www.investopedia.com/ntaining-business-records.asp

Posted by admin on May 20, 2012
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By Amy Fontinelle

Creating and maintaining thorough business records is essential. These records will help you analyze your business’s profitability, stay out of trouble with tax authorities, maintain positive relationships with clients and vendors, protect your business from lawsuits and win lawsuits if you are harmed. For the most part, you can choose any record keeping system that works for you. However, laws and best practices require/suggest specific methods of record keeping and lengths of time to keep different types of records. Which specific regulations and practices apply to you will depend on your line of business. Certain records are key to all businesses, however, and we’ll discuss a few of the most important ones here.

Quality book keeper services don’t need to cost a fortune – get yourself a quote from Sunshine Coast Bookkeeping.

Client Files

You should have paper files and/or electronic files for every client and every project. It’s important to keep a record of the work you’ve done and the business agreements you’ve made in case you or the other party has a question about it after the fact. Also, sometimes you can use your past assignments and agreements to inform your future ones, saving you time. Client files are also a good place to store notes about a client’s preferences or anything else unique to that client that you want to remember. Set aside some time once a day, once a week or once a month to keep your files organized. The same goes for backing up your electronic files. (For more tips, see Keeping Clients Through Good And Bad .)

Contracts

If your business provides a service, you should sign a contract with your client every time you begin doing business with a new person or company. If you provide a product, you may have contracts with suppliers, distributors and the like. And if you have employees, you’ll definitely want to draw up employment contracts.

If you’re working with an established business, it will often have an existing contract for you to sign. Of course, it may be beneficial if you’re the one who writes the contract, as it may give you bargaining power over the terms of the business relationship that way.

As for smaller businesses and individuals, you’ll usually need to bring your own contract to the table. Before you open for business, you should create a standard contract that lays out the basic areas you want to cover in every business agreement, such as time frame, pay, and what the job entails. Your contract may also cover issues such as confidentiality, records, liability and ownership of work product. You will want to tailor the contract to each business agreement you create, but that process will be faster if you have a starting point. Working from a form contract can also ensure that you don’t leave anything important out.

Contracts serve the obvious purpose of making it easier for you to file a lawsuit if you don’t get paid or if your client commits any other harmful breach of contract. But contracts also serve a few less obvious functions. They spell out the details of the work to be performed, providing both you and your client with an opportunity to make changes or clarifications before the work begins, when it is cheaper and easier to do so. Contracts also help weed out people who have no intention of paying you and show your clients that even though your business may be small and new, you are a professional and you take your work seriously.

Both you and your client should keep a copy of the signed contract for your records.

Accounting and Tax Records

If your business has complicated financial records or if you want to be able to prepare financial statements with the click of a button, business accounting software like QuickBooks can be a big help. Be warned, though, that to use business accounting software accurately and effectively requires some accounting knowledge. If you don’t know what debits , credits and journal entries are, this software may just cause you headaches. You can always keep records by hand or by spreadsheet. In many cases, spreadsheet software can serve all of your accounting needs – at least while your business is small. You can even get free spreadsheet software by downloading Open Office, an open-source software suite similar to Microsoft Office. (For more, see Business Startup Costs: It’s In The Details .)

The types of records you need to keep for accounting and tax purposes include the following:

Business expenses


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Starting A Small Business: Record Keeping | Investopedia

Posted by admin on May 20, 2012
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By Amy Fontinelle

Creating and maintaining thorough business records is essential. These records will help you analyze your business’s profitability, stay out of trouble with tax authorities, maintain positive relationships with clients and vendors, protect your business from lawsuits and win lawsuits if you are harmed. For the most part, you can choose any record keeping system that works for you. However, laws and best practices require/suggest specific methods of record keeping and lengths of time to keep different types of records. Which specific regulations and practices apply to you will depend on your line of business. Certain records are key to all businesses, however, and we’ll discuss a few of the most important ones here.

Superb book keeper services don’t need to cost a fortune – get yourself a quote from Sunshine Coast Bookkeeping.

Client Files

You should have paper files and/or electronic files for every client and every project. It’s important to keep a record of the work you’ve done and the business agreements you’ve made in case you or the other party has a question about it after the fact. Also, sometimes you can use your past assignments and agreements to inform your future ones, saving you time. Client files are also a good place to store notes about a client’s preferences or anything else unique to that client that you want to remember. Set aside some time once a day, once a week or once a month to keep your files organized. The same goes for backing up your electronic files. (For more tips, see Keeping Clients Through Good And Bad .)

Contracts

If your business provides a service, you should sign a contract with your client every time you begin doing business with a new person or company. If you provide a product, you may have contracts with suppliers, distributors and the like. And if you have employees, you’ll definitely want to draw up employment contracts.

If you’re working with an established business, it will often have an existing contract for you to sign. Of course, it may be beneficial if you’re the one who writes the contract, as it may give you bargaining power over the terms of the business relationship that way.

