"Ugh, manual journal entries take forever!" Sound familiar? Well I have a few tricks to speed up the process!
Journal Entry batches can have a default row that will store information you type over and over again, such as post dates, journal and account numbers.
First, let's make sure you have a default row. Select Tools and Options from the menu bar. Select the Records tab, highlight Journal Entry, and make sure Yes is selected for Display first row of batch as default row. Now, we can set user preferences. Are you more of a keyboard person or a mouse person? Well, there is an option for both! In the Enter batch default row, select either by field with the F2 key or by row when placing cursor in row. Now you're all set to give your fingers a break.
Next time you enter journal entries, you'll see a D row at the top of the batch. Enter your default information in this row. As you enter transaction information, the defaults will auto populate based on the Enter batch default row option selected.
Check out the Journal Entry Quick Reference Guide and the Tired of Mouse Clicks blog for more shortcuts.
I hope this makes your life a little easier!
Beginning July 1, 2009, the tax calculation method for employees working in Louisiana will change. This tax change has been implemented in Payroll version 7.78, patch 9.
If you have employees subject to Louisiana state tax, complete your June payroll and then follow these steps before calculating payroll for July:
- Download and install version 7.78 and patch 9.
- Create a new state tax for Louisiana with an effective date of 07/01/09:
- In Configuration, Taxes, select State taxes from the drop-down list and click New Tax.
- In the Add new state tax setting for drop-down list, select Louisiana and click OK.
- Change the effective date to 07/01/09.
- Select State, Restore Defaults from the menu bar.
- Select 2009 from the Restore the drop-down list and click OK.
- Enter the remaining required information for each tax.
- Click GL Distribution to enter withholding, liability, and expense accounts distributions.
- Click Save and Close.
- Change the withholding status of all employees with Zero withholding to either Single or Married withholding:
- Create a query of records with a Withholding status of Zero.
- On the Results tab, open the first record.
- Change the Withholding status and click the single right arrow on the action bar to move to the next record.
Note: Although Louisiana no longer offers a Zero withholding status, we have left the status available so you can easily identify employees that need to be updated.
For more information about the Louisiana tax changes, refer to the Louisiana Department of Revenue website.
Do you have an employee taking a few months off or a college student filling in while an employee goes on maternity leave? How do you plan to handle their attendance accruals while they are gone? Your first thought may be to edit their existing attendance plan and change the accrual amount to zero. This will not work because editing an existing plan on an employee record will zero out all previously earned accrual. Therefore, editing the current plan will provide an incorrect attendance balance for your employee. As a person who loves vacation, I would welcome the extra vacation but I'm sure you would rather not approve the extra days.
The proper way to handle this situation is to add a new attendance plan to the employee record. Make sure you do not remove the original plan. The newly added plan should be set up in the same manner as the employee's base plan with one change; the accrual amount is set to zero. All of the other fields such as carryover amounts, and total amount allowed remain the same. This allows you to maintain the employee's attendance balance while ensuring they do not accrue additional hours during their time out of the office.
When the employee returns, add a new attendance plan with the same information as the original plan back to the employee record. Make sure you do not delete any of the previous plans because this will cause the attendance balance to be incorrect. Please contact me if you are offering extra paid vacation during times employees are on leave. I would love to discuss any open positions you may have. 
Do you need to transfer money from one bank account to another in The Financial Edge? Instead of creating the manual journal entries to the cash account, and then having to remember them when reconciling, wouldn't it be nice if FE did this for you? Cash Management is here to save the day!
Cash Management is an optional module that can help streamline processes associated with your banks, such as create bank adjustments, clear transactions electronically, and reconciliation. Since there are already a few blogs out there about bank reconciliation, let's discuss bank adjustments.
You can use bank adjustments to record transactions, such as bank fees or interest, and to transfer funds from one bank to another. Adjustments are created by clicking Create a new adjustment under Cash Management tasks on the Banks page.
When creating an adjustment to record a regular bank fee you can save time by creating an Adjustment Category. When you create the adjustment simply select the category and the fields will default in for you.
