The Accounting of Buying/Selling a Company

Dear Clients,

A change in client corporate ownership is something we deal with pretty regularly here at NexLAN, so we’re familiar with the accounting implications.

When it’s a sale of assets rather than a transfer of corporate stock ownership, this gets a little more complex than “just make a new copy of the company at time of ownership change.” So, from not-your-CPA <grin>, here’s a list of considerations as we make a new-company snapshot of your accounting system.

Questions for you, and steps we’ll take based on your answers

• Is your fiscal calendar changing?
• Are there changes to your chart of accounts?
• We’ll need to reset the Income Statement values to zero.
• I expect we’re bringing over your open SOs & POs, but how about open AP (usually not), open AR (sometimes), and inventory quantities (usually yes)? For AR, do you want us to exclude invoices that are way past due? For inventory, do we transfer all items and quantities, or is there “old stock” excluded? Then how about accrued received goods?
• I’ve never seen a change in ownership take place without a physical inventory count, so be prepared for that to happen.
• You can get started well before the change in ownership by cleaning up your Open Sales Orders and Open Purchase Orders—voiding those that are “way old” and will never materialize.
• There’s always major changes to the Balance Sheet as assets and liabilities are re-valued and equity is reset, so don’t expect a “direct transfer” from your prior company.
• If you’re running payroll in-house, we’ll need to reset all employee YTD values to zero, as the rest of the calendar year will be reported on W-2/W-3 from the new entity. Also need to reset payroll tax remittance reporting.
• Also, are employees accumulated benefit time rolling forward? Usually the prior ownership pays out accrued benefit time and the new company doesn’t assume that liability – but this could go either way.
• We’ll need to reset vendor 1099 accumulations, sales tax reporting and remittance values.
• What are your new bank account details? We’ll need to create the new bank account(s) and assign to the vendors and paycodes in your system.
• If you’re using “blank check stock”, we’ll need your new bank accounts routing and account number. If you’re not, you’ll need to order preprinted check stock with that info.
• If your new bank requires “positive pay” right off the bat, we’ll need their format.
• if you’ll be paying vendors via ACH, we need your banks format for that too.
• Do you use integrated solutions now that need to move with you—for credit card processing, or UPS/FedEx/USPS shipping, or EDI, or eCommerce, or import/export certifications, or government registrations, etc.?
• What’s your new company FEIN? We’ll need to change that in your system, and probably the company logo and name (include “dba”?) on customer-facing and vendor-facing documents.
• Are all your system users staying the same? We’ll need to update user permissions so that daily users of the system can’t access the prior/historical company.
• How about access by the prior ownership? They need the prior data to be able to wind down the historical company and, if you don’t want them in your new company’s system, would require licensing another copy of the system and porting their data into it.

As you can tell, this is a pretty involved process for which DETAILED answers are required and the actual switchover has to happen quickly—often, literally, overnight—so the sooner we get the information discovery process in motion the better.

And, as always, NexLAN is standing by in the cornfields to assist!

Regards,

Kevin E. Stroud
kestrou@nexlan.com
NexLAN, LLC
https://nexlan.com

AccountMate: New Inventory Aging Report

We regularly get client requests for a report that shows which of their on-hand items are selling fast, versus which items are collecting dust in their bins (and tying up the company’s cash).

Clients want a way to periodically look for needed adjustments to their purchasing, or to their manufacturing policies, to better optimize inventory levels and cash flow.

For example, if they purchased 1 million units of an item at a good price, even if the item’s selling well at 5,000 units per month it will take years to sell all those units. Maybe that’s no problem and was part of the original plan. Or maybe that item used to move a lot faster and now it’s slowed down, and they’d want to be made aware of this sooner rather than later, so they can take a fresh look at ways to sell some of it off now.

Thanks to the recent new AccountMate SQL and Express v13.2, this no longer requires a custom report, as the <Inventory Aging Report> is built into the Inventory Control Module. Woot!

Steps to use the new reports to determine how old your on-hand inventory is

1. Verify that you’re running AccountMate SQL V13.2 or higher (your version shows in the tippy top left of the AccountMate application when it’s running).
2. Columns in the report will be on user-defined “Aging Range Days” as entered under <Housekeeping><IC Module Setup>.
3. Then hit <Reports><Inventory Report><Inventory Aging Report> which has several sort-by and filter options including Item #, Item Class, Product Line, and Warehouse. Importantly it includes options of

• “Age by Inventory On-hand Qty” to determine how many units of your on-hand inventory belong to a specific Age category.
• “Age by Inventory Cost” to determine the total cost of inventory that falls within a specific Age category. This is super-cool as you might not care if you have a million paperclips in inventory, which are outweighed in value by a half-dozen high dollar items.

With the calendar year-end, and physical inventory counts—as well as annual budgeting—coming up for many businesses, now’s an ideal time to run aging reports to look for slow-moving stock and to inform your inventory planning.

