Accounting for Nonprofits General Ledger Guide

[Pages:330]080803

2002 Blackbaud, Inc. This publication, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Blackbaud, Inc.

The information in this manual has been carefully checked and is believed to be accurate. Blackbaud, Inc., assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies, errors, or omissions in this manual. In no event will Blackbaud, Inc., be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from any defect or omission in this manual, even if advised of the possibility of damages.

In the interest of continuing product development, Blackbaud, Inc., reserves the right to make improvements in this manual and the products it describes at any time, without notice or obligation.

The Raiser's Edge, MatchFinder, ParaGon, RE:Alum, RE:Event, RE:Member, RE:Queue, RE:Tribute, RE:Volunteer, RE:Zip, RE:Open, and Blackbaud are registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc.

All other products and company names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective holder.

AFN-GeneralLedgerGuide-080803

General Ledger Guide

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Standard Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Optional Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 General Ledger Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Online Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

SYSTEM BASICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Navigating in General Ledger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Common Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Using the Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Using the Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Accessing Lookup Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Exporting to Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Grouping Records in Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

ESTABLISHING YOUR CHART OF ACCOUNTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Designing Your Chart of Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 General Ledger's Two Account Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Understanding Account Segments and Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Guidelines for Establishing the Chart of Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 The Arrangement of Your Chart of Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 General Ledger Setup Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

CONFIGURATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Configuration Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Tables Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Defining Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Defining Fiscal Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Establishing Funds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Defining Account Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Creating Consolidation Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Defining Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 International Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Investment Pools Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Investment Fees Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Interfund Entries Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Account Management Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Creating Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Managing Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Using the Chart Organizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

JOURNAL ENTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Journal Entry Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 General Journal Batches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Recurring Journal Entry Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Creating a New Batch Using Recurring Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

POST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Post Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 General Journal Batches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Batches from other Blackbaud Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

QUERY AND EXPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Query and Export Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Query Criteria Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Accessing Query and Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Establishing Query Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Query and Export Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Reports Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

SECURITY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Security Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Security Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Security Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

UTILITIES AND HOUSEKEEPING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Utilities and Housekeeping Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 Beginning Balances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Editing FAS 117 Balances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 Account Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Budget Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 End-of-Year Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Creating GL Interface Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Introduction

In This Chapter

Standard Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Optional Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Budget Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Accounting Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Project, Grant and Endowment Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Interest Income Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Bank Account Reconciliation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 General Ledger Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 User's Guide Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Chapter Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Text Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Special Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Online Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

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CHAPTER 1

Welcome to General Ledger for Windows, Blackbaud's program designed to streamline fund accounting for nonprofit organizations. General Ledger's flexible, user-defined account structure allows you to customize the program for the specific needs of your organization. You can record account detail and keep years of transaction data online. This enables you to perform comprehensive year-to-year trend analyses or quickly summarize fiscal year data.

General Ledger also allows you to plan future budgets, produce long-range budget reports, and export information to a database, spreadsheet, or word processor. You can post transactions easily and efficiently using the data entry area of the program. You can also save time by posting multiple batches of transactions in a single operation.

With General Ledger you can consolidate funds for your reporting needs. Using the consolidation features, you can group accounts for external reports (including FAS 117 statements), internal management reports, board reports, or other formats required by regulators or funding sources while maintaining your original account structure.

To meet your reporting needs, General Ledger offers more than 30 standard, ready-to-run reports. You can also use filters to customize the reports for your specific needs.

All these features can make your organization's finance and account management system run more smoothly and efficiently, while increasing productivity.

This chapter introduces you to the program modules, documentation, and other resources available to you throughout General Ledger.

Standard Modules

The following modules are included in General Ledger:

? Configuration: You use this module to customize your program by defining fiscal years, funds, consolidations, table entries, and distributions. You can define attributes that customize the information stored on your account records and establish system and user preferences that determine how certain items appear in General Ledger.

? Account Management: You use this module to store and manage all your account information. You can define account numbers using up to 30 characters and customize account information by defining attributes. You can also research and view account activity, establish a budget for fiscal years defined in your system, and set up consolidations to handle external reporting (including FAS 117 statements).

? Journal Entry: You use this module to create batches of transactions for posting to your General Ledger accounts. A batch contains individual debit and credit transactions. Through Journal Entry, batches can be entered, imported, validated, copied, deleted, reversed, displayed, printed, or posted. You can also create recurring entries that simplify data entry. You can also post batches using the automatic validation feature, which prevents posting out-of-balance batches.

? Post: You use this module to validate and post multiple general journal batches. It is also used to set up automatic posting between General Ledger and other Blackbaud software, such as Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Miscellaneous Cash Receipts, and Student Billing.

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