Transferring money between banks allows you to record the movement of funds out of one bank account and into another. Click to create a new adjustment under Cash Management Tasks. On the adjustment screen, enter the date, amount, and other appropriate information on the adjustment. In the drop down select Transfer Out and then select the bank account to transfer the money to on the Transfer To field. Once you save and close the adjustment, the balancing adjustment is reflected in both banks.
Want to see if you have Cash Management installed? Check out Knowledgebase solution BB61838 . If you don't have it installed contact your account manager for details.
One of the most common query questions we get has to do with the static and dynamic format. Which should you choose? Let me tell you a story that will explain the difference.
You have two file clerks in the office: Static and Dynamic. You ask them both to find accounts that use account code 5555. Static is the more meticulous of the two, bringing with her a handful of paperclips. She locates the accounts and places a paperclip on each of them. Dynamic just likes the adventure of the task and dives right in. He does not mark each account, but locates them just the same. Both return the same list of accounts.. You thank the clerks and they return the files to the file cabinets.
A month goes by and you've added a few more accounts with account code 5555. You ask your willing file clerks to again locate all the accounts with this account code. Static remembers the accounts she pulled earlier and only retrieves the accounts with the paperclips. Dynamic dives right in as usual, but he notices there are more accounts with the account code 5555 than before. This time you get different lists. Dynamic gives you a list of all accounts where Static gives you the same list as before.
The reason? Dynamic will refresh his list with each request so it always includes up-to-date information. On the other hand, Static is more like a snapshot, she will always give you the original list. Dynamic queries are the most commonly used type. I would recommend a static query if you always want to capture the same set of accounts, employees, transactions, or vendors.
When I first set up my funds in FE, I did not require projects on all transactions, nor did I require the system to balance by project. Well, as soon as I started assigning Project distribution to my AP invoices, I started seeing an imbalance in my project balances. Why? After some research, I found that when I created a payment for the invoice, it was not pulling the project distribution from the invoice. Why not? Well, it was because I had not set up the appropriate fund transaction requirements. Now I am faced with needing to change the fund transaction requirements. FE does not allow those fields to be edited on the Fund record once it has been used. What am I to do?
I found that FE allows the fund transaction requirements to be changed using Update fund transaction requirements in Administration. Updating fund records through this process is necessary only if the beginning balances have been locked. This utility updates:
- Posted and unposted transactions for open fiscal years
- Transactions for closed fiscal years
- Summarized transactions for closed fiscal years
- Beginning balances for the earliest fiscal year
Now, when we are on the Update Fund Transaction Requirements screen, we can update transaction history by adding new transaction characteristics. Also, with this functionality, we have the ability to add or modify fund transaction requirements, fund closing requirements, and transaction history. It is simple to keep up with these changes and who performed them because updates made to a fund are recorded on the fund's History of Changes tab in Configuration.
This is important! I found that the option to Apply default value to existing accounts does not refer to projects, class, or transaction codes. Even if this box is unmarked, the default value for project, class, or transaction code will be overwritten on all existing transactions. This is so important because the only way to correct the transactions, if you overwrote them, is to restore to a backup and all data entered since the last backup will be lost.
If after reviewing the options, you still decide that updating your fund transaction requirements is the route to take, visit Knowledgebase solution BB52501 for additional information and instructions.
Understanding your deprecation years is important to ensure accurate asset depreciation. When you create your Depreciation Year in Configuration, you define the time frame for the accounting cycle and the number of periods that make up the cycle for the life of the asset. Each depreciation year can be whatever you want; they do not have to follow the fiscal or calendar year. Without a depreciation year, FA doesn't know how to spread out the asset cost and depreciation will not calculate.
It is integral to plan out how you want to depreciate an asset and create the depreciation year accordingly. For example, if you create your depreciation year to match the calendar year, but you want your depreciation to follow your fiscal year it will not. Your depreciation will calculate incorrectly causing incorrect reporting.
