End of Month Closing The End of Month Closing process cuts off all sub-journal postings for the month and should be performed at the conclusion of each month. Closing the month involves up to five steps: Updating Finance Charges and printing a Monthly Finance Charge Journal* Printing or sending Customer Statements* Saving your Aging and Inventory Value Reports as Hold Files, Excel Files, or PDFs Closing the A/P and A/R Month Printing additional reports (ex. Sales Tax Journal, Salesman Commission Statement, etc.) Please note that the End of Month Closing procedure will vary based on your system setup. For example, some Inform clients do not use Finance Charges and can skip the first step. Steps marked with an asterisk (*) are optional steps and may not be required for your company. Closing Month 12 When you close the month for December, the system automatically closes the year for Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable. This automatic closing is not related to your fiscal year end closing for the General Ledger, which should be completed as a separate process. The automatic year end close process totals your Sales and Purchases figures for the year and moves them to the Last Year Total column, and resets your inventory analysis figures for the coming year. The Year-to-Date Total column for Sales and Purchases will be reset to zero for the upcoming year. Any Yearto-Date Sales Analysis figures will be moved to the Last-Year-to-Date column and the system will track new sales and purchases under the next year. You can see this change in the Sales Analysis Inquiry screen, under the Sales menu. The process for closing Month 12 is the same as the process for closing any other month. If the closing of this month coincides with the end of your fiscal year, you will need to also perform a General Ledger Year End Close, after you have closed the month. Page 1 of 10
Update Finance Charges and Print Monthly Finance Charge Journal Finance Charges can be handled in two ways; you can have the charge create a separate invoice, which will display in the Invoicing screen and can be adjusted or deleted prior to posting, or you can have the charge post to the customer s account as soon as it is generated, which requires any adjustment to be made through Cash Receipts. If you are unsure which method your system is set to, you can check in the Company Master, under the Accounting tab, in the Produce Finance Charge Invoice field. If this is set to Y, running the Finance Charge Update will generate invoices that display in your Invoicing screen for you to review and adjust prior to posting to the customer accounts. These options should be discussed with a Customer Care representative prior to your first Finance Charge Update. Before running the update, use the Customer Mass Change screen (File > Customer > Mass Change) to verify that each customer has an entry in the Finance Charge % field of their Customer Master. If not, enter the correct percentage for those that are missing. Any customers with a blank Finance Charge % field will not incur charges on their overdue invoices. To Update Finance Charges follow the easy steps below. 1. Select Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Finance Charge Update. 2. The screen will display the date that your last finance charges were generated, as well as the current Source 'FC' Accounting Period that you are about to generate charges for. 3. Enter the Period Ending Date. Only invoices overdue as of this date will be charged. The following two fields will allow you to establish the criteria for an invoice being considered overdue. 4. The Finance Charges Based On field determines which date the system will look at to determine if the invoice is overdue, and is tied to the Number of Days Past Invoice/Due Date field. Choosing Invoice Date will include invoices that are past the selected number of days from the Invoice Date and issue Finance Charges for them. Page 2 of 10
Choosing Due Date will include invoices that are past the Due Date by the selected number of days and issue Finance Charges for them. For example, if you wanted to issue Finance Charges for all invoices that were more than 60 days past their due date as of 6/1/2009, your setup would look like the example to the right. 5. The Apply to Previous Finance Charges field will apply the same invoice/due date criteria to invoices with previous Finance Charges. The Apply to Credit Memos option will apply subtract your credit balance from your open invoice balance and calculate a finance charge on the remaining open balance. The Minimum Finance Charge Dollars To Generate is the minimum dollar amount that will be generated as a Finance Charge. Invoice instances where the total Finance Charge dollar amount on the invoice would be below this amount will not have a Finance Charge generated. For example, if your Finance Charge % in the Customer Master is set at 2, the Minimum Finance Charge Dollars To Generate is set at 2.00, and the customer has an overdue invoice in the amount of $50, the customer will not incur a Finance Charge on the invoice because the dollar amount ($1.00) would be less than the $2.00 minimum requirement. 6. When you have entered all of the correct information, click the Update button in the lower right corner of the screen. The system will show you the Total Finance Charges that you have generated in this update. Click OK in this window. *Do NOT click the Update button more than once; this will duplicate your Finance Charges.* If your charges are set to post immediately (not generate invoices), a window will pop up to ask if you would like to print the Finance Charge Journal. Clicking Yes will bring you to the Finance Charge Journal screen. Clicking No will close the update window. Your update will still be saved. 7. If you are set to generate Finance Charge invoices, these invoices will appear in your Invoicing screen (Sales > Invoicing > Invoicing) for you to review before posting to customer accounts. Click the Search button in the bottom toolbar to view the invoices that you generated. All Finance Charge invoices will have an invoice number beginning with FC. Remove a Finance Charge invoice by right-clicking on the Invoice Number and selecting Delete from the drop down menu. 8. When you are ready to post the invoices to the customer accounts, select Customer Copy & A/R Posting from the Print Options drop down menu and check off the Select checkbox to the left of the Invoice Number field. Click the Print button in the bottom toolbar. If you don t want to print Page 3 of 10
