Accounting
Common Accounting questions and tips
Invoicing Sale Orders Troubleshooting
Note: In DEACOM, the Foreign Currency Exchange Rate is updated at the time of invoicing, and not at the time of shipping.
What is wrong if my customer is stating they are not getting emailed invoices?
Confirm in the Sent folder on the computer that does the invoicing, that the email is in there. If the email is there, have the customer check their junk folder and have them check with their IT department to determine if the message was blocked. Forward the email to the customer to confirm email is working. If it is not there, check the Bill-to record to confirm the "Print invoice to" field is set to Email and there is a valid email address. If the invoice is not processed using the "Print All" button with the Print to set to Printer, or "Print One" button with the Print to set to Email, it will not automatically email.
What is wrong if I am getting delivery failure messages for emailed invoices?
Confirm the email address in the Bill-to Company record is valid. If valid, check with your IT department or Bill-to Company to confirm they are not having email issues. If being reported as spam, ask recipient's IT department to whitelist your company email address so it will not be blocked by spam software.
What is wrong if my invoices are not emailing and the email address appears to be on two lines?
There are extra spaces in the email address which is causing the email address to be invalid. Modify the email address and remove the extra spaces.
Why am I having issues with Print to Email when using Windows Live Mail?
While Print to E-mail is designed to work with all e-mail software, we recommend using Microsoft Outlook. Select features may not work with other e-mail software.
Tip: Invoices can be automatically emailed via the "Email Type" field on the Print Invoices pre-filter.
Tip: In situations where there is a rounding issue while invoicing leading to a GL posting imbalance, an offset amount will be posted to the "Negative Invoice Variance" account defined in Accounting Options.
Chart of Accounts Troubleshooting
My company wants to track sales by customer. How can I achieve this?
The initial idea is often to create an account that relates to a specific customer, however this is not a scalable practice. The better option is to book customer transactions to one account and run a Sales > Order Reporting "Profit Detail" or "Profit Summary" report for that account and the desired customer.
For purchasing items that relate to specific Bill-to Companies - an extra Quality Control Test required by a customer for example - users may add a Purchase Order line, enter a description for the charge, and select the corresponding Bill-to Company.
What is wrong when I click the Search 'S' button to select an account and no accounts come up or the account is not showing?
Check the user has the proper Chart Group Security under System > Maintenance > Chart Group Security. Also certain areas of DEACOM know only to show Revenue or Inventory accounts, so confirm the Account type for the Account is correct.
I am trying to create a new account and I am getting a message; “Please Note -This name already exists in the table.” What do I need to do?
Account numbers must be unique, and the message is saying that this account number already exists. Please note that Inactive accounts are also included in this check.
I am getting an error message when trying to import my Budget.
Check the format of your import spreadsheet. The spreadsheet cannot include blank rows or total rows. Delete the last few blank rows to make sure there is nothing in them.
Can I enter or import a Budget number for a range of accounts?
You cannot import a budget number for a range. You can put the budget in one account or across the range depending on how your reports are setup.
One of my accounts is showing in the Financial Statements Budget column with the wrong sign. The account looks correct on the Edit Budgets screen. How do I fix this problem?
Make sure the account has the correct "Type" in its setup under Accounting > Maintenance > Chart of Accounts.
What if the GL Entry needs to be coded to multiple GL accounts?
If there are multiple GL account codes that an invoice needs to be coded to, either because of distinct kinds of expenses, or different division or departmental allocations, enter as many additional lines as needed. Each line refers to the correct GL account, has a quantity of 1 and a unit price of the dollar amount to be charged to that specific GL account. When all lines are added, the total order amount should match the total amount of the invoice.
If a Vendor has their name/address changed in the system, does the system store the historical data of how the check/payment was printed/received before the name/address change?
Yes, in the system the ca_name, ca_street, ca_street2, ca_city, ca_state, ca_zip are available to the dtcash table so that the original name and address that a payment was from can now be accessed.
Cash Receipts Troubleshooting
How do I fix a payment on account that was applied to the wrong customer?
This is a two-step fix. Step 1: Process Overpayment. Step 2: Process Payment.
- Follow the steps for "Processing over payments" above. In Step 6, in "Reference" enter "Fix Payment" or an explanation why this action is being performed.
- Process the correct payment on account as normal, be sure to reference the same cash account applied in Step 1.
I can select the Sales Order from the Cash Receipts pre-filter but when I click the "View" button, the form is blank. Why can I not apply this regular payment?
Only invoiced Sales Order can have regular payments applied to them. Confirm the order has been invoiced.
I have a Sales Order with a balance due, but it isn't showing up in Cash Receipts. Why?