As for smaller businesses and individuals, you’ll usually need to bring your own contract to the table. Before you open for business, you should create a standard contract that lays out the basic areas you want to cover in every business agreement, such as time frame, pay, and what the job entails. Your contract may also cover issues such as confidentiality, records, liability and ownership of work product. You will want to tailor the contract to each business agreement you create, but that process will be faster if you have a starting point. Working from a form contract can also ensure that you don’t leave anything important out.

Contracts serve the obvious purpose of making it easier for you to file a lawsuit if you don’t get paid or if your client commits any other harmful breach of contract. But contracts also serve a few less obvious functions. They spell out the details of the work to be performed, providing both you and your client with an opportunity to make changes or clarifications before the work begins, when it is cheaper and easier to do so. Contracts also help weed out people who have no intention of paying you and show your clients that even though your business may be small and new, you are a professional and you take your work seriously.

Both you and your client should keep a copy of the signed contract for your records.

Accounting and Tax Records

If your business has complicated financial records or if you want to be able to prepare financial statements with the click of a button, business accounting software like QuickBooks can be a big help. Be warned, though, that to use business accounting software accurately and effectively requires some accounting knowledge. If you don’t know what debits , credits and journal entries are, this software may just cause you headaches. You can always keep records by hand or by spreadsheet. In many cases, spreadsheet software can serve all of your accounting needs – at least while your business is small. You can even get free spreadsheet software by downloading Open Office, an open-source software suite similar to Microsoft Office. (For more, see Business Startup Costs: It’s In The Details .)

The types of records you need to keep for accounting and tax purposes include the following:

Business expenses


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Top Accounting Software For Small Businesses : Articulos de …

Posted by admin on May 18, 2012
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March 11, 2012 No comments

There are numerous free and low-cost accounting software programs for small- or medium-sized enterprises and solopreneurs that simplify accounting tasks, generate reports and provide tools that help you use your financial data.

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Intuit QuickBooks is a popular accounting, bookkeeping and payroll program designed for small businesses. QuickBooks is available in Basic, Online, Pro and Premier editions. The Pro edition includes management tools such as a Vehicle Mileage Tracker and a Cash Flow Projector.

The free Simple Start version keeps data organized, tracks sales and expenses for up to 20 customers, creates invoices, pays bills and prints checks. Simple Start tracks tax-related income and expenses, and generates essential reports on sales, expenses, profits and losses. It comes with step-by-step tutorials and 30 days of free email support, and it interfaces easily with Excel.

Your data transfers easily to other versions when you are ready to upgrade.

Simply Accounting by Sage offers First Step, Pro, Premium, Enterprise and Accountants editions. Professional versions can track customers and suppliers, manage inventory, prepare invoices and process payroll. The First Step version is designed for start-up, small and home-based businesses and can perform simple entry-level accounting tasks such as preparing invoices, paying bills, and tracking revenue and expenses. The Simply Accounting First Step free trial version is available to download and use for 60 days. Simply Accounting First Step Express is another downloadable version available free to Canadian users.

A key feature of Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting is its tight integration with MSOffice applications such as Excel, MSMoney and Outlook?s Business Contact Manager.

Office Accounting Professional has a slate of add-on features that can create purchase orders, track inventory, assess finance charges, support foreign currencies, do payroll and manage fixed assets.

The basic version called Office Accounting Express is free. It has the look and feel of familiar Microsoft Office products and can create quotes and invoices, write checks, track expenses and reconcile online bank accounts. A start-up wizard and step-by-step instructions get you up and running quickly. Office Accounting Express 2009 is designed for U.S.- and U.K.-based small businesses and does not support local requirements beyond these two countries. Both the free version and the Pro version offer bilingual English and Spanish interfaces.

NolaPro v4.0 is a free web-based business management and accounting suite. It includes all standard accounting modules as well as order entry, inventory tracking, payroll services, and plug-ins such as point-of-sale, a business-to-business web portal and an e-commerce shopping cart. It has a flexible interface with customizable options for colors, icon sets, and menu displays. NolaPro allows multiple sets of books and unlimited simultaneous users, and it has no data restrictions and no license expiration. It features a high level of security for regulating user permissions by module area.

Sandra J. Klocinski has 25 years of practical experience dealing with small businesses: this is the foundation of her exceptional bookkeeping and administrative expertise. Sandra provides professional service while offering competitive rates and personal attention. To learn about the advantages of outsourced bookkeeping for your business visit http://www.bookkeepers-and-more.com.


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Web tools and Technologies: Small Business Accounting Software …

Posted by admin on May 18, 2012
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Friday, May 4, 2012

Small Business Accounting Software – Is Your Companies Up To Scratch?

Does it make it straightforward to control your business finances? Or is it a minefield to navigate? Does it have the most desirable features or is it stuffed with all the bells and whistle features you may never need? Are you getting trustworthy and affordable support? Will your small business accounting software meet not only your current wishes but your future needs? Can it grow with your business?

