I’ve never created a budget in GL before and have been asked to do so for 2021. Where and how can I set up a budget?
Income and expense account budget figures can be accessed and edited via Account Information.
To create a budget for an expense or income account
- From the File menu, point to Open and then select Account Information.
- From the Budgets tab, select the desired expense or income Account #.
- Click the Set Budgets button.
- In the Set Budget Amounts window, enter the Year.
- Click in any month field.
- In the Create New Budget window, select Set all budget amounts to zero.
- Click OK.
- Enter the desired figures for each month or click the Allocate button, select an Allocation Method, enter an Amount and click OK.
- Click Save.
Use the same steps to proceed through the other accounts for which you want to establish budgets.
Our accountant needs a list of the unreconciled checks posted from AP. Is it possible to get all unreconciled checks on a single report?
The Journal Report can be run for specific Record Sources and Record Statuses. This means we can run it for records that originated from Accounts Payable and have the status of Unreconciled.
To run a Journal Report for unreconciled AP checks
- From the Reports menu, select Journal Report.
- On the Dates tab, in the Date Range section, select a Date of All.
- On the Options tab:
- Set Record Source to Specific and select the source of Accounts Payable.
- Set Record Status to Specific and select the status of Outstanding.
- Click OK.
We are getting ready to close the books for 2020. Is there any way to stop users from making changes to journal entries dated prior to a certain date?
The Date through which books are closed option provides the ability to make sure older journal entries are not changed.
To change the Date through which books are closed
- From the Utilities menu, select Edit GLS Client.
- In the Journal Entry Date Restriction section, select the desired Date through which books are closed.
- Press Ctrl+S.
Note: This date specifies a close date for which the firm no longer wants journal entries posted or edited. This allows you to preserve the integrity of historical financial information.
I noticed I have a balance being carried forward from the Prior Fiscal Year in my Retained Earnings account. This is making the figures on my Balance Sheet not match the YTD Net Profit/Loss on my Income statement. How do I correct this?
The most common reason for this to occur is that the Retained Earnings account was not closed out at the end of the year. Many firms choose to enter a manual journal entry for the last day of their fiscal year to bring the Retained Earnings balance to zero; however, this is not required.
For more information, refer to Knowledge Base article R11590, “All About Retained Earnings.”
Some of our journal entries were accidentally cleared, but we are not sure how many. Is there a report that can provide a list of cleared journal entries dated for this month?
The Journal Report can be run specifically for reconciled, outstanding, and/or cleared records within any time period.
To run a journal report for cleared journal entries
- From the Reports menu, select Journal Report.
- From the Dates tab, in the Date Range section, select Current Month.
- From the Options tab, select a Record Status of Specific.
- Double-click Cleared.
- Click OK.
- Click OK.
My predecessor configured our GLS Client to a single journal type. Now, when I run a Journal Report, all of my journal entries are grouped under one “General” journal. Is there any way to add Journals so that payments from clients and checks the firm writes go to unique journal values for easier reporting?
You can easily set up Journals for Receipts, Disbursements, Miscellaneous, etc. and then assign them to journal entries.
To create a new Journal
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Miscellaneous.
- From the Journal tab, press Ctrl+N.
- Enter a Name for the journal.
- Press Ctrl+S.
- Repeat steps 2-4 for each journal you want to add.
Once additional journals have been set up, they can be specified in the Jrnl column of the Journal Entries program.
Note: If Tabs3 Billing and General Ledger are integrated, you may want to review the GLS Integration Setup located in Tabs3 Billing (Maintenance | Integration | GLS Integration Setup) to see if your integration settings need to be updated.
There are certain journal entries that I want to group together. However, they are often on different days and have different transaction numbers. I can’t make a deposit slip as most of these are not entries for bank accounts. How can I accomplish this?
When entering journal entries, there are two tabs: Transaction and Batch. The Transaction tab is used to add, change, or delete journal entries, whereas the Batch tab provides a read-only history of the selected transaction along with any other related transactions associated with the specified transaction. Although additional associated transactions are typically generated as a result of integration with Tabs3, APS, or TAS, you can manually add new transactions to the Batch tab
To add a transaction to the Journal Entries Batch tab
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Journal Entries.