Check to make sure the order has been invoiced. If it hasn't been invoiced, it won't show up in Cash Receipts.
My customer put a deposit on an order but has now cancelled the order. How do I refund the check?
Change the Sales Order to a non-stock part (for example, Part Number = Refund). Make the Line quantity 1 and the Unit price $0. Ship and Invoice the order. This will put a credit on the customer’s account. Now, a user can process a check through Accounting > Cash Receipts.
Can I add Terms information to the Cash Receipts form?
Yes, Terms information may be added by accessing the Grid Layout via the "More" button on the toolbar. The "termnum" (Terms Code Name) and "disday" (Discount Cut-Off Days) can be added to provide additional information to the grid.
Financial Statement Troubleshooting
How do I add Net Income (Current year’s earnings) to my Balance Sheet?
Add a line to your Balance Sheet that totals all of the Income statement (P&L) accounts for the year.
How do I get a report that shows me quarters?
Using a period report, you will need to create user-defined fields. For example, quarter 1 field User Expression would be period1 + period2 + period3. Budget quarter 1 field User Expression would be budget1 + budget2 + budget3.
I am receiving a message stating that I do not have security access to edit Financial Statements in a particular group. How do I fix this?
Please verify your User Group through System > Maintenance > Users > highlight your name and click "Modify" > make note of your User Group. Then go to System > Maintenance > Financial Statement Group Security > Change the setting to Yes for your User Group.
What happened to the "Divide By" field on the Edit Financial Statement Line form?
Can sales forecasts be displayed in Financial Statements?
Yes,
Tips:
- Financial Statements can be published as a Favorite or Preview and added to Combined Reports in DEACOM.
- When determining an account's starting or ending balance, the system excludes GL Closing Entries that are dated after the first day of the earliest financial period within the date range.
- The YTD Budget (currbud) and Total Annual Budget (totbud) variables may be added to the grid for Period Financial Statements. The Total Annual Budget displayed is based on the financial year. The YTD Budget displayed is based on the budget to date if running in the current financial year. If running a period report for a previous year, the YTD Budget will be the total budget from the previous year selected.
When trying to print Financial Statements from the Pre-filter, it is going directly the printer and not giving me the choice for PDF or email. What is the problem?
You need to View the Financial Statement report first before using the "Print" button. The "Print" button from the Pre-filter works the same as the "Printer" button in the upper left hand corner of the screen and will print to your default printer.
I am receiving the following error when trying to generate a financial statement.
DEACOM Application Error
Error: 107.
Line: 134.
Message:.
Program: FRM_FINADD4.M_PRINT.
This error can appear if your fiscal year is not set up. Please check your Fiscal year set up under Accounting > Maintenance > Fiscal Years.
Why does the number on my Financial Statement not tie to the underlying GL detail?
If the amounts in the Financial Statement do not match the GL detail when you drill down, please verify that there is only one budget line per account in Accounting > Maintenance > Budgets. Duplicate budget lines will multiply the actual GL amounts. Also verify that each account is only listed once in the Financial Statement setup, or they will be counted multiple times.
A line on my Financial Statement is not showing the number I expected to see.
Double click on the number to drill down to the underlying detail. This will help you trouble shoot the setup of the line.
I am receiving a DEACOM Application Error after modifying a report grid when I try to run the report. How do I fix this?
Navigate to System > Maintenance > Grid Layouts. Locate and modify the grid that is causing the issue.
My Balance Sheet is showing the same amount for the current period (currper) as the year to date column (ytd). Why?
The Balance Sheet is the balance based on the report date. The year-to-date balance is also based on the report date and will match the current balance. Only one column is needed on a Balance Sheet for the report date.
Accounts Receivable Troubleshooting
Tip: You will not be able to create a PDF Customer Statement if the Customer’s name contains a forward slash. PDF files do not allow a forward slash in their file names. You are able to create a PDF statement via Accounting > Accounting Reporting > "Receivables Detail" > View > Print > Assign the file a name that does not contain a slash.
How do I clear two invoices that offset each other out without receiving a check from the customer?
Process a regular Cash Receipt, select both invoices. Total Gross and Total Cash will be zero. Click "Apply", enter a Reference, and process as normal.
How do I apply Accounts Receivable Invoices against Accounts Payable Invoices?
This is accomplished with a two-step process (AP amount is > than the AR amount in this example).
Step 1
- Navigate to Accounting > Cash Receipts (formerly Sales Order Payments). Select the appropriate Customer, move the selected invoices and click "Modify Amount" (Do not change the account on this form!).