Another reason to plan out your asset depreciation is once you start creating asset transactions within a depreciation year, the year can no longer be edited. For example, if there is an asset transaction in 2009, but not in any other year, the 2009 depreciation year can no longer be edited.
I hope this helps you understand your depreciation years!
"Oh man, I didn’t mean to print that 
!" Have you ever said that when you validate or post and the report prints? Would you rather see it on your screen instead of wasting paper? Well, you can and it’s easy!
Simply select Tools, Options from the GL menu bar and select the Records tab. Highlight Post Options, change Print Post Report on to Preview Post Report, and click Apply then OK. That's it, you're done! If you decide you want a printed copy once you view it on the screen, just click the print icon.
Let’s save some trees!
To make sure your bank registers balance to your cash account in GL, there is a business rule that you have to understand so that reconciliations run smoothly. Business rules configure how the database is able to operate according your business office policy.
This important business rule, located in GL, Configuration, Business Rules, Journal Entry, is called Allow journal entries to cash accounts without adjusting the bank register. When marked, a corresponding bank adjustment is not created in the bank register when the cash account is used in a manual journal entry. Using this option, the bank register has no record when the cash account balance is changed making reconciliation more difficult.
When this rule is unmarked, a corresponding bank adjustment is created in the bank register when the cash account is used in a manual journal entry. The rule makes it easy for the cash account and the bank register to communicate without any manual adjustments. No one wants to do manual adjustments; your day is too busy as it is!
Now you can make the decision on how you want to set this up. I suggest you don’t mark this rule so all parts of the database are in balance. Now you are armed with the knowledge to keep your reconciliations simple and in balance. And knowing is half the battle! Go Joe!
Each month we keep track of the top questions you ask. This FAQs list includes GL, AP, AR, CR, FA, and general FE questions. To see the FAQs broken out by individual module, review The Financial Edge FAQs on our website. Here are the top FE questions for May and April.
May
- Bank Reconciliation shows out of balance to GL Cash Account or vice versa: BB61184
- How to import journal entry transactions: BB53174
- How to void a posted payment: BB113811
- What is Cash Management and how to tell if it is installed?: BB61838
- How to add or edit bank adjustments: BB66590
- How to set up the queue service to run scheduled queues: BB289850
- A reversal transaction does not post for a voided payment: BB219542
April
- Bank Reconciliation shows out of balance to GL Cash Account or vice versa: BB61184
- How to import journal entry transactions: BB53174
- How to void a posted payment: BB113811
- How to add or edit bank adjustments: BB66590
- What is Cash Management and how to tell if it is installed?: BB61838
- How to set up the queue service to run scheduled queues: BB289850
- A reversal transaction does not post for a voided payment: BB219542
Talk to you soon!
Each month we keep track of the top Payroll questions you ask. Here are the top questions for May and April.
May
- How to troubleshoot performance issues: BB8626
- When will Payroll be updated to reflect the tax provisions of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?: BB585656
- Scheduled queues are not processing: BB221816
- Bank reconciliation shows out of balance to GL Cash Account or vice versa: BB61184
- How to void checks, bank drafts, and EFT notices: BB59007
- How to purge a voided check, EFT Notice, or bank draft: BB53728
- How to create an import file: BB102268
April
- When will Payroll be updated to reflect the tax provisions of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?: BB585656
- How to add or update federal and state tax tables: BB246638
- How to troubleshoot performance issues: BB8626
- Bank reconciliation shows out of balance to GL Cash Account or vice versa: BB61184
- Scheduled queues are not processing: BB221816
- How to void checks, bank drafts, and EFT notices: BB59007
- How to purge a voided check, EFT Notice, or bank draft: BB53728
Talk to you soon!
We are revamping The Ledger, your newsletter about The Financial Edge, and Payroll Post, your newsletter about Payroll, to make sure we're giving you the information you want and need.
Let us know if you read non-product specific articles by voting in the
The Ledger poll and the
Payroll Post poll.
