 General Ledger Merge Questions and AnswersWhen using the GL Merge routine, we are taking the data that is captured at the End of Day (Closeout) routine, and compiling it into several GL transactions. One transaction might include an entry for Sales, Sales Tax, Cash and Credit card receipts. Another entry would involve recognizing the payments that were received on account (this is usually a debit to A/R) and Charges to Account (a credit to A/R). Frequently asked Questions - Q. I'm clueless. How do I get started with the GL merge? A. The first thing to do is to create your Chart of Accounts with your CPA. Next try a sample transaction from within MicroBiz - that is, ring up a sale and CLOSEOUT the day. Now you will have something to export. Go to the GL Merge (Main Menu - Tools) and select the Accounting package you are planning to export to. Next go to Edit/Browse Accounts. To make this easy, do ONLY one Variable - COG. This stands for Cost of Goods. You will have a debit AND a credit entry . The debit entry might be a Cost of Goods account, the credit entry might be Inventory. Leave ALL the other DR and CR number fields blank. Don't try to change the Variable names. Again, Fill in ONLY the Debit account NUMBER (Quickbooks users MUST use numbers) AND the CREDIT account NUMBER fields, for Variable COG. Now, do a Post Closeouts. This will create the ascii file in the sub-directory (folder) that you selected. Next - start up the accounting package you are using and IMPORT that file. If you did everything correctly you will import the transaction without a problem. Finally - before you go to see if those accounts were changed, you should see if your accounting program requires you to POST those entries. Betcha it does. Now that you see it really works, you are ready to tackle the most difficult problem of all - to set up the Accounts format so that you create a "Balanced transaction. " You may remember from Accounting 101 that each Debit must have a Credit to offset it. However, most accounting packages want the entire transaction to balance. So you do NOT have to have both a credit and a debit account number on the same line, but all the credits must equal all the debits. Don't try to use every variable. Start slowly and tweak it as you go along. Q. Can I send my A/R detail (by customer) to my G/L ? A. No. You need to keep your A/R detail at the front counter (in MicroBiz) so that customers who are exceeding their Account Limit can be flagged immediately. MicroBiz is a "front counter" package - Accounting software is more of a "back office" package. Q. Can I send my Sales by Department detail to the G/L? A. There is no need, because the reports on the sales detail is done through the MicroBiz program. See the Reports section Q. When I try to import my data, I get a message from the G/L package that my transaction does not balance. Why? A. Most likely - if this is a new setup - is that the entries being created do not balance. There may be a debit, without the appropriate credit. If this is an existing system, where posting has been done before, it may be due to the End of Day data having been edited, or a system crash during the day. Most accounting packages allow you to edit the transaction as you receive it. If necessary, you can use the Edit End of Day option. See Miscellaneous Menu. Q. My accounting package is listed, but the merge does not work? A. Your accounting software manufacturer may have upgraded the version and changed the Import routine. While we try to keep current with these, manufacturers do not always provide us with notice about such changes. If this is the case, please fax us a copy of the latest merge notes from the accounting software manufacturer. Q. My accounting package is not listed, what do I do? A. MicroBiz tries to maintain exports for the best selling accounting packages. You can contact us to ask if we do intend to write a merge for that package. Also, you can use the standard export to create a text file and then see if your accounting package will be able to import it. The format is as follows: Trans # , MM/DD/YY , Account name , Acct # , debit $, credit $ Note that NOT both debit and credit amounts are filled in, only one of them will be. MB0421 1 , 4/21/97 , Sales , 41100 , , 12922.90 MB0421 1 , 4/21/97 , Sales tax , 25000 , , 0 MB0421 1 , 4/21/97 , Cost of goods-INV , 12200 , ,974.82 MB0421 1 , 4/21/97 , Mdse Received-INV , 12200 , 754.99 etc. Note that the 12200 account has two entries - one is for the COGS for that day, the other is for merchandise that was RECEIVED into the system that day. The 12200 account in this case is the Inventory account. Similarly, the Accounts Receivable account will get two entries!!!! If you utilize a chart of accounts that is similar to the one provided by the accounting software company, this should be simple to set up. Have a question about point-of-sale hardware or MicroBiz software? Visit the MicroBiz WebBoard. Click here to print this page |
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