Screen Shots
Description
===========================================================
General Ledger Interface is a module of The StoreMaster
System, providing a method for outputting data from the
StoreMaster to any General Ledger program that has a data
import facility which allows ASCII data to be read.
Requirements
===========================================================
Use of the GI Module requires the System Manager module as a
minimum requirement.
Introduction
===========================================================
The General Ledger Interface (GI) Modulue of the StoreMaster
System provides the capability to define linkage between the
StoreMaster Transaction Log and virtually ANY General Ledger
Accounting System.
Before you attempt to use this feature, you need to
understand how the data in the Transaction Log relates to
your General Ledger.
Simplifying things just a little, the Transaction Log
contains a record of items (goods or services) sold, and
payments received. There is, of course, a good bit more to
it, but that'll get us started on the explanation.
Typical General Ledger Accounts
To put the information into a ledger, we will total up into
their own "accounts" each of the following:
CASH
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE
INVENTORY
SALES TAX
COST OF GOODS SOLD
SALES INCOME
Taking a very simple example, let's say we sell a bicycle,
for $100, plus $6 tax. The customer writes a check for
$106. Let's assume that the bicycle cost us $60. Then the
account totals that we post would look like this:
CASH +106.00 (we put $106 in the bank)
INVENTORY -60.00 (value of inventory went down $60)
SALES TAX -6.00 (we owe governor $6.00 sales tax)
COST OF GOODS +60.00 (the cost of goods went up $60)
SALES INCOME -100.00 (we sold the bike for $100)
If the customer had asked for us to charge it to his
account, things would look almost the same:
ACCOUNTS RECEIV +106.00 (customer owes us $106)
INVENTORY -60.00 (value of inventory went down $60)
SALES TAX -6.00 (we owe governor $6.00 sales tax)
COST OF GOODS +60.00 (the cost of goods went up $60)
SALES INCOME -100.00 (we sold the bike for $100)
If we take a whole day's or week's worth of sales, we will
likely have both cash and account sales, some taxable and
some not. We may have a separate account for charge cards;
we may have retail and wholesale customer accounts. We may
wish to track more than one set of accounts for inventory,
cost, and sales.
Things can be real simple, or they can get really
complicated.
In essence, though, here's the way we tell which accounts to
post things to:
1. CASH and ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE accounts are determined by
the type of PAYMENT MEDIA used to pay for things. For
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE, they may also depend on the
CUSTOMER.
2. INVENTORY, COST, and SALES INCOME accounts are
determined by the type of ITEMS sold.
3. SALES TAX depends generally on the CUSTOMER, but may
also depend in some cases on the type of ITEMS sold.
These three facts let us come up with a way to define a set
of accounts that will work for almost any kind of General
Ledger system: Each CUSTOMER, each INVENTORY ITEM, and each
PAYMENT MEDIA has its own set of GL ACCOUNTS.
However, in order to make it easier for you to work with the
codes, rather than entering all of the actual accounts for
each of these, we've used the idea of a "linking" code
instead. What this means is that you define a set of
accounts that work for one particular set of circumstances,
and give it a three-character code. Then, for example,
instead of putting all the three account numbers in for each
inventory item, you just enter the code.
Link Codes
If you have a simple system, you can probably get by with
just one code for everything!
To make things even easier, we've defined a default code to
be used if there is no code for your inventory, customers,
and payment media: "DEF". So if you have blanks in the
data, the GI module will automatically use DEF for you.
