5> for AP History or <F6> for AP Invoice inquiry.

GL YTD Transactions Press <F7> from screen 3 for YTD Transactions. This lists all transactions for the year.

The previous screens can also be accessed by keying in the screen number from the available screens list. These examples were done from screen 3 – Balances by Period using the function keys on the bottom of the screen.

GL Statement of Accounts Screen 07-Statement of Accounts is a summary of YTD activity on the account. On revenue and expense accounts it shows budget, realized/available and percentage info. On asset and liability accounts it shows beginning/ending balance and debits/credits.

GL Budgets Screen 08 – Budgets – displays budget information for the current and previous fiscal years. It also shows any information in the budget prep fields.

Do you ever need to inquire on an account in different fiscal years? We are all accustomed to inquiring on the first year, then having to escape to the Search & Select screen, press the up arrow key, type in the next fiscal year and re-key the account number. Screen 9 – Balances by Year is a time saver!

GL Balances by Year Screen 09 – Balances by Year The heading displays the last four fiscal years. You can inquire on any of these years without escaping back to the search/select screen!

GL Balances by Year Screen 09 – Balances by Year Use the Col-Pd to select the month/year you wish to see. The first number represents the column/fiscal year. Column 1=2003, 2=2002, 3-2001, 4=2000. The second number is the period or month. In this first example we are going to look at June 2003. To do so we enter 1-12. This highlights the month.

GL Balances by Year Screen 09 – Balances by Year You can now use any of the function keys on the bottom of the screen. Press <F4> for account analysis.

GL Balances by Year This lists all transactions for the period with the running balance. From this screen you can jump to Accounts Payable. Press <F5> for AP History or <F6> for AP Invoice inquiry.

GL Period Balances In our second example, we will look at December 2002. In the Col-Pd enter 2-6, 2 being the column/fiscal year and 6 the period/month. Notice it highlights the month/year selected.

GL Period Balances Press <F4> for Account Analysis. This lists all transactions for the period 12/2001 with the running balance. From this screen you can jump to Accounts Payable. Press <F5> for AP History or <F6> for AP Invoice inquiry.

This completes General Ledger Inquiry Thank You ! This presentation and many more are available on the Local Government website http://faq.lgdpc.com/ Note: You can close this window to return to LGDPC’s How-To Presentations Page.