Nominal Ledger Entries
We start by describing Bank Payments and Receipts; Journals are discussed later.
Note: The following screen references are for Bank Payments only. However the procedures are identical for Bank Receipts.
On the front screen it is possible to enter the date, a reference, a description of the entry, the amount and two nominal accounts. The amount is positive unless an entry is being ‘reversed’. The first nominal account is referred to as the ‘logged-in account’ and is usually the bank account. The second nominal account is described as the ‘analysis account’ and is the account the payment is going to or the receipt has been received from. The nominal accounts can be selected from a picklist by pressing the F2 key, while within the field.
If the Return key is pressed at the analysis account field, the Entry details screen appears and enables extra information to be added to the entry.
Pressing the Return key again returns you to the Add Bank Payments screen and pressing it again accepts the entry and starts the next one.
Logged-In Account
The first nominal account is the ‘logged-in account’. In practice this is usually the bank account. However it is referred to as the logged-in account as it can be used for payments and receipts from other sources such as petty cash or from the Suspense account. To log in to the logged-in account click Account on the Client Menu screen. It is possible to have no logged-in account set, in which case you must enter the logged-in account in Data Entry.
Entry Details
The Entry details screen has three buttons:
- Close, returns you to the Add Bank Payments screen.
- Additional, allows a second date, reference or description to be added to the entry. In practice the second description is the most useful field. It is a longer description of the entry allowing up to 80 characters. The second description is shown on most reports, if present. The second date and reference are only available through Transaction Reporter.
- Postings, The Postings details screen shows the entry in the form of debit and credit lines. If the logged-in account and the analysis account have been entered then the first two lines are pre-defined. If the entry has any extra lines they can be added here. In other words the Add Bank details screen is sufficient for double-sided entries; but the Postings details screen is used for multi-sided entries.
It is impossible to exit from the Postings details screen until the entry sums to zero. The Unallocated amount appears on the screen. A useful shortcut is to press the Return key when entering an amount on the Postings details screen, which defaults the figure to the Unallocated amount and the entry balances. Pressing the Return key again takes you to the OK button and so out of the Postings details screen.
Another useful shortcut when entering multi-sided entries is to leave the analysis account blank on the Add Bank Payment screen. If this is done you are taken directly to the Postings details screen without needing to select it.
In addition to the account a nd the amount, each line of the entry, after the first two, requests the journal type.
Journals
The preceding discussion covered Bank Payments and Receipts. Journals follow a very similar approach. They are used for all other Nominal ledger adjustments. The two nominal accounts on the Add Journals screen are referred to as the ‘debit account’ and the ‘credit account’ and are not predefined with the logged-in account. The debit account is the first line of the journal and the credit account is the second. The terms ‘debit account’ and ‘credit account’, are a little misleading. If the first line of the journal is in fact a credit then the amount is entered as negative and is posted to the ‘debit account’!
If a double-sided journal is being entered then the entry can be done entirely through the Add Journals screen. But if a multi-sided journal is being entered then the credit account should be left blank to take you directly to the Postings details screen, where the rest of the entry can be made.