- From the Transaction tab, select an existing Trans #.
- From the Batch tab, press Crtl+N.
- Click Yes to create a new transaction from the Batch tab.
We make a daily deposit to our bank for all payments received that day and they show as a single entry on our bank statements. However, when we perform our reconciliation, each payment is an individual journal entry. Is there any way to combine these transactions so that they match the deposit values from our bank statements?
By creating deposit slips in GLS, you can combine multiple transactions into a single entry. You can even print out the deposit slip and take it to your bank. When performing your reconciliation, you will see the deposit slip instead of the individual transactions that make up that deposit.
To create a deposit slip
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Deposit Slips.
- Press Ctrl+N.
- Enter the Deposit Date.
- Select the GLS Account #.
- Click the Select Receipts button.
- Verify Cash and Checks is selected.
- Select the receipts to be included on the deposit slip.
- Click OK.
- Press Ctrl+S.
The journal entries will now appear as a single deposit in the reconciliation.
We recently switched to a new bank for our operating account. Everything is configured correctly, but when I run the Balance Sheet I see both the old and new accounts showing up. How can I stop the old account from being displayed?
There are a couple options for excluding an account on the Balance Sheet – you can mark the account inactive or change the account’s Report Options.
Marking an account inactive is a good solution for accounts that no longer have any activity. Keep in mind that inactive accounts are shown in the Account Lookup when running reports, and if the account has a balance or journal entries in the period for which the report is run, it will still be shown on the report.
To mark an account inactive
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Chart of Accounts.
- Double-click the account you want to change.
- On the Account tab, in the Account Options section, select the Inactive check box.
- Click Save.
Alternatively, if the account still has a balance or activity, and you still do not want it to be shown on the Balance Sheet, you can change the Report Options. Report Options can be set to not show an account on the Balance Sheet (or Income Statement). Keep in mind that regardless of whether this option is changed, report totals will still be affected by this account’s balance, provided the account falls within ranges for other options selected for the report when printed. Additionally, the account may still be included on other reports.
To change an account’s Report Options
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Chart of Accounts.
- Double-click the account you want to change.
- On the Report Options tab, in the Detail Report and Summary Report sections, clear the Display on Balance Sheet (or Display on Income Statement) check box.
- Click Save.
Run the Balance Sheet again to verify that the account no longer appears on the report.
We have several recurring entries that we want to add that are similar. Is there a way to copy an existing one and then make a small change to it?
Recurring entries can easily be copied in order to make a new one.
To copy a recurring entry
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Recurring Entries.
- Select the Recurring # that you want to copy.
- Press Esc. The options on the recurring entries window will become dimmed, but the amounts will remain.
- Press Ctrl+N.
- Make the desired modifications
- Press Ctrl+S.
How can I tell if a deposit slip has already been reconciled or not?
The status of a deposit slip can be determined from within the Deposit Slip window.
To determine if a deposit slip has been reconciled
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Deposit Slips.
- Select the Deposit # in question.
- If the deposit has been reconciled, the Status field will show Reconciled.
Note: If the deposit has been marked as cleared in the Reconciliation program, the Status field will show Cleared. Likewise, if a deposit is still outstanding, the Status field will show Outstanding.
I have accounts in GLS for different profit centers based off of their location. Is there a way I can view reports to see each profit center separately?
Departments can be used as separate profit centers based on locations, timekeepers, or anything for which you want to print individual financial statements. Financial statements can be printed for individual departments or combined ranges of departments. Departments must first be set up, and then each account can be assigned the appropriate department.
To add a department
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Miscellaneous.
- From the Department tab, press Ctrl+N to create a new department.
- Enter the name of your first profit center in the Description field.
- Press Ctrl+S.
- Repeat steps 2-4 for each department you want to add.
To assign a department to an account
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Chart of Accounts.
- Double-click on an account to which you want to assign a department.
