General Ledger Menu

The General Ledger menu gives you a way to produce financial statements based on a combination of automatically generated entries (sales, payables, receivables) and manual entries (payroll, etc.). A good foundation in accounting is suggested for any user contemplating use of this application.

Journal Entry

This area may be used for creating new manual or standard journals and also for making changes to system generated journals prior to posting. Posted journals cannot be selected or modified from this area.

Journal Selection

Once journals have been generated, they must be selected and then posted before account balances are affected. Open journals can be modified or deleted (in some cases) prior to posting, but not after. The open status initially assigned to new journals is provided so that users have time to review their entries prior to final posting.

Post Journals

Posting closes the journal so that no future changes may be made and affects account balances. Posted journals cannot be modified; however, a posted journal inquiry is provided.

Close Cycle

For the fiscal year, there are 13 cycles. Each month is assigned a cycle (1-12) and a 13th cycle is provided for adjustments. Cycles must be closed manually (by a user) and must be closed in sequential order starting with the oldest open cycle. Once a cycle is closed, no further entries may be made in that period. Closing the final adjustment cycle for the year closes the year. Once the fiscal year has been closed, no further entries/changes can be made! Users should only close the year after they've consulted with their company's accountant and completed any adjustments required.

Cycles are not closed automatically and can remain open for months and even years (although this is not suggested). This gives a company time to make adjustments and verify posted amounts prior to closing a cycle. Eventually, if you have not closed any cycles in a long enough time (2+ years), you will be blocked from posting journals until some cycles are closed. Once your financial statements have been completed, reviewed, and accepted by your accountant, it's usually safe to close the cycles for that fiscal year.

Budget Entry

Using the Budget feature is optional. Some financial statements allow you to optionally print budget figures alongside your actual balances for comparison. Budgets can be created using prior numbers, manually, or by using a combination of methods.

Special Topics

This section provides additional topics related to General Ledger that may be useful to you. These topics include:

Overview of General Ledger

General Ledger Reports