As the years go by, the number of saved queries can grow very quickly. The more queries you have the more difficult it is to find the one you need. So what should you do? Well, you have a few options: organize your queries, add links to them on your Home page, delete the queries you no longer use, or all three! Since we've covered organizing your queries and adding links to your Homepage in previous posts, I will focus on deleting queries.
When it comes to deleting queries there are two options: delete them one at a time or multiple queries at once. To delete one query at a time, open the query and select File, Delete from the menu bar.
If you have several queries to delete, I recommend deleting multiple queries at the same time. The process is just as easy as deleting them one at a time and saves you from having to open each query. Simply select Tools, Delete Multiple Queries from the menu bar in Query. You have the option to filter by query type and format. To only display your queries, mark the Only show my queries checkbox. Mark the Delete? checkbox for each query to delete from your database and click Delete Now. Please keep in mind that you cannot recover deleted records, so make sure you mark the correct ones 
.
Have fun cleanin' up. Talk to you soon!
"Hey! My credit memo is posting for the second time!" Ever had this thought when posting? Or what about "Wait, why does this credit memo show on my validation report twice? I only want it to post once."
If you have, you're probably starting to wonder if you actually did post the credit memo. Maybe you've even checked the credit memo record just to verify. If in fact it is posted don't worry. Along with posting a credit memo, there are credit memo applications. So it's not that the credit memo is posting again, or posting twice, it's the credit memo applications that are posting.
The credit memo applications are purely for reporting purposes. These are great to have when you want to see when a credit memo was actually applied to its invoice. If you posted the credit memo last year and applied it today, the applications will show on the validation report. These transactions simply say, "Hey, just in case you want to know for the future, this is when you actually applied this credit memo to a charge or invoice."
If you are concerned with how application transactions affect your General Ledger, no worries there either. All these applications will do is debit and credit the AP Summary Account, making the net affect a big fat zero. Take a look at What Journal Entries are created in Accounts Payable to see the debit and credit entries are created when posting.
Still not wanting to see these applications? Never fear. Check out Knowledgebase solution BB148353 to see how to set the applications to Do Not Post.
Nothing is more frustrating when you run your Balance Sheet and the bottom line is out-of-balance . So here you are with an out of balance Balance Sheet that you need to have to your board in an hour, or, even worse, an hour ago. What should you do? Well, the first thing is don't, or try not to, panic. A deep breath usually works for me. Then take a look at these common causes of out of balance financial statements and reports; you may be able to resolve the issue and be a hero:
- An account is marked inactive and the report is marked to not include inactive accounts
- The chart template is missing accounts
- The financial statement is filtering out information
- Fund Balance account is not defined on all fund records
- The user does not have sufficient rights
- Unposted journal entry batches are out of balance
So now you know what the common causes are, the next step is to start narrowing them down to find your issue. First, create and preview a new Trial Balance Report for the same period and fund(s) as the out of balance financial statement. The report should always be in balance when including all accounts and their balances. If the Trial balance report is incorrect with no filters or Visual Chart Organizer (VCO) selected, create a case.
If your Trial Balance is correct, here are some other steps to help you find and resolve the issue:
- Run the report as Supervisor or as a user without account level security defined. Financial statements will exclude accounts that a user does not have rights to view.
- Mark the option on the General tab to include inactive accounts and rerun the report. Inactive accounts with activity will cause the report to be out of balance.
- Check your VCO template. As new accounts are added or new templates created, accounts can be left off or duplicated causing the report to be out of balance or total incorrectly.
- If you find there are missing or duplicate accounts, add or remove the appropriate accounts from your custom VCO.
- If the chart validation does not pinpoint the problem, run the report using the default template.
- Check the filters on the report to ensure you're not filtering out accounts or activity. A combination of advanced filters on a VCO and report filters can cause you to filter your way out of balance. If the report is still out of balance, remove all filters from the report to determine if the filters are the cause; don't forget the column filters.
- Run the report at a level 9. Running reports at a lower level will summarize activity. Increasing the level is an easy way to ensure no accounts are excluded from the report.
For more troubleshooting steps, take a look at Knowledgebase solution BB63184.
Talk to you soon!
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