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If you answer no to more than one or two of these questions then it’s potentially time to check your small business accounting software. Hard to use systems, poor support and unnecessary features can all impede your business, confuse your staff, and create inefficiencies and additional work. If you’re pondering change, start to make a list to lead you.

Here are simply a few things to start your list :

Cloud or Machine-based software : Today you have got the selection of software that lives on a physical computer, or cloud-based software. Cloud computing simply means using computer programs that are based online rather than in your office. Cloud computing can be great if you happen to have a distributed office or if your team works from home. If your team work basically from one location, an on-site system might be just as trustworthy and presumably more cost effective. You will need to get some good advice as to whether cloud computing or office-based software is best.

Coaching : If you think you will not need training, think again. It’s doubtful your new small business accounting software will be so close to your current system that your team will simply be well placed to follow their noses. Get some information on the differences in your present and proposed system. Ask about training resources too.

Continuing Support : Manuals and tutorials are not always straightforward to comprehend, so inevitably you’re going to need support. Modern technology makes that straightforward. Most companies who provide support to smaller enterprises don’t need to come to your grounds any more. They can connect remotely. No travelling time decreases the price of support.

Migrating to new systems is never as simple as you suspect it’s going to be, so find someone that can give you good advice. What you need is a company who can direct you through the entire process and then provide support once your small business accounting software is up and running. You would like a single contact point, for guidance and ongoing support.

Your Wellington and Auckland small business software professionals are just a click away.


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Oracle General Ledger User's Guide

Posted by admin on May 17, 2012
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Set Up and Maintenance

Enabling Average Balance Processing

Average balance processing is enabled by selecting the Enable Average Balances option when defining the Ledger in Accounting Setup Manager. Once the accounting setup is complete, General Ledger automatically begins to store the aggregate balances which are used to calculate average and end-of-day balances for your ledger.

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Transaction Calendar

A transaction calendar is defined using the Transaction Calendar form. When you first define a transaction calendar, you specify a name and an optional description. Using this information, General Ledger creates a transaction calendar which includes an entry for every calendar day in the range of dates which exist in your General Ledger. Each entry includes three items:

Date: the actual calendar date.

Day of Week: the day of the week.

Business Day indicator: shows whether the entry is defined as a business day. The indicator defaults to Yes for Monday through Friday and No for Saturday and Sunday. You can change the initial default values to suit your own needs.

After the transaction calendar is created, you should specify your holidays by changing the Business Day indicator to non-business day.

Transaction calendars and accounting calendars are completely independent of each other. For example, you might have one accounting calendar, shared by your parent company and all its subsidiaries. However, each subsidiary might use a separate transaction calendar to accommodate their different Holiday schedules.

Ledger

You define the attributes of a ledger, such as Accounting Calendar, Ledger Currency, Chart of Accounts and Subledger Accounting Method in Accounting Setup Manager. You can define a ledger with average balance processing enabled or you can define a consolidation ledger that will be used to consolidate average balances. In a typical ledger where average balance processing is enabled, the standard and average balances are linked, since the average balances are derived from the standard balances. To enforce this linkage, General Ledger prevents you from creating journal entries that directly manipulate average balances

In an average balance consolidation ledger, the links between standard and average balances are not enforced. As a result, you can create and post journal entries, such as eliminating entries, directly against your average balances.

See: Ledger Average Balance Options

If you choose to enable average balance processing, you must specify additional information when defining the Ledger, such as:

Transaction Calendar: A calendar used to ensure that transactions are posted only to valid business days.

Note: Average balance consolidation ledgers do not use Transaction Calendars.

Non-Postable Net Income Account: An account General Ledger uses to capture the net activity of all revenue and expense accounts when calculating the average balance for retained earnings.

(Optional) Rate Type: The conversion rate type you want to use for translating average balances. General Ledger comes with four predefined conversion rate types: Spot, Corporate, and User.

Note: You only need to specify a rate type if you plan to translate average balances.

(Optional) Maintain Translated Average Balances in Additional Amount Types: Period-Average-to-Date amount types are automatically maintained when translating average balances. Optionally, you can choose to maintain additional amount types, such as End-of-Day, Quarter Average-to-Date, and Year Average-to-Date Amounts.

Important: Each additional amount type you choose will slow processing time and increase storage requirements.

Non-Postable Net Income Account

Retained earnings contains two components for any interim accounting period:

Current account balance, which is equal to the final closing balance from the previous year.

Net income, which is the net of all revenue and expense accounts.

General Ledger calculates the average balance for retained earnings the same way that it computes average balances for any other account. However, since the system does not maintain average balances for revenue and expense accounts, some special processing takes place to handle this particular component of retained earnings.

General Ledger uses a special non-postable net income account (similar to a summary account) to capture the net activity of all revenue and expense accounts. The account is treated as a balance sheet account, with account type of Owners’ Equity. Its three stored aggregate balances are used to compute the net income impact on the retained earnings average balance for any given period, quarter, or year.