- On the Account tab, select the appropriate Department.
- Press Ctrl+S.
When running a financial report, you can select a single department or range of departments on the Account tab, and/or select to run the report with a Report Order of Department on the Sort tab.
The beginning of our financial year is currently set to January; however, we consider November to be the beginning of our financial year. How can we change this?
You can change the Beginning Fiscal Month, which will determine the order in which months will print on financial reports, as well as Quarter-to-Date (QTD) and Year-to-Date (YTD) figures.
To change the Beginning Fiscal Month
- From the Utilities menu, select Edit GLS Client.
- Select the desired Beginning Fiscal Month.
- Press Ctrl+S.
A few months ago I created a new account in GLS and journal entries have been entered for that account. However, our accountant has requested that we change the number of the account. Is there a way to change the account number without losing our journal entries?
The Renumber GLS Accounts function can be used to renumber any GLS account, even if journal entries have been posted for that account, or if it has an account balance.
To renumber an account
- From the Maintenance menu, point to Renumber and select Account.
- In the Old Account Number field, select the account you want to change.
- In the New Account Number field, enter the new number for the account.
- Click OK.
This process will automatically change all of the applicable journal entries, deposit slips, and recurring entries to the new account number.
Note: When you renumber an account in GLS it will automatically update the references to the old account number in Tabs3, APS, and TAS integration settings to the new number. However, any GLS report definitions and GLS Report Writer reports that use the old account number must be manually updated.
We added a new Expense account, but when we run the Income Statement it is showing up in the Income section. How can I make the account show up in the correct place?
Accounts can only be shown in Chart of Accounts order on the Income Statement and Balance Sheet. However, accounts can easily be moved in your Chart of Accounts by dragging and dropping them to the desired location.
To move an account in the Chart of Accounts
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Chart of Accounts.
- Select the account you want to move.
- Click and hold the
icon; the pointer will become a 
. - Drag the selected account to the desired position and release the mouse button.
The account will now be in the order you placed it when printing an Income Statement.
We want to start using the Budget Report next year. Where can I enter our budget information?
Income and expense account budget figures can be accessed and edited via Account Information.
To create a budget for an expense or income account
- From the File menu, point to Open and then select Account Information.
- From the Budgets tab, select the desired expense or income Account #.
- Click the Set Budget button.
- Enter the Year.
- Enter the desired figures for each month.
…or… - Click the Allocate button.
- Select the desired allocation methods.
- Click OK.
- Click Save.
- Enter the desired figures for each month.
- Press Ctrl+S.
Use the same steps to proceed through the other accounts that you want to establish budgets for.
I need to subtotal my GLS accounts in a different order to report on income for a branch of the firm. I know I can re-order the accounts in my Chart of Accounts, but I’m hesitant to change the order because it is already in the order the firm typically needs. I only need this alternate order for reporting purposes; what can I do?
GLS has the ability to set an additional accounts 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 first enable the use of an alternate account order. Once that is done, you can specify the alternate order in the Chart of Accounts.
To enable the use of an alternate account order
- From the Utilities menu, select Edit GLS Client.
- In the Client Number field, select 1.
- 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 File menu, point to Open and select Chart of Accounts.
- Right-click in the Chart of Accounts and select View Alternate Account Order.
- Order the accounts as needed.
To switch back to Chart of Accounts Order, right-click in the Chart of Accounts and select View Alternate Account Order to remove the check mark.
To run reports using the alternate account order, select the Use Alternate Account Order check box on the Account tab of the desired report.
A couple of months ago, we changed the name of our firm. I updated Firm Information in System Configuration which changed the name on our statements and Tabs3 reports, but I noticed that our GLS reports still show the old name. How do I change the firm name on GLS reports?
The firm name for GLS is stored in the Client Name field of the Edit GLS Client program.
To change the Client Name that prints at the top of all GLS reports
- From the Utilities menu, select Edit GLS Client.
- In the Client Number field, select 1.
- In the Client Name field, enter the new name of the firm.
- Press Ctrl+S.
