Percentage of base is a term used to describe a column on the GL financial reports. The column prints the proportion of the previous column’s amount and a selected line in the report (% of base line). The number is printed as a percentage of the base line. For example, line 10 is a caption line that prints “Telephone Costs”. Lines 20, 30 and 40 print the total of the costs for the local carrier - $10, long distance service - $25 and maintenance costs - $15, respectively. Line 50 is a total line printing the total of these costs. The % of base line is 50 (the total costs) and lines 20, 30 and 40 print their percentage of the total (20%, 50%, and 30%, respectively).

The activity of a GL account is the difference between the ending balance of the previous month and the current balance. Activity can also be calculated for two previous periods or a range of periods by comparing the ending balances of the selected periods.

An allocating entry is an entry to a journal that distributes an amount to be posted over several G/L #’s or will sum several account amounts to post into a single G/L#. For example, a company could break down its phone expenses by department. That company would enter all the GL account numbers that hold the phone expenses (i.e., local carrier, long distance service and maintenance) under the from accounts column in the Allocating Journal F/M. Then the department’s individual phone expense numbers and the percentage of the total bills (total of the from accounts) would be entered under the to accounts column (i.e., sales & marketing telephone - 50%, production telephone - 10%, administration telephone 40%). When the Post Recur/Reverse/Allocating program is run, all the from account totals receive an offsetting amount in order to balance that account, and posted to the to accounts are the corresponding allotted amount. Only journal entries in the same journal will be allocated. Allocating is performed only in the journal in which it was entered and is never done between journals.

Amount column stands for the amount in a column of a particular financial report. The amounts are taken from financial reports and stored in the GL figures file. These values can be used on other reports as is the case with the net profit and loss line to be used on the Balance Sheets. These figures are displayed in the GL Report Figures F/M.

The chart of accounts is a list of all the GL account numbers that a company uses. Each company has its own chart of accounts.

Each period must be closed in order to move on the next period. The process of closing a period is called a close-out. A true close-out tells the system to irreversibly update all files and increment the period. A false close-out tells the system to only update the ending balances, in order to run the financial reports. A false close-out can be run as many times as needed.

A department number that exists on file is valid. GL department numbers are setup through the GL Department F/M. Departments are used to segregate sections of a company, i.e., sales & marketing or customer support. Financial reports may be printed for a department. For more information, refer to the Department F/M in General Ledger. The length of the department is defined in the SM Company Control F/M (1-4 digits). If using departments, the department number is imbedded in the G/L# (position to be imbedded is also defined in the company control record) for posting purposes.

A report that prints the beginning balance, activity (displayed by journal and entry number) and ending balance for each GL account over a range of periods.

The ending balance is the total amount posted to the account from the beginning of the fiscal year through the close of the period for revenue and expense accounts, and it is the total amount posted to the account from the time the account was set up through the close of the period for other types of accounts.

A journal entry can be a regular entry, a reversing entry, a recurring entry or an allocating entry.

GL account numbers fall into several types. These types are common account categories: asset, liability, capital, revenue and expense. The types are input by the user at the initial setup of a GL account number through the GL Account F/M.

A General Ledger account number that exists on file is valid. Valid G/L #’s are set up through the General Ledger Account F/M program. The system uses the numbers to organize specific accounts in order to post amounts. For example, the G/L # 1000000000 may be the account for telephone service; all telephone expenses would then be added up and stored under account number 1000000000. The length of the G/L # (minimum = 4, maximum = 10) is determined in the company control record. The system allows the G/L # to contain a branch number (2 digits) and/or a department number (1-4 digits). The position of these numbers are stored in the company control record.

Most of the modules in the system have their own period. GL stores of these periods in the General Ledger Standard Period Ending Dates F/M. The current GL period is stored along with the last day of the period, in the GL company period ending dates record. The next GL period is the first period to follow the current period in the period string (also in the GL company PD ending dates record). The number of periods per year is defined and stored in the company control record.

A journal that exists on file is valid. Journals are set up through the GL Journal F/M. The system uses journal numbers to separate journal entries by the type of entry (example: sales, payroll, receivables, etc.). The length of the journal number is up to four characters (alphanumeric, user-defined). Each module, when set up, determines the journal number to post the transactions of that module to in the General Ledger. For more information, refer to the Journal F/M in General Ledger.

A journal entry that exists on file is valid. Journal entries are made through the Journal Entry program (for current period) or the Prior Period Journal Entry program (for closed periods). Journal entries are stored by a 3-digit number in the journal file. An entry includes a G/L # and a debit or credit amount. This amount is posted to the GL account number and the record of this transaction is stored by journal, by entry number, in the (yearly - for closed periods) journal file.

