About Periodic Processing

This topic outlines the daily, period-end, and year-end procedures you should follow in your Sage 300 programs, and the order in which you should perform these periodic tasks.

Sage 300 comes with three periodic processing checklists that you can print and use to ensure that you complete all the steps in the correct order.

Note: Individual tasks are fully described in the help for each Sage 300 subledger program.

Daily Processing

One objective of daily processing is to keep your Sage 300 General Ledger up to date with the purchase, sales, and productive activity recorded in your subsidiary ledgers.

Typically, you perform the following tasks on a daily basis in your subsidiary ledgers:

• Enter and post transactions.
• Run Day End Processing at the end of the day, or several times a day, to update cost and quantity data for Inventory Control, Order Entry, Purchase Orders, Project and Job Costing, and ePOS. More...

  If your company uses the Inventory Control option to cost items during posting, Sage 300 updates item quantities and costs in Inventory Control when you post transactions in Order Entry or Purchase Orders, or material usage or material returns in Project and Job Costing.

  However, you must run Day End Processing to update your audit trail and item statistics and to create general ledger transactions for Order Entry and Purchase Orders. If you chose the option to cost items during day-end processing, you must also run Day End Processing to update quantities and costs.

• Print batch lists, transaction lists, and posting journals to verify the accuracy of entries and to maintain an audit trail.
• Create G/L batches to update General Ledger with the subsidiary ledger information, if you do not use the option to create G/L batches on posting.
• Back up and check the integrity of your data.

In General Ledger, you:

• Enter and post batches of journal entries.
• Post batches that were created for General Ledger in the subsidiary ledgers.
• Print source journals, batch lists, transaction lists, and posting journals to verify the accuracy of entries and to maintain an audit trail.
• Back up and check the integrity of your data.

To ensure efficient and complete processing throughout your accounting system, you should create and follow a daily processing schedule. More...

Period-End Processing

Period-end procedures prepare the ledgers for the next accounting period. You may need a full working day to do these activities, depending on the number of programs you use.

Because each accounting program handles a specialized task, period-end operations vary from program to program.

Here is the order you should follow at the end of each period:

• Ensure that current period transactions are posted in all Sage 300 ledgers. (Follow your usual daily procedures.)

• In your subsidiary ledgers, generate and post periodic transactions, including recurring payables, recurring charges, interest invoices, write-off transactions, and retainage documents, on a monthly basis (or as required).

  Perform period-end processing in your subsidiary ledgers in the following order:

  1. Order Entry, Purchase Orders.
  2. Inventory Control. Run Day End Processing, as usual, to ensure that cost and quantity information is up to date throughout your system.

  3. Project and Job Costing. On a weekly basis (or as required):

     • Create and post billings to update Accounts Receivable.
     • Run Update Payroll to send timecards to US or Canadian Payroll.
     • Recognize revenue.
  4. Payroll (U.S. or Canadian).

  5. Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable. For these programs:

     • Check data integrity, and back up your data.
     • Print all audit trail reports.
     • Create G/L batches to transfer transactions to General Ledger, if you do not use the option to create G/L batches on posting.

  6. General Ledger. For this program:

     • Generate and post periodic transactions, including recurring transactions.
     • Post all batches, then print source journals.
     • Print General Ledger reports, and check them to verify that your system is balanced.

Year-End Procedures

At year end, data in most Sage 300 subsidiary ledgers programs is cleared for the current year. In General Ledger, revenue and expense accounts are closed to retained earnings.

Year-end processing is a relatively simple, but time-consuming, procedure. Expect to use up to one full day to do the year-end closing for a fully integrated accounting system.

To perform year-end procedures, first, complete the period-end procedures for all programs you use (see the detailed lists earlier in this chapter). Once that is done, follow the year-end procedures below for your programs.

If you use more than one program, start with the first one on the year-end checklist, and work your way to the last one, skipping over instructions for programs you do not use.

Order Entry, Purchase Orders, Inventory Control, Payroll, Project and Job Costing, and ePOS programs do not have their own Year End function. You follow the same procedures you use at any period end. In addition, you should reconcile inventory, print year end statements for these programs, and clear statistics and sales and purchase history that you no longer need.

For Inventory Control, you should count your inventory and adjust for any variances as part of your regular year-end procedures. However, you may need to follow some procedures more frequently, depending on the needs of your business. More...

If you use the US or Canadian Payroll program and your fiscal year-end date is not December 31, you print government reports at the end of the calendar year, rather than at the end of the fiscal year. More...

Before you run year-end processing in any Sage 300 program, be sure to check data integrity and back up your data.