Part 2 of 2: Avoid dealing with data problems later—keep your AccountMate data cleaned up 
 
In Part 1, we covered data that can cause problems over time: old open entries that pile up and turn into something bigger. Today we’re covering the other key type of anomaly in your company’s AccountMate data that can cause problems over time: the data that keeps your Balance Sheet healthy. 

Why is data cleaning important?

If you rely on reports to see how your company is doing, but the reports use data that’s not accurate, you get inaccurate information about the state of your business. 

Suppose you run a report to see how much money you have in your inventory assets. A wrong answer there can impact your decision about whether you can afford a capital expenditure that you’re considering, or whether you need to talk to your bank about increasing your line of credit.

Accidental data errors that put your accounts out of balance

When you discover that your accounts are out of balance as you’re trying to close your fiscal year or file taxes, suddenly you have to stop everything to solve it, at a time when you don’t really have time for that! 

Or, your CPA does a big journal entry to force it to balance but that hides the problem. You don’t learn how the data got that way and whether that problem will continue to happen.

When is the last time you balanced? 

If it’s been awhile, the solution is to get everything in sync and then balance monthly, not annually. Some benefits of routine balancing are:

• Troubleshooting is much easier because you only have to sift through the month of data that came after the last time everything was in balance.
• You can stop process problems (for example, a new employee may be doing something incorrectly) before an entire year of data errors accumulates without anyone noticing.
• You can reduce the likelihood of big surprises when you do physical inventory counts.

The main things you want to validate

Run reports to check that the data matches for each of these:

1. Compare AR Aging to the AR GL account
2. Compare AP Aging to the AP GL account
3. Compare Inventory Quantity Listing to the GL Inventory Balance

Tip: It’s always dangerous to try to validate the Balance Sheet with reports run with the History Aging “as of” option, because “void dates” can be in different periods than the original transaction. Since voiding transactions may remove details of that transaction, when reports are run for prior dates it’s possible the transactions won’t show but the reversing entry to GL of the void didn’t hit until later. Thus, always use Current Aging reports!

How do you find the needle in the haystack when something’s out of balance?

It can be hard to find the root of the problem. It often links back to an easy mistake that anyone could make. Examples include:

• Somebody typo-ed a fiscal year into the past or even the future. Tip: As you balance monthly, restrict periods to only “the current month” to prevent simple mis-keys.
• You accrue received goods but when the AP invoice comes in you don’t reverse the accrued received goods.
• You enter an AP invoice and code it to the AP account, but you put the expense in the AP account instead of the expense account.
• You have GL journal entries hitting the validated accounts (such as cash).
• You have AP invoices posting directly to your inventory asset.

 

Start by looking for the amount of the difference with Reports > Transaction Search. On a good day, just one transaction for the amount that you’re off is the root of the problem.

The next option is to comb through Reports > General Ledger Listing for the offending account and verify every line item against the transactional reports (not the Transfer to GL report) in the subsidiary module. It’s important to *not* have your GL Accounts set to Transfer as Summary (as defined on the Chart of Accounts Maintenance screen) so you have visibility into the details of the transactions in GL.

If you have one you can’t solve, reach out. It’s easier for us since we’ve seen many examples of many types. If you need help establishing the steps for period end closing, contact iSOFT with your questions or request training.

Like the ocean, you just can’t turn your back on your Balance Sheet. Validating it monthly will keep you on top of the issues and your data, so that the bottom line of your Income Statement will be correct and your next year-end closing will be simpler.

AccountMate and iSOFT offer a discount for multi-year Lifecycle Software Maintenance Plan renewals

The regular formula for calculating your lifecycle maintenance is 25% of the retail value of the AccountMate software you have.

But if you renew for 2-5 years, then starting in year 2 you pay only 22.5%, saving you 2.5% on years 2 through 5.

The Lifecycle Software Maintenance Plan provides a cost-effective and easily budgeted way to satisfy many aspects of system support and maintenance.

The benefits of the Lifecycle plan are substantial as it provides all version and build updates to your system, significant discounts if changing platform (such as LAN to SQL, or SQL to Enterprise), on-demand access to online e-Learning videos, one seat per year in the Core Product Training class at AccountMate’s headquarters in northern California, plus telephone and e-mail support direct from AccountMate.

The Lifecycle plan is an excellent way to ensure compatibility with current Microsoft server/desktop operating systems and applications as most companies upgrade “every other” or “every third” build.

Also it allows businesses to “expense” their software cost on an annual basis and depreciate it.

The next Core Product Training class at AccountMate’s headquarters in Petaluma, California, is scheduled for Wednesday-Friday, June 19-21, 2019.

The three days of classroom training is applicable to both first-time and existing AccountMate users—and don’t forget that if you have an active Lifecycle Maintenance Plan, it includes one seat per year so your only cost would be travel expenses.

Contact us for additional information and see the course description here.

 

The General Ledger Listing (GL Listing) report is a useful tool to verify each GL Account ID’s debit and credit transactions, posted from the General Ledger module or transferred from subsidiary modules.

This report includes four-character “Transaction Type Codes,” which indicate exactly what caused the particular posting, and are detailed in Article #1192: Understanding the Transaction Type Codes in the General Ledger Listing.

Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express
AM9.3 for SQL, Express, and LAN

Module: AR

TIP: AccountMate 9.3 for SQL, Express, and LAN introduced a feature that provides users the option to automatically apply the open credit to a customer’s outstanding invoices after recording a sales return. The Create Sales Return dialog box has an Apply Payment button, which you can click to display the Apply Payment function. You can expect the following behavior in the Apply Payment function:

• If you are recording a sales return with an invoice #, then the open credit will be automatically applied to the invoice for which the sales return was recorded.
• If you are recording a sales return without an invoice #, then the open credit amount will be automatically shown in the Unapply Amt field. This amount can be applied to any of the customer’s outstanding invoices.

Note: The default open credit amounts can be overwritten and the open credit application is not committed until you save the transaction.

Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express
AM9 for SQL, Express, and LAN
AM8 for SQL, Express, and LAN

Module: MI

Q: I have old work orders in AccountMate where their status is not yet “Complete.” Some of them have a Finished Qty that is not equal to the Mfg Qty. I do not want to further post a finished job for these work orders. How can I mark them “Complete” in AccountMate?

A: Perform the following to complete the work orders:

1. Access the Post Finished Job function.
2. Select the By WO # option; then enter the applicable Work Order #.
3. Enter the applicable Master Item #.
4. Enter zero (o) in the Finish Qty field.
5. Click Save. A dialog box will be displayed asking you, “Is the job completely finished?”
6. Click Yes to mark the work order “Complete.”
7. Repeat the above steps for all work orders that you want to mark “Complete.”
8. Run the Work Order Status Report and select the Completed Jobs Only option to verify that the work order was marked “Complete.”

Note: There may be other dialog boxes that will be displayed after Step 6; select the appropriate answers to complete the process.