The last closed period is the prior period immediately preceding the current period. For example, if a company’s fiscal year has 12 periods and the current period is June, then the last closed period is May.

A mask is used to format a number when printing. For example, printing the number -1 through a mask of “-##0.00” would print “-1.00”, or through a mask of “(##000.00)” would print (001.00). The user can select which format to use on the GL financial reports in the GL Report Setup F/M. Options include: a negative sign before the number, a negative sign after the number, commas every 3 digits, parentheses for negative numbers, one, two, or no decimal places, etc.

If for some reason the system shuts down or encounters a hardware problem, instead of zeroing out any corrupted accounts, the system posts any unbalanced entries to the Out of Balance account. Normally, this account is not used.

To post an amount is to store a number under a specific GL account number. For example, the user receives a phone bill for $60. The bill is entered into the system in the AP Document Entry program. When the period is closed and the AP Document Entry Register is run, that $60 is stored under a G/L# designated for phone expenses. This act of storing it under an account number is called posting. The system posts amounts to accounts in order to classify accounts (expenses, assets, liabilities, capital, and revenues) and print totals of these accounts in order to better examine the company. Posting is done automatically by the system in register programs.

A prior period is a closed period. There are a designated number of periods per fiscal year (set in the company control), the system operates in each module’s current period. Once the current period is closed, it becomes a prior period.

A recurring entry is an entry to a journal that is to be made every month. Instead of the user having to input the same entry over and over, the system allows the user make the entry initially and then posts it every month by running the Post Recur/Reverse/ Allocating program. An example of a recurring entry would be depreciation of an asset that is posted every month.

Report figures are the values of the columns (see Amount Column) on a single line of a GL financial report. These values are written to the GL figures file by a total line on the report. Usually, they are written out to be used on another report, but can be used in that same report.

Each financial report type can be printed in several formats. There formats are supplied by the system and are displayed by the Report Format F/M. Report formats are two digit numbers and are the last two numbers of a GL financial report program.

A report group that exists on file is valid. Report groups are set up through the GL Report Groups F/M. Report groups are used by the system when building the GL financial reports. Report groups hold the range of departments, branches or companies to print on the reports. For example, report group SPRT could be set up to include all the sporting good stores for a range of branches (i.e., 01-Dallas, 03-Atanta, 07-Memphis and 09-Chicago) in a particular company.

The GL financial reports require assembly by line. The user tells the system what to print on each line of the report. These lines are designated a user-defined line number in the GL Report Setup F/M. There are several types of report lines, for more information see GL Report Setup F/M.

The GL financial reports fall into three report types: P&L, Balance Sheet and Other. Each report format (how the report prints and with what accounts) has a specific report type. Report types are entered in the GL Report Setup Layout F/M.

Retained earnings are the sum total profit or loss of the company since its inception. At the end of a fiscal year, the net profit or loss is balanced by an entry in the retained earnings account.

A reversing entry is an entry to a journal that balances an entry to be posted in the next period. For example, if the user needs to expense a bill in the current period, yet does not receive the bill until the next period, a reversing entry would be entered that posts the expense to the current period, and the system automatically makes the offsetting journal entry for the next period. This way when the bill is received, the offsetting entry balances the expense of the bill entry. Most of the time this is used for accruing expenses.

A total group is one of nine subtotals for the financial reports. The system allows the user to assign the value of a specific line on the financial report to a specific total group. This enables reports to independently total and subtotal in sections that may not be in consecutive order. For example, if the first section of the P&L is overhead, the amounts might be added to total group 1. The second might be gross revenues and all the figures might be added to total group two. Total groups 2 and 1 could be subtracted from each other and stored in total group 3. The next section might subtotal commissions and store that in total group 4. If total group 4 is subtracted from 3, the report might then print total group 3, which would contain the net profit.

A report that prints the beginning balance, activity, and ending balance for each GL account over a range of periods.

A record indicating to the system where totals of accounts should print on a detail ledger/trial balance.

The undistributed amount is the difference between the allotted amount (from the header portion) and the amount allocated to G/L #’s (the detail portion). For example, if the user were making a journal entry for $100, then all $100 would have to be distributed to user-selected G/L #’s. If the full amount was apportioned (the allotted amount $100 equal to the distributed amount $50 to sales and $50 to inventory) then there would be no undistributed amount. Or, if the entire amount was not apportioned ($100 minus $50 to sales and $25 to inventory), then the amount left over ($25) would be the undistributed amount.

Variance is a term used to describe a column on the GL financial reports. The column will print the proportion between any two other columns on that same report line. This proportion is printed as a percentage of how the two amounts vary.

When the current GL period is closed, all the GL journal entries are moved to the history file. This history file is the yearly journal file. The user can view the journal entries from closed periods in the Yearly Journal Inquiry.