Note: You can also use the non-postable net income account in your reports and on-line inquiries.

Note: The primary difference between the non-postable net income account and other balance sheet accounts, is that its balance does not roll forward when you open a new year. Instead, General Ledger resets the account to zero when revenues and expenses are closed out to retained earnings at the end of the year.

Processing Options for Non-Business Days

There are two methods you can use to control transaction processing when effective dates fall on non-business days:

By User: Your system administrator can set up your system so that General Ledger allows transactions to be posted on non-business days. This option can be set at the Site, Application, Responsibility, or User level.

You use this method to control non-business day processing for manually entered journals.

By Source: You can specify an effective date rule for each journal source when average balance processing is enabled. You can select one of three options which tell General Ledger how to handle transactions whose effective dates are non-business days:

Leave Alone- accept transaction dates and complete posting.

Fail- reject transactions; no posting.

Roll Date- roll transactions to the previous valid business day, within the same period, and complete posting.

Note: The roll date cannot cross periods to find a valid business day. The following example illustrates the behavior when the effective date is close to a period boundary.

If April 3 is a Monday and a transaction has an effective date of April 2 (Sunday), the effective date will be rolled to April 3 (Monday), not to March 31 (Friday) .

Use this method to control non-business day processing of automated journals from your subledger systems, such as Oracle Receivables and Oracle Payables.

Opening a New Period

When you open a new accounting period, General Ledger prepares the new period for journal entry. If you open a new period when average balance processing is enabled, the system also:

Populates the aggregates table. PTD, QTD, and YTD aggregate balances are created for each balance sheet account. As transactions are posted throughout the period, General Ledger updates these aggregates, using the transaction effective date to determine which daily balances to update.

Initializes aggregate balances. PTD aggregates are set to zero. QTD and YTD aggregates are only initialized if the new period is the beginning of a quarter or a year, respectively. Otherwise, the ending QTD and YTD aggregates from the previous period are carried forward as the beginning balance of the new period.

When you open a new year, General Ledger sets the non-postable income account back to zero. The beginning balance of retained earnings is set to the sum of the prior year’s ending balance, plus the ending balance of the non-postable net income account (zero).

Archiving and Purging

When you use average balance processing, a large volume of data accumulates in your General Ledger database. You can archive and purge any information you no longer need. General Ledger also provides some related safety and security features. For example, the system:

Produces reports you can review to verify that your archiving and purging processes complete successfully.

Ensures that only archived data can be purged.

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general ledger Definition | Business Dictionaries from AllBusiness.com

Posted by admin on May 15, 2012
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Dictionary of Accounting Terms

general ledger

record of a business entity’s accounts. The general ledger contains the accounts that make up the entity’s financial statements. Separate accounts exist for individual assets, liabilities, stockholders’ equity, revenue, and expenses. In some cases, control accounts summarize detail appearing in a subsidiary ledger (e.g., individual customer accounts tying into the accounts receivable account). A trial balance is prepared of the general ledger accounts at the end of the accounting period to assure that total debits equal total credits. The general ledger may be in bound or loose-leaf form, magnetic tape, in computer memory, or other form.

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Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms

general ledger

formal ledger containing all the financial statement accounts of a business. It contains offsetting debit and credit accounts, the totals of which are proved by a trial balance. Certain accounts in the general ledger, termed control accounts, summarize the detail booked on separate subsidiary ledgers.

Dictionary of Banking Terms

general ledger

central accounting record of an organization, summarizing changes in financial position as transactions are posted during an accounting period. Accounts owned by a bank’s customers are kept separately in the bank’s bookkeeping department on subsidiary accounts, or control accounts, which are used to update the general ledger. Control accounts may list customer accounts by type, maturity, collateral, and so on, although most banks follow the accounting format required by the Comptroller of the Currency and other regulatory agencies in listing accounts for the Reports of Condition and Income (call reports). The general ledger is also the basis for financial disclosures in the call report filed with banking regulatory agencies, stockholders, and other outside organizations.

Dictionary of Business Terms

general ledger

formal ledger containing all the financial statement accounts of a business. It contains offsetting debit and credit accounts. Certain accounts in the general ledger, termed control accounts summarize the details booked on separate subsidiary ledgers.

Related Terms:

ledger

book in which all accounts of the business are kept. In effect, the ledger is a classification and summarization of financial transactions and the basis for the preparation of the balance sheet and income statement. The ledger also allows one to see the balance in a given account at a particular time. For example, the cash balance at the end of the month can be seen to determine whether the business has a cash problem. Also revealed in looking at the cash account are the cash receipts and cash disbursements for the period.

In a computerized environment, accounts may be stored on magnetic tape or disks instead of in a ledger binder. The accounting principles are, of course, still the same.

Copyright 2005, 2000, 1995, 1987 by Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., Reprinted by arrangement with Publisher.