- From the Account pick list, select a cash account to "wash" the invoice adjustment(s) through.
- Fill in the Invoice Adjustment amount in the "Debit Amount" field with the amount of the AR invoice.
- Tab to the "Description" field and enter a description to identify/explain the reason for the "wash" of the AR invoice amount.
- Click the "Add Line" box on the lower right corner of the form. Then save, exit, and apply.
This clears the A/R invoice(s) amounts and moves the money into the account chosen. There is no cash effect.
Step 2
- Navigate to Accounting > Manual Checks. Select the appropriate Vendor, move the selected Vendor invoice(s), and click "Modify Amount".
- From the Account pick list, select the same Cash account used earlier to "wash" the invoice adjustment(s) through.
- Fill in the total invoice adjustment amount in the "Credit Amount" field with the amount of the AR invoice(s) from above completed invoice adjustment(s).
- Tab to the "Description" field and enter the same description as used on the AR side to identify/explain the reason for the "wash" of the AR invoice amount.
- Click the "Add Line" box on the lower right corner of the form. Then save, exit, and apply.
The check printed will now reflect the AP vendor invoice amount minus the AR invoice(s) deduction amount. Note, the check stub and check display only the total amount paid – there is no display/reference to the "washed/adjusted" AR invoices. The chosen "wash" account will now be $0. Clicking on the "View Detail" button will display the description entered.
When trying to do a payment on account, the following message is appearing: "A required field has been left empty in 'dttord'". What is the problem?
This transaction requires the "Facility" field to be entered. Process the transaction again with a Facility.
How can I post a cash receipt that is not related to AR?
Either enter a Sales Order for a non-stocked item, and process the receipt in the regular method, or enter the receipt with a Journal Entry.
Is credit card payment processing available when creating a payment on account?
Yes, when creating a payment on account and using a credit card payment the system will prompt for credit card information.
Service Charge Troubleshooting
Can I generate Service Charges only if the charge is more than a certain dollar amount?
Yes, use the advanced filter to filter out the records that should not generate charges. If for example, you want to exclude charges that are $5 or less, set filter to Charge > 5.00. Users can also set the "Min. $ past due" field on the pre-filter form.
I received an error while generating Service Charges and only partially created the Service Charge Sales Orders. What can I do?
Generate Service Charges again but filter out the customers already processed using the advanced filter before clicking the "Add Charges" button. Set filter to Bill-to Company >= X. Where X is the name of the company it needs to start processing from.
Journal Entries Troubleshooting
Tips:
- If the credit amounts are not importing correctly, there may be something hidden in the debit cells on those lines. Please enter zeros in the blank cells. And vice-versa if the debit amounts are not importing correctly.
- When creating a recurring journal entry, all postings are created in sequential order using the proper posting dates. To view recurring entries, use Accounting > Accounting Reporting> Journal Entries using a date range large enough to show all entries. The action will be Journal entry - Recurring.
- Documents can only be saved to records after they have been saved. Documents can be attached to Journal Entries via Accounting > Accounting Reporting > report types of "Journal Entries" or "General Ledger Detail".
How can I print a Journal Entry after it has been posted?
Use the Accounting Reporting "Journal Entries" report. Fill in the pre-filter as desired then click "View". Locate the appropriate Journal Entry then click "Print".
When importing via Excel, I receive an LSE.
This may be due to the account numbers being improperly formatted. Add dashes (-) to the account numbers in the ch_account column and retry to import.
Accounting Reporting Troubleshooting
My GL Summary report is not matching my ending balances. What is the problem?
The GL Summary report includes the closing entries from the first day of the year in the “Starting Balance” column. If the report is run with a start date other than the first day of the year, the closing entries are still included. If comparing to another report, it is best to run them both from the start of the fiscal year.
Tip: Financial Statements can now be published as a Favorite or Preview and added to Combined Reports in DEACOM.
What criteria is used to pull PO's in the Payables reports?
The PO must be received, have either a Pay Date greater than the Report Ending Date or no Pay Date, and have either a Vendor Invoice Date less than the Ending Date or no Vendor Invoice Date. Also, if there is no Purchase Suspense Account, the Received Date must be less than or equal to the Report Ending Date and if there is a Purchase Suspense Account, the System Invoiced Date must be less than or equal to the Ending Date.
There is a "PJ-" postref entry in my Cash Disbursement by Payment report. Where did it come from?
Zero dollar Purchase Orders that do not create a GL entry appear in the Cash Disbursement by Payment report on the date the invoice is paid. Postref entries for these types of Purchase Orders have a "PJ-" prefix, e.g. PJ-20130002685. Zero dollar Purchase Orders are marked "paid" at the time they are invoiced and will display on the Cash Disbursement report for all cash accounts.
