Use this screen to update the beginning balances in the General Ledger for a specific fiscal year. You can always print reports before processing to review the results before the tables are updated. Beginning balances for all types of account/organization combinations are updated, along with account/reference number combinations, if you use reference numbers for data entry.
In addition, you can change the status of the fiscal year to "C" (Closed) during the update process. You cannot perform additional data for fiscal years with a "Closed" status. Note, however, that you can change the status of a fiscal year from "Closed" to "Open" in the Fiscal Years screen, if necessary, even after this process has been run.
If you choose to close the selected fiscal year, you must also select Closing Rate Type "Actual" or "Target," which will be written back to the Fiscal Years screen during the update process. The system uses the Closing Rate Type written to the Fiscal Years screen when creating project history (in the Update Prior Year History screen in Costpoint Project Setup). For open fiscal years, this field is blank in the Fiscal Years screen.
Because the update process can significantly affect your financial reporting, you should print this report and retain it as part of the system audit trail. You must print the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report before performing the final steps of the update, in which the beginning balances are actually updated in the data tables. For proper review and possible corrections, you can always print this report without activating the update process.
The G/L Beginning Balances Update Report prints a current listing of the beginning balances before the update occurs, the change(s) to be applied to the beginning balances, and the resulting new beginning balances AS IF the process had been completed, on a pro forma basis. You can sort the report by account or organization, and you can print it for all balances or for changed balances only. Project and reference number data, as applicable, are automatically included in the report.
You must print the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report in the same session in which you run the update process. The printing status of the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report for the current session automatically displays (in the Report Status group box) as "Report Not Printed" or "Report Printed."
You can print the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report as necessary. The update process customarily is run as part of the normal closing procedures at the completion of a fiscal year, after the bulk of the year-end adjustments have been made. You can run this process as necessary; however, you should run it whenever an adjustment to a prior fiscal year has been made.
Complete the update process successfully before creating project history in the Update Prior Year History screen in Costpoint Project Setup.
All journal entries should be entered and posted.
If you want the update process to close the fiscal year, you must have already closed all periods associated with the fiscal year by running the Close Periods screen.
You must specify the Retained Earnings Account in the G/L Settings screen before you begin the update process. Additionally, you must link the specified Retained Earnings Account at the balance sheet level for each active organization and the Account itself must be active. (Balance sheet levels are specified in the Define Org Structures screen). The system does not validate that the date ranges of the Retained Earnings Account match the dates of the fiscal year.
In this group box, you can select the fiscal year from which to bring forward ending balances, view the fiscal year in which beginning balances will be updated, and tell the system to close the fiscal year.
Enter the fiscal year from which you need to bring forward ending balances in this required field. You can also use the drop-down box to view and select the desired fiscal year. Only open fiscal years display in the drop-down box.
This non-editable field displays the fiscal year in which the beginning balances will be updated. The fiscal year that automatically displays is the next year in the sequence of fiscal years established in the Fiscal Years screen. Because the Fiscal Year field in the Fiscal Years screen accepts alphanumeric characters, it is important, if you want to avoid unexpected results, to review which year the system will update before you run the process.
If, for example, you need to run the process from this screen for FY02 just ended to update the beginning balances for FY03, you would choose "2002" in the Select Fiscal Year field. If "2003" were the next fiscal year sequentially in the Fiscal Years screen, "2003" would automatically display as the Fiscal Year To Be Updated.
The default for this checkbox is unchecked, indicating that the fiscal year will not be closed. If you select this checkbox, the update process automatically changes the fiscal year's status to a "C" in the Fiscal Years screen. However, if you want to close the fiscal year using the update process, you must close all periods for the selected fiscal year before you begin to update the general ledger beginning balances. In addition, you must choose the Closing Rate Type, "Actual" or "Target," that will be written to the Fiscal Years screen.
You cannot enter data in closed fiscal years. However, you can change the status of a fiscal year from "Closed" to "Open" in the Fiscal Years screen, if necessary, even after running this process.