Copyright 2006, 2003, 1998, 1995, 1991, 1987, 1985 by Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. Reprinted by arrangement with Publisher.

Copyright c 2006, 2000, 1997, 1993, 1990 by Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. Reprinted by arrangement with Publisher.

Copyright 2007, 2000, 1997, 1987, by Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. Reprinted by arrangement with Publisher.


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hledger user manual

Posted by admin on May 15, 2012
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environment variable, or standard input with

-f -

Options are similar across most commands, with some variations; use

hledger COMMAND –help

for details. Most options must appear somewhere after COMMAND, not before it. The

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-f

option can appear anywhere.

Arguments are also command-specific, but usually they are filter patterns which select a subset of the journal, eg transactions in a certain account.

To create an initial journal, run

hledger add

and follow the prompts to enter some transactions. Or, save this sample file as

.hledger.journal

in your home directory. Now try commands like these:

$ hledger # show available commands $ hledger add # add more transactions to the journal file $ hledger balance # all accounts with aggregated balances $ hledger balance –help # show help for balance command $ hledger balance –depth 1 # only top-level accounts $ hledger register # show a register of postings from all transactions $ hledger reg income # show postings to/from income accounts $ hledger reg checking # show postings to/from checking account $ hledger reg desc:shop # show postings with shop in the description $ hledger activity # show transactions per day as a bar chart

The journal file

hledger normally reads data from a plain text file in hledger journal format. hledger can read some other file formats as well, but first we’ll discuss hledger’s journal format. Note this is compatible subset of c++ ledger’s journal format , so hledger can work with many c++ ledger journal files as well.

The journal file is so called because it represents a standard accounting general journal . It contains a number of transaction entries, each describing a transfer of money (or any commodity) between two or more named accounts, in a simple format readable by both hledger and humans.

You can use hledger without learning any more about this file; just use the add or web commands. Many users, though, also edit the journal file directly with a text editor, perhaps assisted by the helper modes for emacs or vi. Note the file uses unix line endings on all platforms.

hledger’s file format aims to be compatible with c++ ledger, so you can use both tools on your journal.

Here’s an example:

; A sample journal file. This is a comment. 2008/01/01 income ; <- transaction's first line starts in column 0, contains date and description assets:bank:checking $1 ; <- posting lines start with whitespace, each contains an account name income:salary $-1 ; followed by at least two spaces and an amount 2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 ; <- at least two postings in a transaction income:gifts $-1 ; <- their amounts must balance to 0 2008/06/02 save assets:bank:saving $1 assets:bank:checking ; <- one amount may be omitted; here $-1 is inferred 2008/06/03 eat & shop ; <- description can be anything expenses:food $1 expenses:supplies $1 ; <- this transaction debits two expense accounts assets:cash ; <- $-2 inferred 2008/12/31 * pay off ; <- an optional * after the date means "cleared" (or anything you want) liabilities:debts $1 assets:bank:checking

Transactions

Each transaction begins with a date in column 0, followed by an optional description, then two or more postings (of some amount to some account), each on their own line.

The posting amounts within a transaction must always balance, ie add up to 0. You can leave one amount blank and it will be inferred.

Account names typically have several parts separated by a full colon, from which hledger derives a hierarchical chart of accounts. They can be anything you like, but in finance there are traditionally five top-level accounts:

assets


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PDQ Ledger 1.6: A Finance Application

Posted by admin on May 14, 2012
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PDQ Ledger 1.6: A Finance Application

PDQ Ledger is a Financial application that has been written entirely in Tcl/Tk . It is distributed for free use under the Open Source Artistic License . Ledger uses double-entry accounting internally, and treats categories the same as accounts. Ledger sports features such as split transactions, scheduled transactions, account reconciliation, and transaction reports . Data entry is designed to be fast and simple using features such as auto filling transactions and auto completing fields as you type . There is also support for importing QIF , CBB and Qhacc transaction files.

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Ledger was developed using Tk version 8.3 on Linux, but it should run and work anywhere that Tk does, including under Windows (and possibly the Mac). It’s user interface uses the Tk text widget in interesting ways, and it stores data in plain text TDB format: as a Tcl array of lists. Ledger is reasonably fast, and has been load tested to the tune of 13K*2 transaction.

Downloading

Ledger is actually part of a collection of software called PDQ Interfaces . It can be downloaded from the PDQI site . There is nothing to compile, but you do need to have Tcl/Tk installed. Tcl/Tk is available from http://www.tcl.tk/ and a Windows installable binary may be found here . After unzipping pdqi, just run it with pdqi/lib/ledger.tcl or wish83 pdqi/lib/ledger.tcl under windows.

