Zortec General Ledger For Beginners

In this presentation you will learn the basics of the inquiry screens, new account creation, monthly reporting and manual journal entries.

From the main menu select General Ledger, then Inquiry.

Search and Select Screen Enter the division and fiscal year needed. Then enter the account number you want to inquire on, or leave blank to scroll all accounts. Or enter an account number to start scrolling from.

Screen 1 Chart of Accounts The available screens are listed on the left. Or you can press F4 for screens.

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

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.

Screen 1 Chart of Accounts PROFIT/LOSS ACCOUNT—A “Y” indicates that this account should print on the Profit/Loss Statement. A “N” or blank 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.

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.

Screen 1 Chart of Accounts 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.

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 101-11140. This option is most often used by County Governments.

Screen 3 Period Balances This screen displays Balances by Period. Highlight the period wanted. You then have several options at the bottom of the screen to select from. We will start with Balances. Press F3..Balances.

Screen 3 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.

Screen 4 Account Analysis Press F4 from screen 3 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.

Screen 5 Encumbrance Analysis Press F6 from screen 3 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.

Screen 6 Y-T-D Transactions Press F7 from screen 3 for YTD Transactions. This lists all transactions for the year.

Screen 7 Statement of Accounts 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.

Screen 8 Budgets This screen 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 accustom 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!

Screen 9 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!

Screen 9 Balances by Year Use the Col-Period to select the month/year you wish to see. The first number represents the column/fiscal year. Column 1=2009, 2=2008, 3-2007, 4=2006. The second number is the period or month. In this first example we are going to look at January 2009. To do so we enter 1-7. This highlights the month.

Screen 9 Balances by Year You can now use any of the function keys on the bottom of the screen. Press F4 for account analysis.

Screen 9 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.

Screen 9 Balances by Year In our second example, we will look at November 2008. In the Col-Pd enter 2-5, 2 being the column/fiscal year and 5 the period/month. Notice it highlights the month/year selected.

Screen 9 Balances by Year Press F4 for Account Analysis. This lists all transactions for the period 11/2007 with the running balance. From this screen you can jump to Accounts Payable. Press F5 for AP History or F6 for AP Invoice inquiry.

In ledger inquiry you now see a function key (F5) option to display “Summary Amounts.” Notice the YTD amounts before summarizing…

When you hit the F5 function key on your keyboard a window pops up asking for the “G/L Field Number To Summarize Thru.” The pieces of your account structure is what the “field” pertains to. In this example, we are summarizing on field 2 which is the department/function field in these files.

After summarizing, you now see the year-to-date totals for the selected function/department.

When in summary mode, to switch back to a single ledger account view, hit F5 on your key board. Also, if you go to another screen, or once you escape out of the account and go back in you will be in single ledger mode.

And, when summarized, you can highlight a month and hit the F4 function key to see Account Analysis detail for the summarized field specified…

And, when you highlight one of the transactions the “Additional Information” section will display the actual ledger account the transaction came from, packet name, transaction date, and user who processed the packet.

Another transaction that is from a different ledger account Another transaction that is from a different ledger account. But, notice that we are still on the same ledger account that was originally summarized from.

The “Summary Amounts” feature is available on screen 5 is shown in the previous slides, as well as on screen 9 as shown below…

In this example we are still summarizing on field 2 – function/department. Notice the amounts before summarizing…

And the amounts after summarizing…

You can also highlight a period, and hit the F4-Acct Analysis function key…

…To view detail transactions …To view detail transactions. (The detail can even be seen if you show account analysis for a period in a previous fiscal year, from screen 9.)

When a transaction is highlighted, the “Additional Information” also shows the ledger account information that the detail came from.

Creating a New General Ledger Account

From the main menu select General Ledger, then File Maintenance.

Select “C”reate

Enter the new account number.

Enter a description for the account Enter a description for the account. You or someone at your site will need to know if this account should be set up as an “A”sset, “L”iability or “E”xpense account. Enter the correct code in the Account Type field. Press F9 when all the necessary information has been entered.

Monthly Journal Entries

Monthly journal entries can be any number of miscellaneous transactions. Some of the most common include interest from bank accounts, depreciation and correcting posting errors from prior months.

Select option 12 Packets from the General Ledger menu…

Then select option 1 Add Packet Entries…

Enter the packet name, Division, Entry Date and Accounting Period. The Transaction Type will the JE. You can enter a Control Total if needed. Enter a Description and your initials.