Below is a screenshot with our favorite settings highlighted but check them all out to see what fits your business best!

Acumatica Events: Summit 2025, and the 2024 R2 Virtual Launch Event

Mark your calendars for one or both of these events:

➤ Acumatica Summit 2025

January 26-29 | Wynn Las Vegas

It’s time to make plans to attend Summit. It’s a jam-packed, highly informative, impressive and motivational conference about all things Acumatica, with 1,000+ attendees. Everybody is welcome.

Early bird pricing discounts will be online very shortly at the event website, Acumatica Summit 2025.

That’s the same site you can go to right now to get an overview of the event and see video clips from last year’s Summit. NexLAN attends too; we especially like the educational sessions and the many opportunities to network with Acumatica staff, vendors, and other attendees. Let us know if you have any questions about the event, or if you’re on the fence about going!

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➤ 2024 R2 Virtual Launch Event

October 2

Acumatica releases two versions per year, and it’s time to learn about the new features coming in 2024 R2. As with this spring’s 2024 R1, there will be a General Session product overview highlighting new features, immediately followed by breakout sessions covering new features in each edition: Manufacturing, Retail, Construction, and Distribution. 

If you register, you’ll also be sent links to the recorded sessions after the event.

Register now and get it onto your calendar.

Reading this after October 2? No problem—the same link should (we think) take you to the recorded sessions; or hit us for a link. We’ll also publish the link here in our next NewsLine.

Acumatica: So Many Good Choices for Connecting with Your Ecommerce Store

In the old days—and by that we mean just a handful of years ago—there was basically one choice for connecting more than a basic ecommerce store to an ERP system: a large customization project. And when the project went live, you might have still been without the coolest functionality, like instant syncing of your sales orders and inventory levels to/from your ERP instead of nightly; or an ability for your customers to pull up their past orders with you to reorder the same items. 

Happily, new innovations have brought a big expansion of choices:

1. A wide selection of ecommerce integrations:

➤ If you already have an online storefront in Shopify, Magento, or something else—and maybe you have a store in Amazon or eBay as well—chances are great these days that Acumatica integrations already exist. 

➤ Or if you’re ready to launch your first online store, there’s a full range of platform options to match your company size, industry, and budget, to support your company’s product catalog and sales order processes online.

2. Options for faster initial setup: Today’s ecommerce add-ons for Acumatica have smooth integrations, and in some cases they’re even built into Acumatica natively (such as the Amazon Connector and Shopify Connector.) This means it’s not a gnarly customization project to connect your store to Acumatica.

A lot of the initial setup is no-code or low-code “configuration” (choosing options; mapping to your product attributes; setting the default values you want; etc.), not from-scratch programming. Today’s integrations can display all the information on your online product pages that your buyers will require before they can make their purchase decision and place their order—and instantly send those orders and inventory updates into your Acumatica system.

No worries—if you have something particularly unique about your products or your sales or RFQ process, these integrations are flexible and allow customizations too, if needed.

3. A full range of capabilities to fit your business—Here are just a few examples of what’s available:

• • B2B-specific capabilities such as negotiated rates for different buyers, discounts at specific quantity breaks, the capture of customer PO numbers, and multi-package shipment tracking, in BigCommerce and other integrations.
  • Tailored item pricing in your online product catalog for multiple units of measure, quantity breaks, kits, promotions, and more, with K-ecommerce and others
  • Support for multiple purchasing roles, customer-specific pricing, customer-defined part numbers, and real-time item availability with Unilog and others
  • Built-in fraud analysis that flags orders for potential fraudulent activity for you to check to avoid unnecessary chargebacks, with Shopify and others 
  • Point of Sale options for retail sales, outside sales reps, and trade shows, from TrueCommerce and others
  • Ecommerce shipment tracking for your customers, and invoice viewing and payments for them online, with Billtrust and others

What ecommerce integration questions and wishes do you have? Contact NexLAN and we’ll show you the best choices. 

AccountMate Tech Note: Effectively Utilizing the AccountMate Security Features

AccountMate provides tight security features to address growing concerns of fraud. Understanding these security features enables you to best utilize them.

Article #1213: Effectively Utilizing the AccountMate Security Features discusses the security features available in AccountMate. Familiarizing yourself with these features can help you optimize security procedures by mixing and matching the available features for improved security and privacy. 

AccountMate Tech Note: Understanding the Inventory Maintenance Cost Fields in AccountMate

AccountMate’s Inventory Maintenance function displays various cost information relevant to each item in your inventory. It is important to understand what data these cost fields hold and how each one relates to your transactions so that you can better manage your sales, purchases, inventory transfers, production, returns, and other inventory-related processes.

Article #1232: Understanding the Inventory Cost Fields in AccountMate provides a comprehensive discussion of the various cost fields in the Inventory Maintenance function. 