Getting Started

A good first step is to create a few accounts. Note that by default, accounts are of type category, so remember to uncheck that option. Next, since all transactions must go to a category/account, you should create some categories. A quick way to do this is to use the menu entry Account/Setup/Categories to create the default categories. You are no ready to start entering transactions. Note: Send any bug reports to Peter MacDonald at peter@pdqi.com

GUI Layout

Ledger employs a simplified interface that uses a single Amount field in place of the traditional Deposit/Withdraw pair. Negative amounts are treated as a withdrawal, positive amounts as a deposit. Also, Ledger does not auto-save, so you will need to manually save every so often. Not to worry though, you will be warned if you try to quit without saving any changes.

Ledger divides the screen into two half’s. The left half is the list of accounts, while the right side lists the transactions in the current account. You can resize these by placing the cursor between the two half’s to change the cursor into a double arrow. Pressing the left mouse button , and drag in either direction and release. Conversely, column are resized using right mouse button-move with the cursor over the column headers.

Sort values in columns is easy. Just click the left mouse button on the column header. A second click reverses the order of the sort. Se below for Keyboard Mappings keyboard shortcuts for transaction creation. Common ones are: Alt-n to open a New Transaction , and Alt-e will Edit A Transaction .

Importing Transactions

Ledger can import QIF, CBB or QHACC transactions. CBB or QIF files of transactions can be imported into specific accounts. First select the destination account as the current account. Then do the import (Account/Import). Missing destination category-accounts will be created as the import proceeds, and they will be considered category-accounts so you will want to manually change those that are real accounts afterwords. Note that as ledger stores all transactions in a single file, the user should import all accounts of transactions in one session, without quiting. This will automatically eliminate duplicate transactions from preceding imports. Refer to import.log for messages and warnings resulting from imports. Also, any transaction not having a destination account/category, will go to the account Unspecified .

The Qhacc import is different since Qhacc stores all of it’s transactions in a single transaction file (just as Ledger does). Therefore Ledger can use qhacc/khacc input data files on startup, if you have never done a save yet (ie, no *.tld files). Just copy the files “account” and “transactions” into your blank ~/ledger directory and start Ledger . At startup ledger.tcl will load these files from to the ~/ledger directory. Or you can change the directory with the -dir option to use a different location.

Scheduled Transactions

Ledger supports basic scheduled transactions. These are transactions on a per/account basis. For example, to schedule a transaction for say every second Friday, select the starting date to be the first such Friday, and then set the period to 14. Similarly for quarterly transactions select monthly and set periods to 3.

Keyboard Mappings

Following are the main keyboard mappings.

Alt-s : Save. Alt-q : Quit. Alt-n : New transaction. Alt-e : Edit transaction. Return : Edit transaction. Alt-m : Move transaction. Del : Delete transaction. Down : Next transaction. Up : Previous transaction. PageDn : Next page of transactions. PageUp : Previous page of transactions. Home : Begin of transactions. End : End of transactions. Alt-Dn : Next account. Alt-Up : Previous account. Alt-b : Toggle display of menu.

Inside entry inputs within dialogs, the following bindings apply:

Alt-p : Invoke the associated buttons (such as Split, Calculator…). Up : For date fields, increase day by 1. Down : For date fields, decrease day by 1. Left : For date fields, increase month by 1. Right : For date fields, decrease month by 1. PageUp : For date fields, increase year by 1. PageDown : For date fields, decrease year by 1.

These are of course, in addition to the regular Tk key bindings.

Options

The following are the major options for Ledger , the default values are in braces: eg. (0). Refer to the ~/ledger/preference.tcl file for the complete list. All options require a value argument. Options generally may be provided either on the command-line or in the preferences.tcl file (except -dir). Preferences are saved to disk when the data is saved. Preferences used on the command line become permanent if a save occurs.

-abspos : Window placement uses geom absolute positioning. -aclist:fldmap : Account view headers. -aclist:sort : Name of field to sort by in accounts view. (aname) -aclist:sortdir : Direction of sort in accounts view. (increasing) -alt : Set to Control to use control instead of alt keys. (Alt) -bg : Background color. (lightblue) -catlower : Categories are lower cased. (1) -cvtaccts : Internal use. See the code. (0) -datefmt : Format to use for date. (%Y-%m-%d) -datefmts : List of all possible date formats. -dir : Directory to use for data. Command line only. -fg : Foreground color. -font : Font to use. -geom : Startup geometry. -hasmenu : Enable menubar. (1) -hasstatus : Enable status bar. (1) -hastoolbar : Enable toolbar. (0) -maxsplits : Max number of split transactions. (10) -lang : Set language: default is English. (en) -langtrace : If 1 trace unknown lang lookups to ~/ledger/langtrace.msg. (0) -nosched : Do not apply scheduled transactions. (0) -showcat : Show categories in accounts view. (1) -trace : Set to 1 to trace proc calls. Requires Tcl8.4. (0) -update : Update only visible part of transaction view. (1) -usecvs : Do a CVS commit at each save. See above for setup. -usercs : RCS commit each file at each save. -xaction:fldmap : Transaction view headers. -xaction:sortdir: Direction of sort in transaction view. (increasing) -xaction:sort : Name of field to sort by in transaction view. (tdate)

Note that editing the -aclist:fldmap and -xaction:fldmap options in the preferences file is the only way to change the order columns appear in views. There is currently no way to modify these via the GUI. Refer to aclist:fields and xaction:fields at the top of ledger .tcl for the full list of field names. Similarly, the field labels are stored in the preferences file where they can be edit (for English only).

