Accounting - Where and how it happens

What you do and what Ajera does

After you set up Ajera and go live, you perform much of your typical day-to-day work by opening options from the > Manage menu.

Here's a quick look at some of your main tasks:

Menu option

What you do

What Ajera does

Time & Expense

With time

  • Enter time.
  • Approve time.
  • Review time by employee and by project.

With expenses

  • Enter expense reports.
  • Approve expense reports.
  • Review expenses by employee.

With tasks (unavailable in ajeraCore)

  • Enter and review your tasks
  • Review tasks of your employees.

With time

As you enter billable time and expense transactions for a project, Ajera automatically attaches them to the draft client invoice it creates when you set up the project.

When the employee closes or saves the timesheet, Ajera saves the time entered and updates the client invoice and project information.

Ajera automatically adjusts the general ledger.

With expenses

If you are requiring approvals, after the supervisor/accounting manager approves the expense report, Ajera processes it as follows:

  • Creates a vendor invoice.
  • Reflects the credit card entries on the bank register.
  • Updates the client invoices.
  • Reflects the changes on reports and financials.

With tasks (unavailable in ajeraCore)

Updates the project information.

Payroll

For in-house payroll, run payroll.

For outsourced payroll, produce the payroll file to send to your payroll service.

For in-house payroll, Ajera does the following:

  • Updates the bank register.
  • Records payroll variance.
  • Accrues appropriate tax and deduction liabilities.
  • Updates accrual pays (such as Vacation, Sick ).

For outsourced payroll, Ajera does the following:

  • Creates the vendor invoice from the payroll provider.
  • Records payroll variance.
  • Automatically adjusts the general ledger.

Vendor Invoices

Perform these Accounts Payable tasks:

  • Enter and track your vendor invoices.
  • Assign all or part of the cost on the invoice to a particular project, phase, and activity, and your firm can bill that cost to the client.
  • Print checks for an individual invoice and record any manual checks.

Note:

You can also use > Manage > Recurring Vendor Invoices to create recurring vendor invoices that you set up to pay on a regular basis, such as every month.

Ajera does the following:

  • Automatically includes cost and billable values from vendor invoices on the applicable draft client invoice.
  • Updates the vendor invoices in > Manage > Vendor Payments.
  • Automatically adjusts the general ledger.

Vendor Payments

Perform these Accounts Payable tasks:

  • See a list of all vendors for whom you have unpaid or partially paid invoices.
  • Easily pay several vendor invoices by selecting invoices for payment.
  • Write off invoices.
  • Put payment on hold.
  • Print and reprint checks.

After you pay vendor invoices, Ajera does the following:

  • Makes entries to the bank register.
  • Automatically adjusts the general ledger.

In-house Expenses

Enter and track in-house costs (such as copies and telephone calls) that you can include in the cost of a specific project and bill.

Ajera does the following:

  • Automatically includes in-house costs and billing values on the applicable draft client invoice.
  • Automatically adjusts the general ledger.

Note:

You select an In-house Credit Account when setting up activities, which affects the entries Ajera makes.

Client Invoices

Perform these billing tasks:

You change client invoices and prepare them for final billing.

  • Set cutoff dates.
  • Print draft invoices.
  • Enter amounts to bill.
  • Put an invoice on hold.
  • Put work-in-progress (WIP) on hold or defer it.
  • Make changes to invoices, as needed (such as move WIP to another phase, write off WIP, recalculate billing rates, and override calculated values).
  • Print a final version of the invoice.
  • Reprint or reissue a final invoice.

After you set up and save a project, Ajera automatically creates a draft client invoice.

It automatically adds transactions to the draft invoice when you:

  • Enter time and expenses.
  • Enter in-house expenses.
  • Enter vendor invoices.

When you print a final version of the invoice, Ajera automatically creates a new draft invoice for the project if the project is not yet complete. In this way, the billing process for the project continues without interruption.

Ajera automatically adjusts the general ledger.

Note that there are many general ledger transactions involved with the billing process in Ajera, including invoices, WIP adjustments, and write-offs.

Client Receipts

Perform these Accounts Receivable tasks:

  • Enter receipts to pay or write off client invoices.
  • Create a deposit from a list of all client and miscellaneous receipts not currently associated with a deposit.
  • Apply partial payments to an activity type of labor, expense, or consultant.
  • Enter prepayments.
  • Enter credit memos and apply them to existing open or partially paid client invoices.

After you print a client invoice as Final, Ajera makes it available to pay in > Manage > Client Receipts.

Ajera records client receipts to a pending deposits account. When you create a deposit, Ajera credits that account and records the deposit in the bank register.

Ajera automatically adjusts the general ledger.

Bank Register

Perform these tasks:

  • View electronic transfer of funds and cleared entries from your bank.
  • Add transactions to your register for manual checks, deposits, bank charges, and adjustments.
  • Split single bank transactions across multiple accounts.
  • Reconcile to your bank statement.
  • View credit card entries.
  • Reconcile credit card statements.

After you pay client and vendor invoices, Ajera enters these payments and receipts in your bank register for you to verify and reconcile.

After you run payroll for in-house payroll or produce the payroll file to send to a payroll service provider, Ajera updates the bank register.

Ajera automatically adjusts the general ledger.

Journal Entries

Create entries that affect financial reporting for your firm but have no effect on project reporting.

Note:

You can also use > Manage > Recurring Journal Entries to create recurring in-house journal entries that you set up to enter on a regular basis, such as every month. For example, you create a journal entry to record depreciation expenses for the month.
 

Audit trail and error correction

Session journals are reports that show you entries created, changed, and deleted in a session. They also show a recap of the general ledger accounts affected by the entries. Click > Reports > Session Journals.

Reconciliation

Developing precise procedures for reconciliation should be a top priority for every company. It is a guarantee that your reports are accurate and that your data is in balance.

As a best practice, Axium recommends that you reconcile monthly. You first determine if your Trial Balance report is in balance and then balance each of the control accounts to the Trial Balance report.

Through normal workflow, Ajera keeps the subsidiary ledgers and control accounts in balance. For example, when you print vendor checks, Ajera makes an entry to the Accounts Payable control account to reduce the balance by the total of the check.

However, if you entered the amount of the check as a debit to the Accounts Payable account in > Manage > Journal Entries, then your Accounts Payable subsidiary ledger (Vendor Invoice Aging report) would no longer be in balance with your Accounts Payable account on your Trial Balance report.

For step-by-step instructions on how to perform reconciliation, see Reconciliation in help ( > Help > Online Help).