Let's take a look at how this works. Each linking code has
all the accounts, so they can be used for any of the three
types of posting. Here's the way the "DEF" default code
looks:
Link Code : DEF Description : DEFAULT LINK
ACCOUNT TYPE ACCOUNT NUMBER
------------------------- ---------------------------
Cash Account DEF-CASH
Accounts Receivable DEF-ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE
Inventory, Stock DEF-INVENTORY, STOCK
Inventory, Non-Stock DEF-INVENTORY, NON-STOCK
Sales Tax Liability DEF-SALES TAX LIABILITY
Cost of Sales, Stock DEF-COST OF GOODS, STOCK
Cost of Sales, Non-Stock DEF-COST OF GOODS, NON-STOCK
Cost of Sales Adjust DEF-COST ADJUSTMENTS
Sales Income, Stock DEF-SALES INCOME, STOCK
Sales Income, Non-Stock DEF-SALES INCOME, NON-STOCK
Sales Income Adjust DEF-INCOME ADJUSTMENTS
As you can see, the "account number" entry is extremely
flexible. It will hold pretty much anything you can put in
it, from the old-style three-digit account numbers up to
thirty-character codes with numbers, letters, dashes,
slashes and whatever else you want to put in it.
When you print the GL JOURNAL, you will get a report with
the ACCOUNT NUMBERS you define, so you can do almost
anything with it.
One of the first things you will want to do is to edit this
DEF link code and put your own G/L account numbers in it.
Inventory Accounts
The Inventory file uses its GL linking code (GLLINK) plus
its Stock flag (STKCODE) to determine to which accounts it
will post the selling price and cost. First, the GLLINK
code is used to find the appropriate set of accounts; if
STKCODE is a "Y", the "stock" accounts for Inventory, Cost,
and Sales Income are used; otherwise, the "non-stock"
accounts are used.
Obviously, if you do not wish to distinguish between these,
you can simpoly make the account numbers the same for both
sets.
In addition, the Sales Income Adjustment account is used to
post the difference between the list price and actual
selling price, so that you can keep track of money lost to
discounts. This is an option, and you can use it or not, as
you see fit.
Customer Accounts
The Customer file uses its GL linking code (GLLINK) to
determine to which ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE account charges and
credits will be posted, and also for the SALES TAX liability
account. If you will not differentiate among types of
customers for posting sales taxes, be sure to include the
same account for all customers.
Payment Media Accounts
The Payment Media file uses its GL linking code (FLAGS,
3-4-5) to determine to which CASH account to post payments.
The exception is the type 10, Customer House Accounts, which
uses the GLLINK code associated with the customer instead,
and uses the ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE account rather than CASH
account.
Transaction Distribution
The Transaction Log includes an item for each entry called
the transaction type, (dBase field named MTTRANS), which
defines the type of entry. In the GL Link, the
distributions of the amounts contained in the entries are
made as follows:
T MEANING POST VALUE & ACCOUNT
- --------------------- --------------------------------------
S Item sold list price MTAMOUNT to -SALES, INVCOST to +COG, -INVY
M Item sold marked down MTAMOUNT to -SALES, INVCOST to +COG, -INVY
D Item sold discounted MTAMOUNT to -SALES, INVCOST to +COG, -INVY
R Item returned to stock MTAMOUNT to +SALES, INVCOST to -COG, +INVY
P Payment MTAMOUNT to +CASH or +AR
C Change MTAMOUNT to -CASH or -AR
T Total of a ticket MTTAX to -SALES TAX
K Layaway Payment MTAMOUNT to -"LAY" AR
L Layaway Down MTAMOUNT to +CASH or +AR
MTPRICE to +"LAY" AR (balance)
MTTAX to -SALES TAX
$ Customer R-O-A MTAMOUNT to -AR
I PayIn MTAMOUNT to +CASH or +AR, -"IN" CASH
O PayOut MTAMOUNT to -CASH or -AR, +"OUT" CASH
F ReFund MTAMOUNT to -CASH or -AR, +"RFD" CASH
Payment Media Types
The StoreMaster Media Payment Types can consist of up any
number of distinct codes, from the following types:
TYPE Description
----- ----------------------
1 Cash
2 Check
3 Charge Cards
4 Credits
5 Gift Certificates
6 Manufacturer Coupons
7 Store Coupons
8 Food Stamps
9 Miscellaneous
10 Customer Accounts
In the Transaction Log, transaction entries with MTTRANS
fields containing P, C, I, O, F, or L will have one of these
values (1 through 10) in the MTQUAN field. Since it is
possible to have many different codes of each type (except
10), the code "NAME" is contained in the MTDEPT field.