Archiving

There are three archiving functions provided in Ledger These are:

Backup All – Make a backup copy the whole data directory.

Archive Transactions – Save data from a date range.

Unarchive Transactions – Load back in saved data.

The first is self explanatory. The second will backup transactions and optionally accounts. Transactions may be limited by date and/or account. If the Save Accounts Also box is checked, the user is prompted for a directory to save the files to, else the name of a file to store transactions in is requested.

The last option, Unarchive, will prompt you for the name of a transactions file to import. If the file name is transactions.tld and there is an accounts.tld in the same directory, you will be further prompted if you wish to have it imported as well.

RCS and CVS

As the data entry to an accounting system can be an onerous task to have to redo, having a reliable backup is paramount. Ledger has built-in backup options. Using RCS and/or CVS it can incrementally archive changes each time a save occurs. This should work automatically under UNIX, or on any system that has ci or cvs installed. RCS can be utilized just by checking the appropriate box in the Options menu. This will do an RCS check-in at each save.

CVS supports off-host backup, but is more complex to setup. Here is a sample setup sequence under Unix:

export CVSROOT=~/CVSROOT; # Set CVSROOT, if required. mkdir $CVSROOT pdqi/lib/ledger.tcl; # Then do a Alt-s save and exit. cd ~/ledger cvs import ledger Ledger add start cd ~/ mv ledger ledger.old cvs checkout ledger

After this, just start ledger and check the CVS option in ledger. Obviously, in the case a recovery, it will be required to learn the cvs and ci commands. But one interesting scenarios is using both CVS and RCS at the same time, particularly when the CVS server is remote.

Language Options

Currently, a template lang/fr.msg file is provided with just enough of fields filled in to demonstrate language support. Volunteer translators are welcome. Note that the en.msg file can and is used to translate certain display fields like date strings.

Here is a screen-shot.


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The General Ledger

Posted by admin on May 13, 2012
Brisbane Bookeeping Services / No Comments

Site Map

The General Ledger is the vehicle for rearranging your chronologically ordered data in the Journals and Registers into a useful form. It has one page for each account. Its pages are also called T-Accounts because of the page layout that is used. Picture a T with the name of the account listed at the top of the T, the debit amounts listed on the left side of the T and the credit amounts listed on the right side of the T. That is the basic layout of a General Ledger page. During the course of the Accounting Period. the General Journal and Register entries are posted, (copied) into the General Ledger with each line of a journal entry or each column of a register entry being transferred to the appropriate ledger page. In order to simplify the auditing process the posting date, the initials of the person doing the posting and the page and line number in the General Journal or Register are also entered on each line.

Let the professionals from Darcy Services – Sunshine Coast Bookkeeper help you with your accounting. Industry leaders for quality book keeping.

Why We Need It

The purpose of the Journals and Registers is to record events as they occur. The problem is that although all of the information is there it isn’t in a very useful order. For example, if you want to know how much sales tax you have to pay to the state for a month you would have to go through all of the pages in the Journals and Registers for the month in question and add the numbers up. Now picture going through this process for each of several different accounts and you quickly realize that there has to be a better way. The General Ledger is the better way. During the course of the month the transaction entries in the Journals and Registers are copied (posted) to the General Ledger. Assuming that you post to it in a timely manner you can quickly calculate the net amount for any account by subtracting the credit amounts from the debit amounts. Using the General Ledger you can easily keep running totals of your revenue and expenses for an accounting period and you can easily compare your performance in the current accounting period to that of past accounting periods. Finally, it is used as the source for the data in your Financial Statements .

The Posting Process

In a manual bookkeeping system the posting process is best done on a daily basis. Posting is a process that should not be interrupted because posting errors are the most difficult to track down. Personally, before I started using a computer I used to do my posting late at night after the kids were asleep and the dog had been walked. If you work at home and are an early riser another good time to post is first thing in the morning before everyone else gets up. If you have a place of business you can go in early and get your bookkeeping chores out of the way before the phones start ringing and the customers start coming in.

Manual Posting From a Journal

The posting process itself is quite simple. You go through your Journals beginning at the point where you last left off. When working with a Journal you copy each line of a transaction entry to the appropriate page of the General Ledger. As you copy the amount you enter the transaction date (not the current date) in the General Ledger along with the amount. If the amount is a debit amount it is recorded on the side of the “T”, if a credit amount it is recorded on the right side of the “T”. You then go back to the Journal and check off or initial the line in the Journal. At the same time double check to be sure that you transferred the correct amount to the correct account.