Tip: If a zero dollar Purchase Order needs to be fixed, the Cash Disbursement reference must be voided and the Purchase Order must be un-invoiced and un-received.
I get a message similar to "hexadecimal value 0x11 is an invalid character..." when I try to run a report. What's the problem?
This error message indicates there is an invalid character in a Sales Order field. Here are the steps to find the order and correct the problem:
- Navigate to Sales > Order Reporting and run an Order Summary report where Status = Invoiced Not Paid.
- Click the "Subtotal" button in the toolbar to subtotal the report by Bill-to Company. Either print the summary or export the details to excel.
- Navigate to Accounting > Accounting Reporting and run a Receivables Detail report for the first Bill-to Customer on the list. If the report is displayed, move on to the next Customer. When the error message appears, this will indicate that the Sales Order with the invalid character is for this Bill-to Company.
- When it has been determined which Bill-to Customer is causing the error, navigate to Sales > Order Reporting and run an Order Summary report for the Bill-to Customer where Status = Invoiced Not Paid.
- Highlight the first Sales Order and click "View Detail". Examine the header fields for the invalid character. Oftentimes the illegal character has been copied and pasted into one of the PO fields or into the Header notes. Click "Modify Info" to get a better view of some of the header fields if necessary. Repeat until the invalid character is found.
- Once the Sales Order has been found, click "Modify Info" to make the change on the Edit Order Header form. Otherwise, the order may have to be un-invoiced, un-shipped, the invalid character deleted, then re-shipped and re-invoiced.
- Re-run the Accounts Receivable report to make sure the issue is resolved.
Can I add aging columns to the Receivables Detail report?
Yes, please use the following expressions in user-defined columns to report on the age of an item. Similar expressions can be used to report items that are past due by changing the "totage" field to "pastdue".
<30 OLD - IIF(totage<=30, balance, 0)
30-45 OLD – IIF(BETWEEN(totage,30,45), balance, 0)
46-60 OLD - IIF(BETWEEN(totage,46,60), balance, 0)
61-90 OLD – IIF(BETWEEN(totage,61,90, balance, 0)
>90 OLD – IIF(totage>90, balance, 0)
Tip: When exporting accounting reports to Excel, the totals at the top of the grid will be pulled into the Excel spreadsheet when the "Sum" flag (b2_sum) is checked on the Edit Grid Column form for any column in the report grid.
How do I see blanks on my reports but 0.00 for these same columns when exporting to Excel in DEACOM?
Add a "Z" to the format field via Grid Layout to those columns you wish to have display 0.00 in Excel.
Month End/Year End Closing Troubleshooting
Why do I receive a "The accounting period is closed as of" message when my No Posting Before/After dates are valid?
Users must log out and then back in if changes have been made to the accounting period dates while they are logged in. Additionally, any automated services including the DEACOM Automation Service must also be restarted for the changes to be active.
Can the GL be kept open but prevent new Sales Order entry, shipping, etc?
This is accomplished by using the "Supervisor NPB" field in Accounting Options. Typically, members of the Accounting group are added to this "supervisor" group and will be allowed to post transactions with dates on or after the date specified in the "Supervisor NPB" field.
Why do accounts go out of balance?
If a Journal Entry is booked directly to an AP or AR account, it does not flow through to sub-accounts, and this will cause an out of balance issue. Most of the time, the issue lies with "un" transactions - for example, un-invoicing a Purchase Order - or voiding checks. This is especially true if the same transaction is performed and unwound several times. Typically Inventory accounts go out of balance versus AR or AP accounts. If your accounts are out of balance and you cannot get them back in balance, contact Technical Support. They will be able to provide an External Program to balance the accounts and "clean up" the transactional mess that caused the imbalance.
What are useful reports to see what entries have been approved and who approved them?
The General Ledger History, Summary, and Detail reports all assist with this goal. The GL Detail report displays all the GL entries according to the selected pre-filters. The ID Number (gl_usid) of the person entering the transaction is available to this report. This report also contains a button to "Approve" or "Un-approve" GL transactions. This button's purpose is more for auditing purposes since the postings listed have already hit the GL. The security settings "Accounting -- approve transactions" and "Accounting -- unapprove transactions" control the ability to use this button, which is only available to the GL Detail report. The "apprfname" and "apprlname" fields may be added to the report grid to see who approved a transaction.
Why would a Position filter be used when booking a closing entry?
Organizations that have multiple companies using DEACOM will need to book one closing entry for each company and this can be accomplished via the Position filter, depending on your COA setup.