Note that Type 4 "Credit" is not the same as a credit to a
customer's account. Typically, when a customer returns an
item, there are several possible ways of returning payment,
all of which will be posted as "change" on the ticket. (1)
you can give cash, (2) you can give "credit" slip, or (3)
you can give an account credit. All of these would show up
as negative (outgoing) values. The first, of course, would
be cash out, the second one would be "credit" out, and the
third would be subtracted from the account balance. Because
the system can actually print a CREDIT SLIP as part of any
receipt, you are, in effect, issuing a credit which will
later be used by the customer as payment on some other
purchase and at that time will be posted back to the
"CREDIT" account, cancelling out the previous entry. The
"CREDIT" account should probably have a unique GL LINK code
so that your ledger can differentiate between it and other
(presumably positive) accounts.
Special Linking Codes
Generally, you will be able to handle most entries with the
"DEF" link code. However, it is possible to define as many
as are required for any special accounts you may have.
StoreMaster defines several potential special codes, which
may be used, but are not required. If these are not found
in the GL LINK TABLE, the standard "DEF" code will be used
instead. The special codes may be used if you wish to post
these special transactions to special accounts in order to
track them more closely in your ledger. These special codes
have been included with the standard link code data included
with this module, and are as follows:
LAY - for Layaway balances and payments
IN - for pay-ins
OUT - for pay-outs
RFD - for refunds
If you are going to use these, you will want to edit the
account codes supplied and put in your own account numbers.
Otherwise, you will want to delete the entries so that the
module will use the DEF code instead.
You may also wish to define one or more additional codes for
any non-CASH payment media used. Since all payment media
(except for House Charge Accounts, which are type 10) are
handled as CASH, if you wish to differentiate between normal
CASH and CHECK (types 1 and 2) and various other payment
media, you can do so by defining a separate LINK CODE for
each one you want to put into a separate account. For
example you could define codes like "MC" for MasterCard,
"VIS" for VISA, "CS" for Credit Slip, and so on. You could
also define a single code like "CHC" for all charge cards.
Here's an example of how to implement a special code:
Let's say that you want to track VISA charges, using a
special code, "VIS". First, you will need to go to the
Payment Media file maintenance (in the SM module) and enter
the code VIS. Next, in the GI program, define the "VIS"
link code and enter the account number to which you want to
post the VISA payments. That's all there is to it! From
then on, all VISA payments will show up on your reports in
that account instead of the regular CASH account.
Running the General Ledger Interface Module
===========================================================
To start the GI Module, from the DOS prompt just type GI and
press the ENTER key, or, from Windows, click on the GI icon.
You will see the Main Screen, which appears as shown below,
and have five functions to select from.
Main Screen
===========
The main screen for the GI Module looks like this:
--------------------------------------------------------------
User: SANDY StoreMaster Ver 96.2 Rel 12.00 02/19/98
Company: SCR World Headquarters G/L Interface
StoreMaster GL Interface
Pause after error messages? N
Print Transactions to LPT1
Print Journal Report to LPT1
Start Journal on Monday 02/19/98
End Journal on Monday 02/19/98
Change Parameters Date Range Edit GL Codes Print Report
--------------------------------------------------------------
At the bottom of this menu are five functions. These are
listed in the order you will usually use them. To select a
function, press the first letter of the function, or use the
arrow keys to highlight it and press ENTER.
Change Parameters
=================
There are three "parameters", which are shown in the top
portion of the box:
Pause After Error Messages
==========================
The first parameter should be set to YES when you first
start using the GI Module. It will cause the program to
pause and wait for you to press a key to continue any time
an unusual condition is encountered while processing the
Transaction Log. Included in these are such things as not
finding a sold item in the inventory file, not finding a
customer in the customer file, having a "link code" defined
for a customer, inventory item, or payment media type, but
not being able to find the code in the GL LINK CODE table,
and so on. These are generally not "fatal" errors, but are
things that you should look into. As you will see in the
sample reports, these errors are clearly marked in the
Transaction Report.
