General Ledger

General Ledger provides accurate and current financial summaries with computer automation and traces all account data to its origin. Job numbers are attached to all General Ledger transactions, making reviews and tracking extremely user-friendly. Information automatically flows into the General Ledger from the Payroll, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable Modules, reducing data entry and preventing user errors. Customized settings are used to define the flow from General Ledger to Job Costing.

Audit Trails
General Ledger’s design is based on sound accounting principles, providing detailed audit trails pertaining to all facets of your accounting environment. Files are updated automatically and each transaction may be traced to its source. All posting logs and registers are assigned a unique identifier at the time of posting. This code is printed at the top of each posting log and is attached to the historical record of General Ledger transactions. In addition, the posting date as well as the transaction date are retained by the system. You have the option of retaining specific information such as vendor number, invoice number, customer number, etc. The availability of source data allows for the accurate review and auditing of your accounts.

Exclusive Job Reporting Detail
FOUNDATION for Windows is the only construction accounting system available that automatically attaches the job number to every income and expense transaction. This exclusive feature enables users to extract General Ledger data by job in detail or summary format. The ability to print income statements or trial balance activity by job is unique among all accounting software. Direct burden expenses, such as employer FICA, workers’ compensation and union fringes are accurately pro-rated among jobs. The balancing of Job Costing and General Ledger is seamless and automatic. This is particularly useful when tying out your bonding type reports to the General Ledger, ensuring integrity and reliability in the job schedules.

Divisionalized Accounting/Profit Center
The system optionally allows for up to four (4) division levels with an unlimited number of breakdowns within each division. Division classifications may include regions, states, companies, departments, districts, etc. For example, you may define two (2) division levels consisting of ten (10) departments and four (4) regions. All reports can be formatted and run based on your predefined divisions. Income statements can be printed for a single region or companywide for all regions.

Check Reconciliation
Check reconciliation allows multiple bank accounts as well as a single checking account for both Payroll and Accounts Payable. Clearing outstanding checks and deposits is simply a matter of “checking off” those outstanding items displayed on your screen. Any errors made can easily be corrected with a few keystrokes. A reconciliation report is available within the system and can quickly determine if the accounts are in balance. When out of balance, an analysis report can be run to identify the source of a reconciliation error.

User-Defined Accounts
All General Ledger accounts are user-definable. This allows you to retain your current chart of accounts in full. As indicated previously, each account may be divided into four subdivisions to account for such entities as regions, companies, departments, districts, etc.

Fiscal Periods
Because FOUNDATION for Windows retains historical transaction detail, there are few restrictions in defining your fiscal periods. If desired, the General Ledger will allow the posting of transactions for prior periods. This feature can streamline the transition to new fiscal periods. User-defined controls prevent accidental posting to prior and future periods.

Balance to Job Costing
The balance between Job Costing and General Ledger is rigorously maintained by automatic checks performed by each module and a system of reports for validation.

Account Budgets
The system allows you to budget all accounts for any user-defined period. Budgets are entered in the same manner as journal entries. Budget reports are available for past, present and future periods.

Year-End Closing
With FOUNDATION for Windows, the year-end closing doesn’t slam a steel door on your previous period data. The system will allow for adjustment of entries at a later date. Closing an account simply clears the account for the coming fiscal year, while maintaining the prior years’ data in full detail.

Historical General Ledger Reports
Since the General Ledger system retains historical information, transaction detail may be accessed by account, transaction date, actual posting date, subdivision, job, journal, module and/or transaction number. General Ledger reports may be run for prior periods to give a snapshot of the General Ledger accounts from a specific moment in the past. You can run an income statement, balance sheet, even a five-day activity report for a date occurring years earlier. This feature is invaluable for company audits.

Income Statements and Balance Sheets
Formats of income statements and balance sheets are flexible, to accommodate your company’s reporting requirements. The report templates are easily defined using the intuitive General Ledger DataGenie© and can be stored for future use and modified as needed.

Reports
The General Ledger offers a variety of different report formats. The same basic format can provide a managerial summary or a detailed analysis. The report topics available include:

Overhead Allocation
FOUNDATION for Windows allows the allocation of overhead to be based upon a formula which you define. This function provides for all expenses which cannot be directly applied to a specific job. (Other payroll related expenses including FICA, union fringes and workers’ compensation are applied using the Payroll Module’s burden function.) For example, you may base overhead on labor and/or material accounts with a weighted formula which varies by account.

• History Detail
• Trial Balance
• Job General Ledger Activity
• Post Log
• Check Register
• Cash Account Reconciliation
• General Ledger Financial

General Ledger DataGenie©
The revolutionary General Ledger DataGenie makes the creation of user-defined financial statements and reports easy. This feature allows row and column formatting of financial statements that meet both internal and external requirements. The tool allows you to define and lay-out reports using any combination of data from the General Ledger Module through a simple click-and-drag interface. All user-defined reports are stored in the system and can be run for any prior period at any time. Report templates can be modified at any time.