Now the new firm name will print on all of your GLS reports.
I created a new liability account in the Chart of Accounts. However, I later realized that it needed to be an income account instead. Can the Account Type be changed after saving the account?
A Liability Account Type cannot be changed to an Income Account Type because these types of accounts are not shown on the same Balance Sheet or Income Statement. However, in some cases the Account Type can be changed. Whether or not the Account Type can be changed is dependent upon certain criteria. The Account Type can be changed if all of the following are true:
- If the Account Type is changing to an Account Type that will appear on the same Balance Sheet or Income Statement (e.g., Asset to Liability or Income to Expense).
- If the Advanced Client Costs check box is cleared.
- If no journal entries exist, including deleted ones, for the account.
Is there a quick and easy way for me to see how much money is in each of my bank accounts?
The Bank Account Manager (File | Open | Bank Account Manager) shows a list of bank accounts. You can see the GLS Account # and Description, Bank Account #, Bank Name, Last Import, Last Reconciliation, and Balance all in one window.
Alternatively, the Bank Account Balance Report is designed to show you this information, in a printable format. To run the Bank Account Balance Report, simply go to Reports | Bank Account Balance and preview or print the report. There are no options to select. This report provides a list of bank accounts and includes the Account #, Description and Balance for each account, as well as a total of all bank accounts.
We used to maintain separate sets of books for our firm and its subsidiaries, but changed to one set of books a few years ago. However, now I need to run reports on one of the old subsidiaries and can’t remember how to do so. How can I access the older data to run my reports?
Each set of books in GLS is referred to as a GLS Client. To access the data in a different GLS Client, you must change which GLS Client is being accessed.
To select a different GLS Client
- From the Utilities menu, select Select Different Client.
- In the New Client field, select the subsidiary for which you need to run reports.
- Click OK.
You can now run the desired reports.
Note: The new client is used until the software is restarted or a different GLS client is selected. Selecting a different GLS client does not affect other users.
I need to review one of our account’s monthly balances for the last two years. Can I do this without printing multiple reports?
You can quickly review up to three years of account balances, or two years and a difference, via Account Information. An optional Account Information Report can also be printed.
To view account balances for multiple years
- From the File menu, point to Open and select Account Information.
- On the Balances tab, select the Account #.
- In the Period Selection section:
- Select the years for which you need monthly balances in Column 1 and Column 2.
- In Column 3, optionally select a third year or select Difference to show a month-by-month comparison between the two years selected.
You can now review each month’s balances for the selected account in the Monthly Balances section. To print a report, press Ctrl+P.
I want to see all journal entries that were entered on a certain date, regardless of their transaction date. Is there any 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
- From the Reports menu, 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.
We’re looking at the reconciliation report current balance and comparing it to the current balance on the balance sheet. It matches this month, but didn’t last month. Why is this?
When printed with outstanding entries, the Reconciliation Report provides a calculation of the current balance for the account being reconciled as of the statement date of the reconciliation. This figure is calculated by subtracting any outstanding withdrawals and adding any outstanding deposits to the ending balance.
This calculation can be compared to the Current Balance on the Balance Sheet if the following are true:
- The Beginning Balance value in the Reconciliation Settings window matches the beginning balance from your bank statement.
- The Statement Date of your reconciliation matches the Balance as of date in the Balance Sheet.
- The correct Ending Statement Balance was specified in the reconciliation.
- The Difference field in the reconciliation is 0.00.
- No deposit slips with a date after the Statement Date that contain transactions on or prior to the Statement Date exist.
If all of the above is true and the two numbers still do not match, it may be due to one or more of the following:
- One or more deposit slips are dated after the Statement Date and contain transactions on or prior to the Statement Date.
- Reconciled journal entries dated after the Statement Date exist, and the total debits and credits for these entries are not equal.
- Journal entries dated on or before the Statement Date were added or edited after the reconciliation was finalized.
For more information, including steps to troubleshooting a difference between these two numbers, refer to Knowledge Base Article R11661, “GLS Reconciliation Troubleshooting.”
