Why not?
There are many benefits to closing the fiscal period month at the end of the calendar month. Confirming the balance sheet monthly ensures that the bottom line of your income statement is correct, and while most AccountMate reports are available with “As Of” aging, some important ones (such as Inventory On-Hand) don’t have this capability.
Also, this is an excellent opportunity to exercise the “Period Locking” function available in the GL Module. You might be surprised to know that every year in January we have a handful of end-users enter a date to the previous year – and if the prior period isn’t locked then someone has accidentally re-stated financials from 12 months prior – Ouch!
Finally, while it’s possible to go an extremely long time without closing the fiscals periods (up to a year!), the performance of your system suffers and you’ll find that soft-posting to GL takes longer, and longer, and… until you’ll find yourself not using this valuable feature. Closing the period (which performs a hard-post to GL) cleans up your “current” data files by moving completed transactions to “history” files. As a result, your system just runs faster!
We recently distilled our recommended period-end closing procedures into a checklist format, which you can download for SQL/MSDE-based systems <here> or for LAN-based system <here>. While we usually provide documents in Adobe PDF format, these are Microsoft Word documents and we encourage you to customize the checklist to your specific installation.
SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE!
Regards,
Kevin E. Stroud
NexLAN, LLC
https://nexlan.com
April Birthdays: AccountMate’s 20th and NexLAN’s 7th
April 1st marked the beginning of AccountMate’s twenty-first year of consistently developing and distributing accounting solutions worldwide. April 22nd will begin NexLAN’s eighth year of supporting our midwestern base of critical business systems.
These are tremendous accomplishments within our industry, and one that neither AccountMate nor NexLAN could have obtained without the continued commitment and support of our employees and the critical feedback from our valued client base.
As both companies continue to prosper, we would like to acknowledge your continued support and thank you for your confidence in our abilities to meet your needs.
TechNote
The AccountMate Accounts Receivable module is equipped to handle situations that may arise where you must post payments from companies or agencies that are not a part of your customer records. Generally speaking, these non-customer payments are receipts generated from non-trade transactions that are not included in your daily business activities. If your company is a merchandising concern, for example, non-customer payments can include receipts such as payments of loans and advances, space rental, etc. arising from peripheral activities of your business. The procedures for posting non-customer payments are discussed in detail in the AccountMate Online Help. This week’s TechNote discusses the reports you can generate pertaining to non-customer payments.
TechNote: Reports to Generate For Non-customer Payment Transactions
Jim Yuelapwan
Director of Technical Services
AccountMate Software Corporation
Technical Tips
Platform/Version: AccountMate Version 6.0/6.5 and VAM/LAN Version 5, Build LN509
Module: PO, IC, AR, SO, MI, RA
Q: Does the system perform any validation on the changes made to decimal settings in the module setup? If so, what validation is performed?
A: Yes, the system validates changes made to cost and price decimal settings. To avoid data problems decimal settings may be increased but not decreased.
Platform/Version: AccountMate Version 6.0/6.5 and VAM/LAN Version 5
Module: AR, SO, IC
Q: What report can I generate to see information that will help me determine which of my warehouses carries large quantities of high-valued items?
A: Generate the Warehouse Quantity Listing report, sorted by warehouse. This report displays a list of the inventory stored in each warehouse. To include the costs of all the items for each warehouse, be sure to mark Include Avg Cost and Total Cost.
Platform/Version: AccountMate Version 6.0/6.5 and VAM/LAN Version 5
Module: MI
Q: Why is the master item’s Request Date inaccessible in the Line Items tab of the Create Work Order function?
A: The request dates are only accessible when the Multiple Request Date checkbox in the Information tab is marked. The dates shown in Line Items tab come from the Request Date specified in the Information tab. Change the request date in the Information tab to change the dates in the Line Items tab.
Platform/Version: AccountMate Version 6.0/6.5 and VAM/LAN Version 5
Module: AR, SO
Q. How can I view the customer’s past due invoices when I am creating a sales order or an invoice? I don’t want to generate an Aging Report
A. The customer’s Past Due amount is shown in the Information tab of the Create Sales Order and the Create Invoice function. You may view the past due invoices by clicking the Detail Analysis button adjacent to the Past Due field.
Subscription
If there is someone else in your office who would like to subscribe to this NexLAN/AccountMate newsletter, please email newsletter@nexlan.com.
If you received this technical newsletter in error or if you would like to unsubscribe, send an email to newsletter@nexlan.com.
Newsletter Archive
This NewsLine is scaled to fit your printer. Previous newsletters are archived here.
