I want to see all journal entries that were entered on a certain date, regardless of their transaction date. Is there a report that will show this?
The Journal Report is a flexible and option-rich report that can be run by transaction date or by entry date.
To run the Journal Report by Entry Date
- In the Quick Launch, search for and select “Journal Report.”
- On the Accounts tab, select the All Accounts option.
- On the Dates tab:
- In the Date Range section, select the desired Date criteria.
- In the Date Selection section, select the Date Entered option.
- Enter any other criteria as desired.
- Click OK.
Our monthly reconciliation can take some time to perform. Our bank offers a digital file with all of the cleared transactions; is there a way to import this file and match them up to my General Ledger entries?
General Ledger’s Import Bank Transactions feature uses financial files in multiple formats (.OFX, .QBO, or .QFX) to help clear your bank transactions. This allows you to match up journal entries that are already in the system against the ones in the file.
To import bank transactions
- In the Quick Launch, search for and select “Import Bank Transactions.” Alternatively, you can click the Import Bank Transactions button on the Dashboard.
- Select the financial file downloaded from your bank. Once the import is complete, you will have the option to delete the import file. The Dashboard will be displayed, with the Last Import updated.
To match imported transactions to journal entries
- On the Dashboard, click the red number next to Last Import to see a list of imported transactions.
…or…
In the Quick Launch, search for and select “Bank Account Manager,” and then click the Confirm Transactions button. - On the Matched tab, transactions from the bank that already exist in GL are shown. The match is based off of several criteria; check number, date, and amount are all taken into consideration. Transactions can be edited and unmatched from this window if necessary.
- On the Unmatched tab, new GL journal entries can be made by using the Create button.
- After transactions are matched, click Confirm.
When you start your reconciliation, all cleared entries will be selected, cutting down the amount of time that the reconciliation takes.
I’ve completed reviewing the books for the previous fiscal year and am ready to close them. Is there a way to prevent users from posting or editing journal records for the previous year?
Once you are certain that no additional changes will be needed, you can update the Date through which books are closed setting. Once this value is updated, no additional changes can be made prior to the specified date.
To change the Date through which books are closed
- From the Quick Launch, search for and select “Edit GLS Client.”
- In the Journal Entry Date Restrictions section, specify the new value for the Date through which books are closed.
- Press Ctrl+S.
- Close the Edit GLS Client window.
Note: No user, regardless of assigned access profile or manager status, can make changes prior to the specified Date through which books are closed.
I need to be able to subtotal my GL accounts in a different order to report on income for the firm. However, the current order is what the firm usually needs. I would only need this alternate order for reporting purposes. What can I do?
GL has the ability to set an additional account order in your Chart of Accounts, specifically for this purpose. This can be particularly useful when you need to subtotal accounts in more than one way.
To print reports using an alternate account order, you must enable the use of an alternate account order, and then specify the order in the Chart of Accounts.
To enable the use of an alternate account order
- From the Quick Launch, search for and select “Edit GLS Client.”
- Select the desired Client Number.
- In the Options section, select the Allow an alternate account order to be defined in the Chart of Accounts check box.
- Press Ctrl+S.
To set up an alternate account order
- From the Quick Launch, search for and select “Chart of Accounts.”
- Right-click and select View Alternate Account Order.
- Drag and drop accounts to their desired position.
Once defined, reports can be run using the alternate account order by selecting the Use Alternate Account Order check box on the Account tab of many GL reports.
We are changing our firm’s fiscal year from the standard calendar year to one that ends in October. How do we update General Ledger to reflect this change?
General Ledger allows you to specify the starting month of your fiscal year. This option is reflected in reports and Account Information windows, and can be changed at any time.
To specify a new Beginning Fiscal Month
- From the Quick Launch, search for and select “Edit GLS Client.”
- Change the Beginning Fiscal Month to the new beginning month of your firm’s fiscal year.
- Press Ctrl+S.
Our firm has been making adjustments to our spending and investing. Is there a way to see how this has affected our income since the beginning of the year?
General Ledger has a Statement of Cash Flows Report that allows you to see how changes in Balance Sheet and Income Statement accounts affect the firm’s cash flow.
To run the Statement of Cash Flows report
- In the Quick Launch, search for and select “Statement of Cash Flows.”
- Select a Date period of “Current Year,” and select Include columns for each month.
- Specify any additional options, and then click OK to generate the report.
Tip: If you preview the report, you can click on any of the displayed accounts to access the Account Information window, where you can access additional information.