copies of these invoices, you can click Cancel in the Printer Window and still post them to Accounts Receivable. If you do want to print customer copies of these invoices, select the appropriate printer and click the Print button in the Printer Window. 9. A window will pop up asking if you want to post to Accounts Receivable. Click the Yes button in this window to post the charges to the customer accounts. To Print the Monthly Finance Charge Journal: 1. Select Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Monthly Finance Charge Journal. 2. Enter the Period Ending Date and choose to print a Summary (displays Total Past Due and Total Finance Charge amounts for each customer) or Detail (displays each overdue invoice number, dates, and Finance Charge amounts) report. 3. Click OK in the bottom right corner of the screen. The printer window will automatically pop up. From the printer window, select the appropriate printer and number of copies. Click Print to print the report. You can fax or email this report by clicking the Fax/Email button. For more help faxing or emailing the report, see the Fax/Email Reports page. Page 4 of 10
Print or Send Customer Statements If you issue Customer Statements each month, you can print, fax, or email these statements now. Statements should be run after you have updated your Finance Charges so that these charges will be included. Set the type of statement each customer should receive in the Customer Master under the Credit tab. This will default to Regular Statement for all customers. If the customer should never receive a statement, select Do Not Print Statement. Customers can be set to have their statements faxed or emailed in the Customer Master under the General tab. The statement will send to the default Accounting contact for the customer. If there is no default Accounting contact, it will send to the fax number or email address entered under the Information tab. To print Customer Statements: 1. Select Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Customer Statements. 2. Select the Statement Date. This will be the cutoff date for included transactions. 3. The system will automatically enter the Discount Date as the next month's date on which customer payments are due to receive a discount. You can also change this date manually. 4. Leave the Customer Number field blank to print statements for all of your designated customers. (To designate a customer to receive a statement, use the Credit tab in the Customer Master). To print statements for a group of customers, click the Selection Criteria button in the lower right corner of the screen. The Selection Criteria window will pop up, allowing you to enter criteria regarding which customer statements will be printed. Once you have entered your information, click the OK button in the bottom right corner of this window and you will be returned to the Customer Statements screen to finish customizing and printing your statements. 5. Additional Customer Statement options include: Field Definition Exclude Credits Exceeding Days Old Enter a number of days here to exclude credit invoices that are older from being included in the statements. Print Salesman Name Checking this box will print the name of the salesperson assigned to the customer s account on each statement. Page 5 of 10
Print Zero Balance This option will print a statement for customers even if they have an Accounts Receivable balance of zero. Show Paid Invoice This option will display your customers' paid invoices for the statement period, in addition to their open invoice balances. Show Period Payments Show Balance Forward Suppress Negative Balance Statements Overdue Accounts Only Show Discount on Overdue This option will display payments applied during the statement period. This option will total all existing balances and display them as one value on the statement, rather than displaying each invoice. Checking this box will not print a statement for the customer if the total open balance on the account is negative. This option displays only customers who have overdue balances on their accounts. This option displays the eligible discount on overdue accounts. Print Detail Invoices This option will print a copy of each open invoice along with the statement. If you choose to use this option, we recommend printing for small groups of customers only due to the amount of paper, or emailing the statement instead. Print Only Checking this box will print statements for all included customers, regardless of the sending method specified in their Customer Master under the General tab. We recommend using this option for small groups 6. When you have completed the necessary information, click the OK button in the lower right corner. From the printer window, select the appropriate printer and number of copies. You can preview the statements by clicking the View button. Click Print to print the statements. If you choose to uncheck the Print Only field, customers set to have their statements sent via fax or email will not have copies printed. If you are faxing or emailing statements for customers, you can click the Sent Results button in the bottom toolbar to verify that your faxes and emails went through. This report can be printed or viewed on screen. Page 6 of 10
Save Your Aging and Inventory Value Reports as Hold Files, Excel Files, or PDFs* You will need to print several reports before you close the month. Each report should be run and saved as a Hold File or PDF. Reports can also be exported to Excel and saved as spreadsheets. This allows you future access to the reports, as they cannot be reproduced for a historical date. If the report is saved as a Hold File, it can be printed, faxed, or emailed at any time from the Hold Files screen. If the report is saved as a PDF or Excel spreadsheet, it can be printed or attached to an email at any time from the folder that it is stored in. You may want to create a folder on your server specifically for End of Month reports. Below are instructions for saving a report as a Hold File and as a PDF, followed by instructions for printing your Inventory Value, A/R Aging, and A/P Aging reports. *The option to save the report as a PDF is only available if you are using the new PDF to PCL printing option, available in Inform version 20.0.85.85 and later. To save reports as Hold Files 1. Run the report as you normally would. When the printer window pops up, click the Hold button (shown at right). 2. Give the file a name to describe it, up to 30 characters (ex. "Inventory Value Report C2 Cost"). The date, time, and user who ran the report will be saved with it. 3. This will bring you to the Hold Files window. This window can be accessed at any time from the Utilities menu. To print, fax, or email the report, click on its name. In the printer window, you can choose to print the report by clicking the Print button, or to fax or email it by clicking the Fax/Email button. To export reports to Excel 1. The A/R and A/P Aging, and Inventory Value Reports all have an Export checkbox in the reporting screen. 2. Check the Export box before you run the report. Page 7 of 10
