General Ledger Setup

Before you can begin processing in the General Ledger (G/L), you must set up some basic information. This includes:

• Setting Up Accounting Periods
• Setting Up the Chart of Accounts
• Setting Up Beginning Account Balances

Setting Up Accounting Periods

Set up and maintain the accounting periods that are used by General Ledger for a particular fiscal year using the Accounting Periods form. Accounting periods are used only to visually group transactions.

To set up accounting periods:

1. Open the Accounting Periods form.
2. In the Fiscal Year field, enter the year for which you want to add or change periods.
3. Click the Filter-in-Place button.
4. If the fiscal year is closed, select the Closed check box.
   NOTES:

   • The system does not treat a closed year as a hard close; transactions can still be posted to a closed year.
   • If a fiscal year is flagged as closed, none of its periods are considered to be open. For this reason, at least one year should be defined as open.
5. Select the desired period (from 1-13) in the fiscal year.
6. (Optional) Set the fiscal year start date.

   NOTE: By default, the Start Date field for the first period is set to the first day of the fiscal year, but you can change it.

7. Do one of the following:
   • To have the system create the accounting periods in monthly increments, select the Monthly option and then click Generate Period. The system automatically updates the period starting and ending dates.
   • To have the system create the accounting periods in quarterly increments, select the Quarterly option and then click Generate Period. The system automatically updates the period starting and ending dates. Each period is three months long.
   • To create custom periods, manually enter the starting and ending dates of each accounting period in the fiscal year.
8. Select Actions > Save.

To generate the control number sequence by period or by year, use the Accounting Period Control Number Sequences form.

Setting Up the Chart of Accounts

To set up and maintain all the accounts that are used throughout the system, use the Chart of Accounts form.

Before setting up the Chart of Accounts, you need to define the structure of the accounts, grouped by account type (asset, liability, expense, and so on), and assign logical account numbers to them. For more information, see About Accounts.

To add an account:

1. Open the Chart of Accounts form.
2. Select Actions > New.
3. In the Account field, enter the account identifier for the account you are adding.
4. In the field to the right of the Account field, enter the description of the account for reference.
5. From the Account Type drop-down list, select the account type.

   NOTE: If you select Allocation, you must also enter an allocation for it on the Chart of Account Allocations form.

6. In the Effective Date field, select the date you want the account to become active.
7. If you no longer want to use the account after a particular date, select that date in the Obsolete Date field. Otherwise, leave this field blank.
8. In the Unit Code 1-4 fields, select one of these options:
   • No Access - The reporting unit field will not be accessible for this account. The system also disables the corresponding Unit Code tab on the form.
   • Accessible - The reporting unit field will be accessible for this account.
   • Required - The reporting unit field is required for this account.
9. If the financial entity reports to another financial entity, select either Buying or Selling as the Exchange Rate Type. Then, select the number of the account to which this account reports in the other financial entity, and the currency translation method.
10. To save the account, select Actions > Save.

Setting Up Beginning Account Balances

When applicable, enter the beginning balances for your accounts. To enter beginning balances for accounts:

1. Open the Journal Entries form.
2. In the Journal field, select General.
3. Click the filter-in-place button.
4. Select Actions > New.
5. Create an entry for the first account's beginning balance. In the Reference field, enter Beginning Balance.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each account for which you need to enter a beginning balance.

NOTE: You cannot post unless the debit amount equals the credit amount for each period.

Related Topics

General Ledger Overview

About Accounting Periods

About Accounts

Creating a User-Defined Journal

General Ledger Steps

Multiple Financial Sets of Books Overview