You can uncheck the previous Set Fiscal Year Status to Closed checkbox if you do not want to close the fiscal year during the Update G/L Beginning Balances process. If you do this, this field is not available for use and is grayed out.
If you set the selected fiscal year status to "C" (Closed) in the Fiscal Years screen at the conclusion of the Update G/L Beginning Balances process, entry in this field is required. Your selection of the Closing Rate Type will automatically be written back to the Closing Rate Type field in the Fiscal Years screen. (Note that you must always update the G/L beginning balances by running the process from this screen before you can Update Prior Year History for projects.)
Enter the closing rate type selected for the carry-forward of project indirect burden for the fiscal year from which you need to bring forward ending balances. You can also use the drop-down box to view and select the desired closing rate type. The valid rate types from which you can choose are "Target" and "Actual." This field is required.
Indirect rates for "Target" and "Actual" are stored for each fiscal year in the Projects folder, and indirect burden amounts are stored by project. When you run the utility that creates this history (the Update Prior Year History screen in Costpoint Project Setup), the system uses the Closing Rate Type that has been entered in the Fiscal Years screen. (For open fiscal years, this field is blank in the Fiscal Years screen).
In this group box, you can select the desired sort option and choose whether to show all balances or only changed balances on the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report.
In this group box, choose the appropriate radio button to sort the report by Account or by Organization. The default for this selection is to sort by Account.
Select this checkbox to print subtotals on the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report. The default status for this selection is unchecked.
In this group box, choose the appropriate radio button to show All Balances or Changed Balances Only on the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report. The default for this selection is to show Changed Balances Only on the report.
This non-editable field displays the printing status of the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report.
Because of the significance of the update process and its potential effect on financial reporting, you should print the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report in the same session in which the update process is run. The printing status of the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report for the current session automatically displays as "Report Not Printed" or "Report Printed." Note that you can always print this report without activating the update process.
When you first enter this screen, this button on the toolbar is grayed out to indicate it is unavailable. If you select this button after printing the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report as part of the same session (this pushbutton becomes available after printing), a system prompt asks if you really intend to run the update process. If you select OK, the update process will begin.
Select this button on the toolbar when you first enter this screen if you want to proceed directly to the update functionality (usually after you have reviewed previously run reports and made any necessary corrections.)
A system prompt asks if you really intend to run the update process. If you select OK, the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report prints, immediately followed by the update process.
Once the update process has begun, a "DO NOT INTERRUPT" message displays, along with a counter display of the number of records processed.
Several key tables within Costpoint serve as the repository for data processed during postings from system journals. The data stored in these tables provides the basis for producing financial statements and other reports and inquiries on posted G/L data at both summary and detail levels. The following abbreviated discussion outlines the general processes involved in updating the General Ledger beginning balances; this is a high-level overview only.
Transactions are initially collected from the Journal screens during posting, are assigned unique sequence numbers, and are written, as appropriate, to the following key tables:
This table holds detail information for each transaction posted to the G/L. As an example, each line from an A/P voucher is stored as an individual row in this table. Detail data appropriate to the posting source, such as the check number, invoice number, timesheet date, etc., is retained in this table. Account-Org-Project data and beginning balance information is NOT stored in this table. Ref No detail data is stored in this table.
The system stores summary information in this table when you post to the G/L. Data from the Transaction Posting Detail table is accumulated for each unique combination of account, organization, project, fiscal year, period, subperiod, journal type, and journal sequence number and is written to this table. Detail data, such as check number or purchase order number, is not stored in this table.
The system stores beginning balance information in this table (Journal Code = "BEG," Pd = "0," and Subpd = "0") when you enter beginning balances at the beginning of your first fiscal year during initialization. After initialization, the system updates the beginning balances in this table when you run the update process from this screen.
This table also contains summary information, but at a higher level than the previous table. When you post to the G/L, data from the Transaction Posting Detail table is accumulated for each unique combination of account and organization and is written to and stored in this table incrementally for each accounting period (for each fiscal year). Each additional posting for the Acct-Org combination changes the stored period total, regardless of the journal source.