Enter a Reference, this can be any alpha/numeric combination Enter a Reference, this can be any alpha/numeric combination. Enter a Description of the journal entry. On the next line enter the ledger number, whether it is a debit or credit and the dollar amount.

When you have all the journal entries complete, escape back to the Packets menu and select option 6 Packet Report. Enter the packet name to print the report. Review the report for accuracy. If you find any errors, they must be corrected before the packet is processed.

To correct any errors, select option 2: Update Packet Entries and enter the packet name. If your packet contains dozens of entries and the one that needs to be corrected is near the end, you can enter the “Starting Record Number” . This is found on the left side of the packet report in the Item column.

Now you are ready to verify the packet. Select option 7 Verify Packet.

Enter the packet name in the Packet Identifier field Enter the packet name in the Packet Identifier field. And “D” to display any errors. If there are no errors you will see “Verification Complete – RETURN to Continue”. If there are any problems with dates, accounting periods, the packet does not balance or any other errors, the verification process will stop on each problem transaction and show a brief description of the problem. Many of these errors can be resolved by using option 2 Update Packet Entries to correct the problems. Please contact the Support Center if you have any errors that cannot be resolved.

Now you are ready to process the packet. Select option 8 Process Packet.

This step will update the transactions to the accounts This step will update the transactions to the accounts. Enter the packet name in the Packet Identifier field. You will see the message at the bottom of the screen ‘Are you sure you want to Process Packets? [Y/N]. Answer Y to process the packet. Answer N to not process the packet. NOTE: If you have several packets that need to be processed you can enter “ALL” in the Packet Identifier field. This will process ALL BALANCED packets. Use this option with caution.

Monthly Reporting

Each month you should be printing several standard reports Each month you should be printing several standard reports. The most common include the Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, Revenue and Expense Reports and the Account Analysis. There are other reports on the menu, like the Payroll Journal, General Journal, etc. that you may wish to print.

To print the reports, select option 64 Fund Reporting from the General Ledger Main Menu.

From the Fund Reporting menu you can run the Selected Account Analysis, Revenue and Expense Reports, Cash Account Analysis and several other reports. The reports must be run one at a time. Selecting option 1 Standard Reports will allow you to select several reports for multiple funds that run as one print job. In other words, you do not have to select each report and fund individually.

In the “Enter desired option” field type 3 Reports this time only In the “Enter desired option” field type 3 Reports this time only. Next enter the Division, Fiscal Year and Month/Year to Print. To print the same reports for all Funds, leave the Funds field blank. To only print the reports for one fund, enter that number. Enter the printer number at the bottom of the screen.

On this screen, enter the sequence number beside each report needed On this screen, enter the sequence number beside each report needed. The number you enter on the screen is the order in which the reports will print. NOTE: This is where you print the Y-T-D reports. F9 to continue.

At this point you can press F9 to accept fund, F2 to accept all funds or F3 to Skip this fund. Remember on the first screen we told it to print ALL funds. If you want to print all funds except 110 press F3 to skip this fund. The reports print in the order selected on the previous screen by fund.

If you wish to view your reports to your display instead of printing to paper, you may do so by typing VIEW in the “Enter Printer Number Field” Add Positive Pay somewhere around here.

Printing to the VIEW printer will cause the report to be opened up in Microsoft Notepad. Add Positive Pay somewhere around here.

From Notepad, it is possible to get your report into Excel From Notepad, it is possible to get your report into Excel. To do this, first select all the data in the report by going to Edit then clicking Select All (or by hitting Ctrl+A). Once data is selected, Copy the data and Paste into a blank Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel document. Add Positive Pay somewhere around here.

Add Positive Pay somewhere around here. When the data is Pasted into Microsoft Word, you may need to change the margins, font size, etc in order for the report to display correctly.

The data will Paste into Excel in one column The data will Paste into Excel in one column. You can use the Text-to-Columns feature of Excel, found under the Data tab, to put the report columns into columns in Excel. Be sure the column is highlighted before clicking Text-to-Column. Add Positive Pay somewhere around here.

You can also print reports to a PDF file You can also print reports to a PDF file. This allows you to save reports in PDF format for emailing, archiving, or printing. Local Government Support staff will need to set this feature up for you if you are not currently set up to print to PDF. Add Positive Pay somewhere around here.

This completes our presentation on the Zortec General Ledger section of Resource 2014. If you have questions about any of these processes contact our Customer Support Center at 800-737-1826. For your convenience you can submit support requests and questions online at: http://www.localgovernmentcorporation.com/