Print Transactions To
=====================
The second parameter tells the Module where to print the
Transaction report. This is a list showing the records in
the Transaction Log and how each is processed. You can
actually enter a printer here, or you may wish to enter a
file name and let the report be saved on your disk in a data
file which you can print later or simply view with a text
editor. If you do print it, it can be to the same printer
as the Journal Report or to a different one. Generally,
once your curiosity is satisfied, you can simply "blank out"
this parameter and print nothing at all. If you DO have a
problem, you can turn it back on and re-process the Journal
to get a printout of what's happening.
Print Journal To
================
The third parameter is like the second one, a printer to
send the Journal Report to. This should usually be a real
printer or a file to be viewed and printed later, since this
is the data you will be entering into your General Ledger
later. If your General Ledger software provides a facility
for "Data Import", you may want to save the rport to a data
file so you can edit it into the proper form for importing
directly, and avoid having to type it!
All three parameters are saved each time you use the GI
Module, so they will be the same the next time you use it.
Date Range
==========
This allows you to set the range of dates for which you wish
to process Transaction Log records and calculate a GL
Journal. The Module always defaults to "today", but it is
easy to change.
When you select the Data Range function, you get a menu of
choices:
Date Range
Today
Day Before
Week
Last Seven Days
Month to Date
Previous Month
Enter Dates
All but the last choice simply calculate the appropriate
dates and enter them for you. The "Previous Month" function
takes the month before the currently displayed Start Journal
date.
If you select "Enter Dates", you get to enter the actual
dates for which you want to create a journal report. While
you're entering the dates, you can press the F2 key for a
pop-up calendar that lets you highlight the date you want.
Edit GL Codes
=============
This function lets you review and edit your GL LINK CODE
TABLE. When you select it, you get a screen that looks like
this:
Link Code : DEF Description : DEFAULT LINK
Cash Account : DEF-CASH
Accounts Receivable : DEF-ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE
Inventory, Stock : DEF-INVENTORY, STOCK
Inventory, Non-Stock : DEF-INVENTORY, NON-STOCK
Sales Tax Liability : DEF-SALES TAX LIABILITY
Cost of Sales, Stock : DEF-COST OF GOODS, STOCK
Cost of Sales, Non-Stock: DEF-COST OF GOODS, NON-STOCK
Cost of Sales Adjust : DEF-COST ADJUSTMENTS
Sales Income, Stock : DEF-SALES INCOME, STOCK
Sales Income, Non-Stock : DEF-SALES INCOME, NON-STOCK
Sales Income Adjust : DEF-INCOME ADJUSTMENTS
Next Previous Top Bottom
Add Edit List D/DEL to DELETE ESC to quit
At the bottom of the screen are the editing functions:
Press N, P, T, B move to other link codes;
Press A to add a new link code. You will enter a new
three-character code, and will be asked if you want to copy
the accounts from the link code that is currently on the
screen; if you answer YES, those will all be copied into
your new one, and you can edit them as needed.
Press E to edit the code showing on the screen.
Press L to print a listing of your codes - you can print the
one shown on the screen or all the codes you have.
Press D or the DEL or DELETE key to delete the code shown on
the screen. You will be asked to confirm the deletion
before the code is actually deleted. Unlike most of the
data deletions in the StoreMaster system, this one takes
effect immediately.
Press ESC when finished editing link codes.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Printing the GL Journal
Select the Print Report function on the Main Screen to start
the process of calculating and printing the General Ledger
Journal.
Two reports may be printed: the Transaction Report and the
Journal Report.
Transaction Report
==================
The Transaction Report lists all of the transactions
processed during calculation of the GL Journal entries. Any
transaction involving changing the amount of money contained
in any GL Account will be noted along the left side of the
report, with the dollar amount of the change shown.