Manual Posting From a Register

When working with Registers the process is different. The first step is to draw a single line across the Register page just under the last row. Then working one column at a time add up the numbers you haven’t yet posted for the column you are working on. You then post the total to the appropriate General Ledger page. If you are posting daily, as you copy the amount you enter the transaction date (not the current date) in the General Ledger along with the amount. If the amount is a debit amount it is recorded on the side of the “T”, if a credit amount it is recorded on the right side of the “T”. If you are posting on a weekly or monthly basis enter the ending date of the week or month. Then verify that you have posted the correct amount to the correct account and check off the total on the Register. When you have finished posting draw a double line just under the totals you calculated. Next time you post you will only work with amounts below the double line.

Computer Posting

When you use a computer bookkeeping system posting is either fully automatic or all required posting is done in response to an event such as typing a simple command or clicking on the appropriate button. Looking at it from a practical point of view both methods work. My personal preference is to post when the books are closed. My preference is based on the idea that the Financial Statements are a snapshot of the state of your business at a point in time and I feel this approach is a better fit.

The Bottom Line

The key to the General Ledger is to be careful in entering data in your original books of entry; your General Journal, any Subsidiary Journals, and your Registers and then being extra careful when you post to the General Ledger.

When using a computer bookkeeping system life is easier. All you have to do is be extra careful when entering data in your original books of entry.

If you do you don’t have to worry about posting errors.

NY Times Article

Interesting article in the November 3 NY Times. Eleven Easy Ways to Destroy Your Company By Jay Goltz Read it!

One he didn’t include was the loss of your bookkeeping records. If you ever lose your Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable information you will probably be out of business in less than two years! Off-premises backup of your bookkeeping data is cheap insurance.

News

Home Page

Money Management Your number one priority has to be managing your money. Cash is more important than profits or taxes.

The Books we Keep Bookkeeping is the clerical side of accounting. Understand the two key books; the General Journal the General Ledger, and the rest is clear.

Financial Statements The Income Statement, the Statement of Retained Earnings and the Balance Sheet, They show the results of the “physical exam” of your business.

Making Entries in the Books In theory all Bookkeeping Entries are made in the General Journal. In practice this often isn’t so. Find out why.

Closing the Books Learn all about Closing the Books the process of creating your financial statements.

Bookkeeping Methods The Double-entry method, the Single-entry method or the No-entry bookkeeping method. Which is right for you?

2009 Jerome H. Gitomer (Jerry-the-bookkeeper) — You are welcome to use the material in this article — provided that you cite www.Jerry-the-bookkeeper.com as the source and, if republishing, include this copyright notice.


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General Ledger Accountant: Job Description and Requirements for …

Posted by admin on May 12, 2012
Brisbane Bookeeping Services / No Comments

Careers and Occupations List

General Ledger Accountant: Job Description and Requirements for Becoming a General Ledger Accountant

With the requirement of a bachelor’s degree and, often, the titled of CPA, a General Ledger Accountant is responsible for maintaining a company’s books through day-to-day bookkeeping and communication with workers every level of the company. Those qualified to work as General Ledger Accountants also possess the skills required to work in corporate accounting, property accounting or auditing. General Ledger Accountants can also open their own firm as a general accountant.

Let the team from Darcy Services – Sunshine Coast Bookkeeper help you with your accounting. Industry leaders for quality book keeping.

Career Definition: General Ledger Accountant

A General Ledger Accountant is an accountant responsible for ensuring that transactions of a business have been properly accounted for and accurately reflect the company’s accounting process. The General Ledger is the end result of a company’s accounting, and so is needed by every business – large and small – in the United States. General Ledger Accountants often possess the skills to work as other types of accountants, including corporate accountants, property accountants and financial reporting accountants. General Ledger Accountants are also qualified to work in auditing or start their own, independent firm.

How To Become a General Ledger Accountant

Required Education for a Career in General Ledger Accounting

A college degree in business or accounting is most often required of a General Ledger Accountant. Further, most General Ledger Accountants are CPAs. That being said, it’s possible to obtain an entry-level position with experience in accounts payable, receivable, payroll or bookkeeping if you are still pursuing a degree in accounting. However, companies may give preference to a CPA or CPA candidate, which involves at least 24 semester credits in accounting subjects and passing the CPA exam.

Skills Required for a General Ledger Accountant Career

General Ledger Accountants must be familiar with general accounting , payroll, bookkeeping, basic computer skills, working in teams (especially in larger companies) and working alone under self-direction. The General Ledger Accountant must also have good communications skills, as the position has contacts to various levels within the the organization, as well as customers, government agencies and banks.

Career and Economic Outlook for General Ledger Accountants

According to Indeed.com, the average salary of General Ledger Accountants is $53,000. General Ledger Accounting is usually in high demand, as they are needed by every business, and employment as a whole is expected to grow by 12% through 2016, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov).

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