Accolent ERP works differently from Advantage in many areas. One of the main differences is that Accolent ERP’s General Ledger is completely GAAP-compliant and so has constraints that were not present in Advantage. Another major difference is that the General Ledger posts transactions in real-time immediately as they are completed, so there are no daily or monthly reports. There are several things that need to be done by Advantage users converting to Accolent ERP to correctly set up the General Ledger, and several specific areas of difference to be aware of.
Overview
Converting Advantage users should first read these wikis:
Important Differences
There are several important General Ledger areas of difference between Advantage and Accolent ERP for users to be aware of and take into account:
Warehouse General Ledger Defaults
- The Warehouse General Ledger Defaults are the minimum set of accounts that have to be set up for Accolent ERP to post General Ledger transactions.
- There are a number of required General Ledger Default Accounts in Accolent ERP that are not in Advantage.
- See this wiki: Warehouse General Ledger Defaults.
Financial Statements Set Up
- The import from Advantage will bring over users’ Charts of Accounts and Statement Labels.
- However, the structure of the Financial Statements in Accolent ERP is different from that of Advantage and so, will not automatically be converted from Advantage.
- Accordingly, the Financial Statements will still need to be set up in Accolent ERP and may be different than those set up in Advantage.
- See this wiki: Setting Up Financial Statements.
Accounting Start Date
- Accolent ERP requires entry of an Accounting Start Date.
- The Accounting Start Date should be dated after the data imports are done and before live transactions are entered.
- Transactions in Accolent ERP dated prior to the Accounting Start Date are not posted to the General Ledger.
- See this wiki: Getting Started With the General Ledger.
Starting Balances
- Accolent ERP requires starting Balance Sheet General Ledger balances to be entered as of the Accounting Start Date.
- See this wiki: Getting Started With the General Ledger.
Posting to the General Ledger
- Each transaction in Accolent ERP is posted to the General Ledger immediately and is dated as of the date of the transaction.
- Nothing needs to be done by the user to effect the General Ledger Posting, it happens automatically once the transaction is saved.
- Though Accolent ERP stores for costs for each product, in accordance with US GAAP, only Average Cost is used for posting cost to the General Ledger.
- The forms of the General Ledger Postings for different types of transactions are laid out in this wiki Summary of General Ledger Postings.
Undeposited Cash
- In Accolent ERP, receipt of payment is automatically debited to Undeposited Cash.
- When payments are entered in a bank deposit the posting is to debit Cash in Bank and credit Undeposited Cash.
- See this wiki: General Ledger Postings-PR Journal.
Unconfirmed Accounts Payable
- In Accolent ERP, Vendors require a specific checkbox to be selected to identify them as Inventory Vendors.
- Designating a vendor as an Inventory Vendor will automatically assign the General Ledger Allocations for PO Receiving and Voucher Entry.
- For Inventory Vendors, the General Ledger Posting for PO Receipts is to debit Inventory and credit Unconfirmed Accounts Payable.
- When the Vendor’s Invoice is subsequently paid, the General Ledger Posting is to debit Unconfirmed Accounts Payable and credit Accounts Payable.
- See this wiki: General Ledger Postings-PO Journal.
Customer Deposits
- In Accolent ERP, receipt of a deposit or prepayment in connection with an order is initially debited to Undeposited Cash and credited to Customer Deposits.
- Subsequently when the order is invoiced, the General Ledger Posting is to debit Customer Deposits, credit Account Receivable and apply the deposit or prepayment against the invoice.
- See this wiki: Taking Deposits on Orders.
Landed Costs
- In Accolent ERP, in accordance with US GAAP, Landed Costs are treated as direct costs of products and so are capitalized and then amortized as the products are sold.
- Landed Costs entered against a PO are allocated, either by extended cost, or weight or cubes, to the products on the PO.
- The General Ledger Posting is to then debit Inventory and credit Unconfirmed Accounts Payable.
- Subsequently when the Landed Cost Vendor is paid the General Ledger Posting is to debit Unconfirmed Accounts Payable and credit Accounts Payable.
- See this wiki: Landed Costs.
Warehouse Transfers
- In Accolent ERP, warehouse transfers are treated as a PO from the Receiving Warehouse to an internal vendor, the Sending Warehouse, and as an Order from the Sending Warehouse to an internal customer, the Receiving Warehouse.
- Warehouse Transfers are effected at the Average Cost of the Sending Warehouse.
- The General Ledger Posting for the Sending Warehouse is to debit Internal Warehouse Transfers and credit Inventory.
- The General Ledger Posting for the Receiving Warehouse is to debit Inventory and credit Internal Warehouse Transfers.
- The Internal Warehouse Transfer GL Account allows reconciliation and tie-out of all internal transfers.
- See this wiki: Warehouse Transfer General Ledger Posting.
Evaluate Transactions
- In Accolent ERP, after any transaction is completed, go to General Ledger > Manage General Ledger > Evaluate Transaction to see the General Ledger Posting of the transaction.
- See this wiki Evaluating General Ledger Transactions.
General Ledger Transaction Details
- In Accolent ERP, go to General Ledger > Chart of Accounts > General Ledger Transaction Details to see all transactions that affected a given General Ledger Account in a selected date range.
- This is similar to the detailed trial balance in Advantage.
- See this wiki: Viewing General Ledger Transaction Details.
End of Month Reports
- In Accolent ERP there are no end-of-day or end-of-month reports as in Advantage.
- Transactions are automatically posted immediately to the General Ledger as of the date of the transaction.
- Any General Ledger or operational reports can be run for any time period at any time and the running or not running of reports has no effect on the financial results for the period.
Vendor General Ledger Allocations
- In Accolent ERP, vendors need to be designated as “Inventory Vendors” meaning that goods for Inventory are purchased from these vendors.
- For the initial export you will be given a vendor export spreadsheet with a column “Inventory Y/N” to identify inventory vendors.
- Your entries into this spreadsheet will be imported into Accolent ERP, so it is important to take the time to get this right.
- The default General Ledger Posting for Inventory Vendors differs from that for Non-Inventory Vendors.
- See this wiki: Vendor Default General Ledger Posting Allocations.
Miscellaneous Products
- Although Accolent ERP allows for the use of Miscellaneous Products these should generally only be used for products that have no price or cost (e.g., brochures).
- However, Accolent does allow the use of Miscellaneous Products in connection with special orders.
- Accolent ERP gets the cost of any product on a sales order from its Average Cost.
- The one exception to this is that only in the case of a Miscellaneous Product on a special order will Accolent ERP take the cost of the product from the linked PO.
- See this wiki: Inventory and Non-Inventory Products.
Changing Standard Cost on Orders
- Accolent ERP allows for changing the standard cost of a product on an order.
- The changed standard cost for that product on that order will be reflected in all standard cost reports and sales reports but will not affect the General Ledger Posting of the transaction.
- The change in standard cost will affect only that order and not the product master.
- See this wiki: Changing Standard Costs on an Order.