If the parameter for Print Transactions To is left BLANK, no
report will be printed. If the parameter contains a
"device" name, such as LPT1, LPT2, or LPT3, the report will
be printed to that device. If the parameter contains a data
file name, the file will be checked to see if it already
exists, and if it does, you will be given a chance to tell
the program whether to add the Reporta to the end of the
file's data or simply overwrite it.
Normally, you will not need to print the Transaction Report
or send it to a data file. If the G/L Journal does not
balance, you will need to re-calculate it, after setting the
Transaction Report to print or be stored on a file - then
you can examine the report and see what transaction caused
the out-of-balance to occur.
Shown here is a short sample of the Transaction
Report.
StoreMaster Transaction Log Processing
For 02/19/98
----------------------------------------- TICKET 100010009
'@' - Register started 02/19/98 12:30
----------------------------------------- TICKET 100010010
'@' - Register started 02/19/98 08:48
'%' - Ticket Voided on 02/19/98 at 08:48 by 12
----------------------------------------- TICKET 100010011
'V' - Temporary Exit on 02/19/98 at 08:49 by 1
----------------------------------------- TICKET 100010012
'@' - Register started 02/19/98 11:15
'S' - 12 sold, list price
-10.79 DEF->INVTS using Acct # DEF-INVENTORY, STOCK
10.79 DEF->COSTS using Acct # DEF-COST OF GOODS, STOCK
-12.95 DEF->INCOS using Acct # DEF-SALES INCOME, STOCK
'S' - SHIP sold, list price
0.00 DEF->INVTS using Acct # DEF-INVENTORY, STOCK
0.00 DEF->COSTS using Acct # DEF-COST OF GOODS, STOCK
-5.00 DEF->INCOS using Acct # DEF-SALES INCOME, STOCK
'T' - TICKET TOTAL
-1.48 DEF->LIABT using Acct # DEF-SALES TAX LIABILITY
'P' - PAYMENT TENDERED - CASH
19.43 DEF->CASHR using Acct # DEF-CASH
----------------------------------------- TICKET 100010013
'V' - Temporary Exit on 02/19/98 at 11:18 by 12
----------------------------------------- TICKET 100010014
'@' - Register started 02/19/98 16:09
'S' - 12 sold, list price
-10.79 DEF->INVTS using Acct # DEF-INVENTORY, STOCK
10.79 DEF->COSTS using Acct # DEF-COST OF GOODS, STOCK
-12.95 DEF->INCOS using Acct # DEF-SALES INCOME, STOCK
'T' - TICKET TOTAL
-1.07 DEF->LIABT using Acct # DEF-SALES TAX LIABILITY
'P' - PAYMENT TENDERED - CASH
14.02 DEF->CASHR using Acct # DEF-CASH
GL Journal Report
=================
The GL Journal Report contains a list of General Ledger
Accounts and the amounts by which they have changed due to
the processing of the transactions selected.
The report looks like the report shown below. The actual
account codes will, of course, be yours; the ones shown here
are from the default data which is supplied with the Module,
and use descriptions rather than actual account numbers or
codes, simply to make them easier to read.
As noted on the bottom line, the total should be zero. If
it is not, there is a problem of some sort, either in the GI
Module's calculation or in the data in your Transaction
Logs. If this happens, contact SCR Corporation as soon as
possible. If you have not saved the Transaction Report on a
data file, you should re-do the Journal with the Transaction
Report parameter pointed at a data file - that will make it
much easier for SCR's Tech Support to diagnose and correct
the problem.
StoreMaster General Ledger Account Totals
From 02/01/98 to 02/07/98
Account Code Amount
------------------------------ --------------
DEF-CASH 12,033.45
DEF-COST OF GOODS, STOCK 9,421.58
DEF-INVENTORY, STOCK -9,421.58
DEF-SALES INCOME, STOCK -11,383.44
DEF-SALES TAX LIABILITY -650.01
------------------------------ --------------
TOTAL (SHOULD BE ZERO) 0.00
These accounts and amounts can be input manually into your
accounting system or provided to your accountant.
If you "print" the report to a data file, you can edit it
and import it into an accounting software package, as many
of them do have a data import capability.