> General Ledger Introduction

General Ledger Introduction

The General Ledger module enables complete enterprise-wide financial recording, analysis and reporting from all aspects of the business to facilitate the management of corporate performance and monitor return on investment.

It is designed to be flexible and easy-to-use, allowing you to design financial reports in virtually any format and sequence. Reporting is simple, yet extensive by using the built-in Financial Report Writer, or by passing the information to a number of third-party software products. It supports unlimited history. The query is extensive with impressive graphic and drill down capabilities. Up to 10 different budgets can be defined.

The General Ledger normally stores all values in local currency, but you can optionally have up to 10 alternative currency ledgers within the General Ledger system for reporting purposes.

Configuring General Ledger

This task outlines the procedures you should follow to set up your General Ledger module before you begin to process transactions.

Some of these steps are optional and depend on how you intend implementing this module.

  1. Navigate to the GL Groups program and define the group codes required. These are defined against the ledger codes and provide an alternative method of grouping your accounts (other than by account type). They can also be used as a selection and sequencing tool for viewing and printing your ledger accounts.

  2. If you want to use alternate currency General Ledgers, then:

    1. Navigate to the GL Groups program and define the revaluation categories required. Revaluation categories enable you to revalue any of the alternate currency ledgers based on a category that is optionally assigned to ledger accounts.

    2. Navigate to the GL Alternative Currency Setup program and create the General Ledgers in alternate reporting currencies.

  3. If you require General Ledger analysis, then navigate to the GL Analysis Categories and Codes program and define the General Ledger analysis categories required.

  1. You can define your General Ledger account codes as structured or unstructured.

    1. Using structured GL account codes:

      • Navigate to the GL Structure Definition program and define the structure you require for your GL codes.

      • Navigate to the GL Structure Access program and define the access rights for operators to query and post to structured General Ledger codes.

      • Navigate to the General Ledger Codes program and define the General Ledger account codes according to your chart of accounts.

    2. Using unstructured GL account codes:

      • Navigate to the General Ledger Codes program and define the General Ledger account codes according to your chart of accounts.

  2. General Ledger Integration

    Navigate to the General Ledger Integration program and indicate the following General Ledger control accounts:

    • Forced balance account

    • Retained earnings account

  3. General Ledger Setup

    Define the Configuration, Preferences, Financial Periods and History setup options you require for General Ledger.

  4. Use the GL Journal Entry program to take on the balances from your current General Ledger system. These become the opening balances for your SYSPRO General Ledger.

  5. Use the GL Trial Balance program to generate a summary Trial Balance to ensure that the closing balances from your previous system agree to the opening balances for your SYSPRO General Ledger system. Retain this report for your auditors.

  6. Navigate to the GL Initial History program to take on a history of balances for selected ledger codes over a number of previous ledger years.

  7. Navigate to the GL Journal Source Codes program to create and maintain the source codes to assign to User-defined Journals entered using the GL Journal Entry program.

  8. Navigate to the GL Weighted Transfer program to define the General Ledger weighted transfer rules for transferring balances from a source account to multiple destination accounts based on a predetermined criteria when using the GL Weighted Transfer Processing program.

  9. Navigate to the GL Standard Journals program to create the standard journals required.

    These are normally used when the ledger values continually change but the ledger codes stay the same.

    This can be done at a later stage.

  10. Navigate to the GL Recurring Journals program to create the recurring journals required. This can be done at a later stage.

    These journals are typically created for entries that need to be posted on a regular, automatic basis where the ledger codes and amounts do not change each time the journal is posted.

    This can be done at a later stage.

General Ledger Period End Processing

The following sections outline the procedures you should follow to ensure that the integrity of the General Ledger system is maintained.

Pre-month end reporting

  1. Ensure your daily procedures for General Ledger are complete.

  2. Ensure that all entries are posted from the sub-ledgers. The sub ledgers for the period are typically closed before you close the General Ledger.

  3. Ensure that all journals are posted. This includes sub ledger journals, normal journals, recurring journals, user defined journals, inter-company journals, period end adjustments, auditor's adjustments, statistical adjustments and alternate currency journals.

    You can generate a report of all unposted journals and journals on hold using the GL Journal Entry program. Unposted journals will cause the period end for the General Ledger to fail.

  4. Generate a summary Trial Balance report using the GL Trial Balance program and ensure that the report balances and that the Forced Balance account has a zero balance.

  5. Optionally reprint the GL Journal Report for the month for audit trail purposes. This report can also be generated after the period end is processed.

  6. Generate the financial reports required.

Month end close

[Note]

It is strongly recommended that you take a backup of your data before processing a Month end, a Year end, a Purge or Set 1099 accumulated net payments to zeros.

After you have completed the pre-month end reporting process:

  1. Select the Period end only or Period end and purge option from the GL Period End program to close off the current General Ledger period and to enable you to process transactions for the following period.

  2. Indicate the After processing completed options you require.

  3. Select Start Processing.

  4. Check the final page of the report produced to ensure that the month end was completed without errors.

  5. Run the GL Company Control Balances program and check the Posting Information to verify that the period number now reflects the new period.