General Ledger

The General Ledger is designed to be the focal point of the automated accounting system. It is an easy-to-use system which provides access to data needed for effective decision making.

The system can be set up to handle multiple companies, each with its own independent set of files and accounts. If desired, companies can share vendor, customer and account structures, or they can be completely independent. If a common account structure is used, the General Ledgers can be consolidated.

The Chart of Accounts is user maintained. Four digit account numbers and 2 digit department numbers are used. The system assumes that like accounts are grouped together but this is not absolutely necessary. A common arrangement is:
 

However, this arrangement is not coded into the system and other arrangements can and have been used.

A General Journal is provided to allow Journal entries. The system requires each Journal entry to be balanced.

Profit & Loss reports and other financial statements are handled using BMS's Report Generator. This is a flexible system which is full featured and permits account summariza tion and comparison between periods and between budget and actual data. BMS will work with your accountants to develop the financial reports required and provide training so that new reports can be developed as needed. BMS will provided any special reports needed to analyze inter-company operations.

The Sales Journal is posted to the General Ledger summarized by day. The Voucher Register is posted to the General Ledger in detail. The General Ledger Account Detail report has options which allow it to include all detail available or to summarize all journals by day. This report can be printed for any time period from one day to an entire year.

The Trial Balance is printed for one or more accounting periods and shows Starting Balances, Debits, Credits and Ending Balances for each Account/ Department combination present.

Reconciliation reports are available which compare the A/R and A/P aging with the G/L account balances day by day. In addition, full featured aging reports are available in the A/R and A/P modules and will be described there.

Since the Ledger is being updated in real time, month-end processing basically amounts to running some reports and marking the past period closed.

Year-end processing is accomplished by selecting a menu option which automatically generates a special journal entry closing the revenue and expense accounts to the Retained Earnings account. Beginning balances are also set up for Balance Sheet accounts during this process. If necessary, the year-end processing can be repeated.