Acumatica Technical Tips

Tip: When you open a workspace, such as Purchases, you see highlighted square tiles at the top for your commonly used functions in that workspace. You can easily add and subtract tiles in these workspace quick menus to personalize your Acumatica system—making your most frequently used functions fast to click:

With the quick menu open, in the bottom corner of the left column, select the three dots and then Edit Menu.

You can edit or delete the existing tiles in your menu by hovering your mouse over the tile and selecting the pen or the X on the tile that appears. 

To add a new tile, along the top of the screen in the black bar click, +ADD TILE. On the small pop-up enter the appropriate details for the tile you would like added including the icon, title, what form you want the tile to open when clicked, and any optional parameters you would like included, then click OK. 

Your new tile will now show up and you can ‘drag and drop’ it and other tiles to re-order the tiles in your quick menu. When you are done with your edits to your tiles, in the bottom left corner of the screen, click EXIT MENU EDITING.

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How to Delete a Customer’s Credit Card

Q: I want to clean up our customer credit cards that are on file that we have used years ago but are no longer active or they are expired. How do I delete the old cards?

A: To delete a customer’s credit card, go to Receivables > Profiles > Customer Payment Methods. Select the payment methods (credit card) you would like to delete. You can then either click the trash can icon to delete the record, or uncheck the Active box to inactivate the payment method.

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How to Add a New Payment Method

Q: We have a customer now paying us via wire transfer. How can I add a new payment method in my receivables payments?

A:  To add a new payment method, go to Banking > Preferences > Payment Methods and select the plus sign to add a new record. Enter the Payment Method ID and Description and select what workspaces you would like the payment method to be available in. In the grid, add the Cash Account for the new payment method. Save the payment method and you can now use it in the workspaces you have selected.

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“Unreleased document cannot be added to Reconciliation” Error

Q: I am trying to complete my bank reconciliation and one of my payments out of payables says, “Unreleased document cannot be added to Reconciliation.” How do I correct this so I can mark it off on my reconciliation?

A: The payment needs to be released. To do this, go to Payables > Processes > Release Payments. Enter the Payment Method and Cash Account for the payment that needs to be released, then check the box for that payment, and finally click Process. You will now be able to mark off the payment on your bank reconciliation.

AccountMate Technical Tips

Missing Bank Deposit in Reconcile Bank Account

Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)

Modules: AR, BR

Q: I recorded a bank deposit in AR; however, I cannot see the deposit in Reconcile Bank Account. Why?

A: Verify the following by going to AR > Transactions > Bank Deposit Transactions > Record Bank Deposit and changing the dropdown to Amend Bank Deposit, entering your Bank #, and selecting the Deposit # that is missing in your Reconcile Bank Account screen:

• The Total No. of Receipts/Refunds Registered matches the Total No. of Receipts/Refunds Recorded
• The Total Amount Registered matches the Total Amount Recorded

If one or both do not match, then the deposit will not appear in Reconcile Bank Account. If either do not match, you can correct the white boxes to match the grey boxes and Save.

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Cannot Print Check with Open Debit Invoice

Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)

Module: AP

Q: I have a vendor with an open debit invoice for which I want to offset against the vendor’s regular invoices when I print checks for the regular invoices; however, when I attempt to do so, the open debit invoice is not available for selection. Why?

A: This happens if the vendor is set up to print one check per invoice (the Print One Check per Invoice checkbox is marked in the Vendor Maintenance ► Settings tab). AccountMate does not allow the printing of checks with a negative amount.

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Inventory Cost Method Changed During Transfer

Versions: AM10.1 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)

Module: IC

Q: I recorded a warehouse inventory transfer transaction for an inventory item assigned with the FIFO cost method; however, the target transfer cost was the standard cost instead of the actual cost based on the cost method. Why?

A: When the Inventory Transfer At Standard Cost option is chosen in the IC Module Setup ► General (1) tab ► Inventory Transfer Transaction area, AccountMate uses the inventory item standard cost as the target unit transfer cost in the warehouse inventory transfer transactions.

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A Recorded Transaction Is Missing from the Inventory Transaction Log

Versions: AM10 for SQL and Express (and higher versions)

Module: PO

Q: Using the Cancel Received Goods function, I canceled a purchase order receipt and marked the Cancel Accrued Landed Cost checkbox; however, the accrued landed cost was not canceled. Why?

A: There may be multiple accrued landed cost transactions recorded for the purchase order receipt. To simultaneously cancel or void the accrued landed cost transactions and the purchase order receipt using the Cancel Received Goods function, you must mark the Cancel checkbox for each applicable accrued landed cost transaction in the Cancel Accrued Landed Cost window. To display the Cancel Accrued Landed Cost window, click the Record Cancellation of Accrued Landed Cost button beside the Cancel Accrued Landed Cost checkbox. If you failed to void the accrued landed cost transactions when canceling the purchase order receipt, you can use the Accrue Landed Cost function (Amend mode) to void the accrued landed costs.

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