If any account is printing in the incorrect section, you may need to designate it as Operating, Investing, or Financing.
To designate an account as Operating, Investing, or Financing
- In the Quick Launch, search for and select “Chart of Accounts.”
- Double click the account, then select the Report Options tab.
- In the Statement of Cash Flows Classification section, select Operating, Investing, or Financing. This will change the section where the account displays in the Statement of Cash Flows.
- Click Save.
While I was running a report, I noticed that an account was given the wrong account number. Is there a way to change the account number without losing any journal entries?
This can be accomplished by running the Renumber GLS Account utility. All associated journal entries, deposit slips, and recurring entries are also renumbered.
To renumber an account
- In the Quick Launch, search for and select “Renumber Account.”
- In the Old Account Number field, select the account you want to renumber.
- In the New Account Number field, enter the new account number you want for the account.
- Click OK.
Note: Renumbering an account in GL will automatically update the references to that account in Tabs3 Billing, AP, and Trust integration settings. However, GL report definitions and GL Report Writer reports that use the Old Account Number will not be updated to use the New Account number.
We finished with our books for 2021 and want to close them out. Is there a way to stop anyone from making changes to the journal entries from previous years?
Your books can be closed as of a certain date. Once closed, no edits can be made to journal entries through the date selected.
To change the date through which books are closed
- In the Quick Launch, search for and select “Edit GLS Client.”
- In the Journal Entry Date Restriction section, select the desired Date through which books are closed.
- Press Ctrl+S.
I have a transaction with many accounts being debited and credited. Is there a way to print the journal entries so that I can review and make notations?
A Journal Entry List by Transaction Report will contain all the activity for a specific transaction. This report can then be printed or saved to a file.
To generate a Journal Entry List by Transaction Report
- In the Quick Launch, search for and select “Journal Entries.”
- Select the desired Trans #.
- Press Ctrl+P.
- Click the Print button.
We want to add an extra layer of security to our financial information in General Ledger. Users are already restricted from accessing General Ledger, but is there a way to protect the PDF files created for our reconciliation reports so only authorized users can open them?
General Ledger provides the ability to apply password protection to the reconciliation report PDF files to help keep the firm’s financial information protected both inside and outside the software.
To specify a password for a bank account’s reconciliation report PDFs
- In the Quick Launch, search for and select “Account Information.”
- Select the desired Account #.
- Click the Account Setup button.
- Click the Bank Info button.
- Select the Use a password to protect PDF reconciliation reports check box.
- In the Password field, enter the password you want to use.
- Click OK.
- Click Save.
Future reconciliation reports will now require a password to be entered in order to open.
I was asked to open a second client to maintain books for a separate company that one owner is starting. We won’t be integrating this company with Tabs3 Billing or Accounts Payable, but can I use our existing chart of accounts from our current client as a starting point for the new client?
When creating a new GLS Client, General Ledger will prompt you to copy an existing chart of accounts from another client.
To create a new GLS Client
- From the Utilities menu, select Edit GLS Client.
- Press Ctrl+N.
- Enter the desired Client Name.
- In the Data Location field, enter the desired directory name.
Note: The Data Location must be relative to the Current Working Directory. For example, if your Current Working Directory is F:\Tabs3 and you want the data to be in a directory named 2021DATA under this directory, you would enter “2021DATA\” - Specify any other settings as desired.
- Press Ctrl+S.
- Click Yes to the message asking to copy an existing chart of accounts.
- Enter the desired Client # to Use and click OK.
We created a new account but discovered a few days later that the account was redundant. Unfortunately, journal entries were made to this account before we came to this decision. Can we still delete this account?
The duplicate account can be deleted or marked as inactive in order to keep the account for historical reasons. When an account is marked as inactive, journal entries cannot be manually added to the account.
To mark an account as inactive
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Chart of Accounts.
- Double-click the desired account.
- Select the Inactive check box.
- Click Save.
If you want to delete the account, there are a few steps that must be completed before deletion is possible.
Before an account can be deleted from the chart of accounts
- Undo any reconciliations for the account that may have been finalized in Version 18 or later (if applicable).
- Change or delete any recurring journal entries that exist for that account.
- Change the Account number in each journal entry to the correct Account number or, if they have already been reentered for the correct account, delete all journal entries for the account. (Note: Deleting journal entries will zero out the amount field; the journal entry itself will remain.)
To delete an account from the chart of accounts
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Chart of Accounts.
- Select the desired account.
- Click the
(Delete) button.