3. When you click the OK button to run the report, a Save As window will pop up. Browse to the location that you want to save the PDF document. We recommend saving End of Month reports in a shared folder on your server that is included in your data backup. 4. Enter a name for the file in the File name: field. Click the Save button. If you need to view or print the report, you can browse to the location where it is saved to access it. *If you are planning to alter the spreadsheet, we recommend keeping at least one copy of the original spreadsheet, in case your changes alter the data on the report. To save reports as PDFs 1. Run the report as you normally would. When the printer window pops up, click the Save button (it will be located where the Hold button is in the image above. 2. In the Save As window, browse to the location that you want to save the PDF document. We recommend saving End of Month reports in a shared folder on your server that is included in your data backup. 3. Enter a name for the file in the File name: field. Click the Save button. If you need to view or print the report, you can browse to the location where it is saved to access it. Page 8 of 10
Inventory Value Report 1. Select Inventory > Inventory Value Report. 2. In the Selection Criteria window, click the OK button. This will include all of your products in the report with on-hand quantities in the report. 3. Choose all warehouses, and the Cost Column that you use to value your inventory. Choose to run a Detail report. 4. The Product Line Page Break option will cause each product line to begin on a new page. The Negative Inventory Only option will only include items with negative inventory amounts. The Print Zero On-Hand option will print products that have zero on-hand amounts in the report as well. 5. We strongly recommend checking the Print Reconciliation Summary option for the current period for assistance in balancing to the General Ledger.* 6. Once you have chosen all of the necessary options, click the OK button in the bottom toolbar, and save the report as a Hold File, Excel File, or PDF using the instructions above. *If you choose not to print the Reconciliation Summary, you need to print the Un-invoiced P/O Report in order to reconcile your Inventory Value Report to your Inventory General Ledger account. Received materials are not reflected in the Inventory General Ledger until they are invoiced to Accounts Payable. The total number on your Un-invoiced P/O Report should be added to the General Ledger Inventory amount to balance. Accounts Receivable Aging Report 1. Select Accounting > Accounts Receivable > Aging Report. 2. Enter the Period Ending date. The report will only include open invoices entered on or before this date. 3. The table on the following page explains the additional options available for your report. You should always run a Detail report when processing your end of month. Field Period Ending Overdue Only Overdue Days Definition This is the cutoff date for invoices to be included in the report. Your report will only include invoices entered on or before the Period Ending date. This will only include customers with overdue invoices in your report. After selecting this box, you may also enter the number of days past the due date that an invoice must be in order to be included in the Overdue Days field. This is the number of days past the invoice due date that an invoice must be to be included in the report. You may only enter this information after checking the Overdue Only box. Page 9 of 10
Invoice Type Salesman Credit Manager Sort By Report Type Allows users to filter the report to only include open Deposit Invoices, Credits, Disputed Invoices, or all open A/R invoices. For end of month, select the All option. This will only include the invoices for customers assigned to a specific salesman. Enter the code for the salesman, or use the magnified glass button to the right to search for the correct code. This will only include the invoices for customers assigned to a specific credit manager. Enter the code for the credit manager, or use the magnified glass button to the right to search for the correct code. This field allows you to choose how your report will be sorted: Customer - displays customers in alphabetical order by customer name. Salesman - breaks up the report according to the Salesman assigned to the customer. Also totals each aging period for the Salesman. Credit Manager - breaks up the report according to the Credit Manager assigned to the customer. Also totals each aging period for the Credit Manager. This allows you to select the amount of information displayed in the report: Summary - will display the total dollars owed to you by each customer for each of the aging periods. Detail - will display each outstanding invoice for the customer, as well as totals for each of the aging periods. *You should always run a Detail report when processing your end of month* Marked Customers Print Contact Notes Export This field will dictate if Marked Customers will included in your report: Include - will include marked customers Suppress - will exclude marked customers Only - will include only marked customers Check this box to print any contact notes for the customer on the aging report. These notes will print above the invoices listed for the customer. Check this box to export the report to an Excel spreadsheet. 4. Once you have selected all of your options, click the OK button in the bottom toolbar, and save the report as a Hold File, Excel File, or PDF using the instructions above. Accounts Payable Aging Report 1. Select Accounting > Accounts Payable > Aging Report. 2. Enter the date that you want your reports aged from in the Aging Date field. 3. For your end of month, you should select "All Accounts Payable" in the Accounts Payable Type field, and choose to print a "Detail" report in the Report Type field. 4. Once you have selected all of your options, click the OK button in the bottom toolbar, and save the report as a Hold File, Excel File, or PDF using the instructions above. Page 10 of 10