Fundware® Update
November, 2006
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Advanced Fund
Management Solutions
Hi Everyone,
This month we look at a way to post prorated budgets-with the Allocation Management module. This is something that only Classic Budget Forecasting could do automatically. We give you an effective work around.
We also take a look at Payroll's employee change log and provide tips on how to troubleshoot your chart of accounts.
As always, if you have any questions regarding a FundWare® issue, please contact me at
(318) 253-8556, or email me at jgarv@afmss.com
Thanks,
Judy Garver
Employee Change Log
You are probably making changes to your employee's information in the Payroll module all the time.
If you need a record of those changes, for example you want to verify that they have been made; show
the changes to your supervisor; or, review an assistant's work, you are in luck! Fundware provides an
employee change log. In this article we show you what it looks like, how to "turn it on", and to
purge it when it gets too large.You are probably making changes to your employee's information in the
Payroll module all the time. If you need a record of those changes, for example you want to verify
that they have been made; show the changes to your supervisor; or, review an assistant's work, you
are in luck! Fundware provides an employee change log. In this article we show you what it looks
like, how to "turn it on", and to purge it when it gets too large.
To turn on the feature, go to Payroll/Setup. The first item in field 2 is "Log emp maint".
Choose "Y" as the response. This is all it takes to turn on the feature.
Once you have made your first changes, go to Payroll/Reports/Predefined Reports/Employee change
Log. For report level, choose "D" for detail. Leave everything else as is (note that you can select
a spreadsheet output, if you wish). The report that is produced is called "PYSESS": it's shown below.
Note that user 101 made changes to employees 125 and 151. 125's changes involved direct deposit
changes. Each field went from nothing ("") to something like "638413".
To purge this log, if it gets too long, go to Payroll/Processing/Periodic Processing/Purge
Employee Change Log. You may purge up through a date you choose.
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Posting Prorated Budget with Allocation Management
If you have the Classic version of Budget Forecasting you know how handy it is to be able to post
budgets to accounts based on the accounts' actuals in a previous year. We call this prorating.
If an account had 10 percent of the actuals in January of last year, we could automatically give that
account 10 percent of next year's total budget in January of next year. This article shows you how to
post prorated budgets (on accounts you wish) using a workaround with the Allocation Management module.
This is a workaround, and requires certain conditions. First, there can be no budget amounts in the accounts you will be prorating in the new budget year. Second, and this is an exception, you must enter each account's annual budget amount in the last accounting period of your budget year. And, third, you must run the allocation below sequentially using a business date in your first accounting period through the last (twelve times).
The allocation calculations shown below can be modified, if necessary. Not shown is the fact that it is repeating on the mask A000 79XX-00 0. In other words it will sequentially deal with the 79XX accounts in program 000.
Let's assume you are running this for your first month, July. Rows 100 and 110 bring in July's actuals and last year's total actuals, respectively. Row 120 divides them to get July's percentage of the annual expenses. Row 130 gets the total budget amount for the account from the budget year (all in the last period). Row 140 uses the July percentage from last year to calculate July's portion of the annual budget. Row 141 brings in the monthly budget amount (this is a test to see if we're in the last period). Row 142 checks to see if the monthly budget is greater than zero. If so, we must be in the last period and must reduce the annual budget amount to the proper prorated monthly amount. Row 143 does that. Row 150 posts the prorated amount to the account.
Even though we are posting budget amounts, we must make a balanced entry because we have dealt with actuals in the calculations. An offsetting entry is posted to a bogus account that can be zeroed out later.
Talk to us about this technique if you would like to prorate budgets!
Ask Judy...
Q When making journal entries I have to enter through the reference fields to get to the amount field. We don't use the references, is there a way to skip them?
Murdoch
A When you are in the journal entry screen, right click the mouse in the large gray area. You will see a list of fields. The ones that are checked are the ones that are visible. Uncheck the three references and they won't be seen. You may always turn them back on by checking them again, if necessary. While we're at it, if you don't like the order of the fields you use, click on the column title above the field such as "Amount", and drag the column to the left or right.
Q We have used Classic Fixed Assets for years. Now we're at 7.40 and will be installing the Windows version. Will our data convert to the new version?
Willard
A All you have to do is install the new Fixed Assets (using the registration key Fundware gave you). When you go in via the new menu item, you will see your fixed assets waiting for you, along with all of your history! You will notice that Groups are now called Classes and that Locations are called Cost Centers. All of the same features you are used to are there, plus the advantages Windows offers.
Troubleshooting the Chart of Accounts
The chart of accounts screen presents several ways to find problems with your accounts. This articles discusses one way to spot problems with your attributes. Note the image below, specifically the "System Reserved" column. This column shows the accounts' system reserve attribute. This is the attribute that describes what type of account it is and causes the account to appear on the proper reports. For several reasons, accounts can end up with the incorrect attribute, or none at all. To help spot problems, try clicking on the words "System Reserved". This will sort the accounts by their attributes. Then, clicking on the column title again, move the column so that it is next to the Object column. It is then very easy to scroll down the chart and spot missing attributes or incorrect attributes by comparing the attribute with the object code (here, assets should be attached to accounts that have an object code starting with a "1". You may also notice accounts without attributes (they sort first, see image at right). They need correcting, too.
Did You Know...?
General Ledger. When you perform the Year-End Processing task you may check the "Preview (no posting)" box and you will get a GLREEX report that shows what will happen if you do it for real. When you are ready to perform the task for real, uncheck the "Preview (no posting)" box. Otherwise, your revenue and expense accounts will not be zeroed out correctly and their balances will roll into the next year when you roll balances.
Account Utilities. If you have a chart of accounts with some account descriptions capitalized, some not, or inconsistent naming (such as "Accounts Payable" and "Payables" for the same type of accounts), you may use the Account Utilities feature to quickly make corrections to many accounts at once. If you are not familiar with the utility, however, it is possible to change accounts you don't intend to. Call us for help if you need assistance.
Accounts Receivable. AR may be setup using only one receivables account. Or, each customer may have its own receivables account. In addition, by masking the fund, for example, on the receivables account, the fund could be provided by the revenue account of the item being sold.
Links to Other FundWare® Sources
There are several sources of information on the internet that can make your Fund-Ware®
experience more productive and effective. Check out the following sites:
This is Fundware's home page. On it you will find the latest in file fixes and program updates.
In addition, you may search the knowledge base for answers to your support questions.
Check out my site for a complete listing of the products and services I offer.
This site offers a number of products that add an extra measure of functionality to FundWare®.
One of these products may make your life a lot easier.
This site offers a number of free downloads that will help you get more out of Fund-Ware®.
