G/L Options Screen

This is the account to which the G/L Create New Year screen closes all income and expense accounts that are not specifically assigned to another retained earnings account.

If you use multi-segment account numbers, you can close income and expense accounts by segments, and assign a separate retained earnings account to each segment code, using the G/L Segment Codes screen.

For example, you can do year-end closing by the department segment, and assign a different retained earnings account to each department in your company. If any department lacks a retained earnings account, General Ledger uses the default account you enter on the Account tab of the G/L Options screen.

You can change the default closing account before or after doing year-end closing.

If you selected the Multicurrency option, you must also select the type of exchange rate (such as a spot rate or weekly rate) you use most often when converting source currencies to functional currency during transaction entry.

You select the default rate type for General Ledger on the Account tab of the G/L Options screen. You define currencies, rate types, rate tables and exchange rates using the Currency screens.

You can change the default rate type at any time, and use a different rate type when you enter a transaction.

Functional currency is the currency in which your company keeps its books (also known as the base currency or home currency). The functional currency is usually the currency used in the country where your business has its headquarters.

• You use the Company Profile screen to specify the functional currency for the company.
• You use the Currency Codes screen to define currency codes for the company.

Important! After you select this option, you cannot clear it.

Select this option if you will post quantities (for example, number of pounds, kilograms, shares of stock, or other units of measure), as well as monetary amounts, to your accounts.

When you select this option, you must also enter the largest number of decimal places (up to three) used in any of the units of measure in which you post quantities. Financial and budget information is always stored with the same number of decimal places. This number is determined by the functional (home) currency you define for the company.

With each account that uses quantities, General Ledger keeps a quantity balance and net change in quantity for each fiscal period, as well as a monetary balance and net change. You can provisionally post quantities as well as monetary amounts.

Important! After you select this option, you cannot clear it.

If you specified multicurrency processing for the company (on the Company Profile screen), select this option to use multicurrency accounting for your General Ledger data files.

A multicurrency ledger allows you to enter, import, post, store, and report transactions in more than one currency.

Note: On the G/L Accounts screen, you must select the Multicurrency option for each account that you want to keep separate source currency balances.

This field appears if you selected euro as your functional currency and specified a reporting currency.

You specify a rounding account to ensure that journal entries entered in the reporting currency balance during posting.

Select this option to classify General Ledger accounts using standard groupings such as Cash and Cash Equivalents, Fixed Assets, Cost of Sales, and so on.

If you select this option, you must assign an account group to each account that you add to your ledger.

Select this option if you want to allow batches to be posted to previous years.

Because you can select or clear this option at any time, you might want to leave it off to ensure that you do not accidentally post to a prior year, such as when you enter an incorrect transaction date.

However, there are some circumstances under which it should be allowed. For example, you may need to post to a prior year to:

• Enter the last year's closing account balances when you create the General Ledger database in order to set up opening balances for the current year and to enter historical data.
• Correct errors in prior-year figures.
• Enter adjustments for a prior year after the year is closed.

Note: General Ledger can post only to an active fiscal year.

Provisional posting is temporary posting. If you select this option, General Ledger lets you post transactions to accounts and produce financial reports that include the provisionally posted transactions.

At a later time, you can discard or edit provisionally posted transactions if necessary, and you can post them again—either provisionally or permanently.

For more information, see About Provisional Posting.

Specify the source code to use as the default on the G/L Journal Entry screen.

Specify the information that General Ledger users can edit in transactions in imported batches (batches created in another program, and then imported).

You can allow editing of the following information:

• All fields
• Only dates (fiscal period and year, document date, posting date, and dates for transaction details)
• No editing

Select this option if you want to strengthen your audit trail.

If you select this option:

• You must print a listing of each batch and each batch must be free of errors before you can post it.
• If you edit a batch, you must print another listing of it before posting. You can print batch listings to the print destinations available to you.

If you do not select this option, you can still list a batch before processing it, but the listing is optional.

Specify the number of years (prior to the current year) for which you want to save period balances and net changes for accounts.

You can maintain up to 99 years of history, depending on your business requirements and data storage capacity.

When you perform Period End Maintenance, fiscal sets older than the number of years specified are deleted. The G/L Period End Maintenance screen gives you the option of deleting fiscal period balances and net changes that are older than this number of years.

Specify the number of years (prior to the current year) for which you want to keep posted transaction history.

The number of years for which you keep detail must not exceed the number in the Years Of Fiscal Sets field.

You can keep up to 99 years of transaction detail and fiscal sets.

When you perform Period End Maintenance, transaction details older than the number of years specified are deleted. The G/L Period End Maintenance screen gives you the option of deleting transaction details that are older than this number of years.

Select a budget set if you want to prevent users from entering, deleting, or changing amounts. You can lock a set to prevent anyone from entering budget data into a fiscal set you decided not to use. Or you may want to lock the fiscal set that contains your original budget after the figures for all the accounts are entered.

You can create up to five sets of budgets for each General Ledger account.

A Budget fiscal set can be locked or unlocked at any time. Locking a Budget fiscal set does not delete it; budget information is saved for the number of years specified in the Years Of Fiscal Sets field on the Posting tab of the G/L Options screen.

Select the account segment for which you will specify additional information.

For more information, see About Account Segments.

Select the account number structure used most often in your General Ledger account numbers. For example, If you have two account number segments, and most of your account numbers use both segments, you would enter the code for the account number structure that includes both segments.

The default structure code you specify appears on the Detail tab of the G/L Accounts screen when you are adding new accounts, and specifies the format of the account number, unless you assign a different structure.

Use the G/L Account Structures screen to define the account number structures you want to use with General Ledger.

Select the character that will separate the different segments of the account number.

When you enter account numbers throughout the program, you can type the delimiter characters yourself, or let General Ledger automatically insert them for you.

Valid delimiters are - / \ . *