During system setup, use this screen to initialize the beginning balance of each relevant project/account/org combination in the General Ledger. Use this screen to initialize beginning balances only for project account/orgs. Initialize non-project beginning balances in the Maintain Non-Project Beginning Balances screen. Before updating beginning balances, you must first set up your account, organization, and project tables (in the Maintain Accounts, Maintain Org Elements, and Basic Info (in Costpoint Project Setup) screens, respectively), and link account/org combinations to the appropriate projects.
If you are initializing as of the beginning of the fiscal year, enter only balances for project Balance Sheet accounts.
If you are initializing later in your fiscal year, enter only beginning-of-fiscal-year balances in this screen. Do not use this screen to enter a "beginning" balance amount that is a starting balance for your Costpoint activity, but which is actually a mid-year account balance. If you are initializing mid-year, the YTD activity amounts for project Balance Sheet accounts must be initialized through adjusting journal entries. You will need to enter year-to-date balances for project Income Statement accounts as well. You must also initialize these accounts through adjusting journal entries so that the rate calculation programs can recognize and include these balances in the calculations.
Use this screen extensively when initializing the system. After entering all beginning balances for project and non-project accounts, print the Project Trial Balance or Project Ledger to verify that amounts were properly entered. Access to this screen should be restricted once initialization is complete.
Enter, or select from the drop-down box, the fiscal year for which you want to enter beginning balances. You can also use the Query function to select the appropriate fiscal year. You can also use Query to select previous entries made in this screen.
Enter, or use Lookup to select, the appropriate project. The project name displays once the selection is made, and cannot be changed in this screen. To access the table window, use the New Line button on the toolbar.
Enter, or use Lookup to select, the appropriate account for which you want to enter beginning balance information. If you use Lookup, only asset, liability, and stockholder's equity type accounts are displayed for selection.
Enter, or use Lookup to select, the appropriate organization.
Enter the opening balance, in your company's local currency, for the selected account. Regardless of the type of account (e.g., asset, liability), enter the number as a positive amount if the account has a debit balance. If the account has a credit balance, enter a negative amount, by preceding the number with a dash.
Enter the beginning balance in hours, if applicable, for the selected account.
This non-editable field displays the name of the account that you have selected to update.
In each session, a running balance amount, in hours and currency amount, will be kept of all accounts initialized in this session. A good procedure to follow is to know in advance the net amount and hours of all the account/orgs you are going to enter in that session. By checking these hash totals against the running balances, you can catch data entry errors more easily. The running balances are not retained by the system after you leave the screen.