If you use reference numbers during data entry, this table, which stores reference number data, acts in the same manner as the previous table. When you post to the G/L, data from the Transaction Posting Detail table is accumulated for each unique combination of account and reference number and written to and stored in this table incrementally for each accounting period (for each fiscal year). Each additional posting for the Acct-Ref No combination changes the stored period total, regardless of the journal source.
When you print from this screen, the system performs the following general steps before starting the update:
Amounts (and hours) are summarized for the fiscal year to be updated from the Transaction Posting Summary table. Amounts are flagged in this table with a Journal Code = "BEG," Pd = "0," and Subpd = "0." This data provides the old balances from the fiscal year to be updated. (Note that there might not be old balances for some or all accounts.)
The system creates worktables in which to store preliminary data.
Amounts are summarized for income and expense accounts for the selected fiscal year from the Financial Statement Summary Account Balances table. Amounts are summarized at the balance sheet level specified for each organization (as specified in the Balance Sheet Level field of the Define Org Structures screen) for account types "I," "E," and "N." The summarized amount(s) provide the amount(s) needed to adjust the retained earnings account(s). If charges were made to Income, Expense, and Non-labor accounts for organizations above the balance sheet level, these amounts are not included in the retained earnings amount summary.
Ending balances for the balance sheet accounts are summarized by Account-Org-Project for the selected fiscal year from the Transaction Posting Summary table. Amounts are summarized for account types "A," "L," and "S."
The retained earnings amount(s) calculated in Step 3 are added to the previously computed ending balances by organization, as applicable. (The retained earnings account is designated in the Account field in the Retained Earnings Info group box of the G/L Settings screen).
You can then print the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report from data that has been added by the system to the worktables. Old balances, new balances, and changes display on the report. Special report pages for Project-Org-Account information and/or Account-Ref No information automatically display on the report.
You must print the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report during the current session before you can activate the actual update process. When you begin the update process (per system rules), the following steps take place:
For the selected fiscal year, the system sets beginning balance amounts back to zero in the Transaction Posting Summary table.
For the fiscal year to be updated, the system creates new beginning balance records for the new hours and amounts (computed for the worktables) in the Transaction Posting Summary table.
For the fiscal year to be updated, the system either creates new beginning balance records for the new hours and amounts OR updates existing beginning balance records in the Financial Statement Summary Account Balances table. This data is summarized by account and organization and is stored in the Beg Amt and Beg Hrs fields of this table.
If you use reference numbers for data entry, the following additional steps take place:
During the Print process activated from this screen, the system performs the following general steps before starting the update:
Amounts (and hours) are summarized for the fiscal year to be updated from the Reference Summary table. Amounts are flagged in this table with Journal Code = "BEG," Pd = "0," and Subpd = "0." This data provides the old balances from the fiscal year to be updated. (Note that there might not be old balances for some or all reference numbers.)
The system creates worktables in which to store preliminary data calculated by the system.
Income and expense accounts are summarized for the selected fiscal year from the Reference Summary table. Amounts are summarized at the transaction level for each account by reference number for account types "I," "E," and "N." The summarized amount(s) provide the amount(s) needed to adjust the retained earnings account(s)/reference number.
Ending balances for the balance sheet accounts are summarized by Account-Ref No for the selected fiscal year from the Reference Summary table. Amounts are summarized for account types "A," "L," and "S."
The system adds the retained earnings amount(s) calculated in Step 3 to the previously computed ending balances by Account-Ref No, as applicable. (The retained earnings account is designated in the Account field in the Retained Earnings Info group box of the G/L Settings screen.)
You can then print the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report from data added by the system to the worktables. Old balances, new balances, and changes are shown on the report. Special report pages for Account-Ref No information are automatically included in the report.
You must print the G/L Beginning Balances Update Report during the current session before you can activate the actual update process. When you begin the Update process (per system rules), the following takes place:
For the fiscal year to be updated, the system either creates new beginning balance records for the new hours and amounts OR updates existing beginning balance records in the Reference Summary table. This data is summarized by account and reference number and is stored in the Beg Amt and Beg Hrs fields of this table.