Automatic Journals

CAPITAL Office can be instructed to deal with CAPITAL GL Controller in four ways:

1.      Ignore the general ledger. You may place the general ledger and your management data in the same subdirectory but the two programs will not interact.

2.      Automatic general ledger linking. If general ledger data files seem to be present, CAPITAL will become general ledger "aware". It will start generating general ledger batch journals as each transaction (that effects assets, liabilities, revenue or expenses) is entered into CAPITAL Office.

3.      Forced general ledger mode. CAPITAL Office will behave as if the general ledger was present, even if certain general ledger data files are missing. CAPITAL Office will generate general ledger batch holding files if they are not found. Note, however, that CAPITAL Office will not go into general ledger "aware" mode if it cannot at least find a chart of accounts table. This mode is useful if your accountant, for example, manages the general ledger for you off site. He or she will put CAPITAL in general ledger "aware" mode and leave the general ledger chart of accounts table in with your other company files. You might then send your accountant the automatic journal files produced by CAPITAL Office to him or her for further processing.

4.      Manual or passive general ledger mode. CAPITAL Office becomes general ledger "aware" but does not generate automatic journals immediately after entry of each transaction. The make new systems batches utility is used at the end of each period to generate automatic journals for posting.

To set the general ledger operating mode, run the CAPITAL Office install program and select install, behavior defaults under the install menu. Two fields are of relevance:

Activate General Ledger

Type n for option 1, a for option 2, y for option 3, and m for option4.

Show General Ledger Postings

Tick to display a list of automatic journals generated after one or more transactions are processed by CAPITAL Office. The list will display automatically as soon as you return to the quick access menu. The list of automatic journals can also be sent to the printer at this point if you wish. Displaying the automatic journals created is an ideal way to learn about how CAPITAL Office handles the processing of various transactions. It is also useful to use this display to check that the general ledger sets you have established are correctly set-up. This option will be ignored if CAPITAL Office is not general ledger "aware" or if running in manual/passive general ledger mode.

Immediate Journalling

Unless CAPITAL Office has been instructed to operate in manual/passive general ledger mode, automatic journals are created and added to systems batches as each transaction is entered and processed. In this mode CAPITAL is able to compare customer and supplier transactions to their effects on stock control, and produce purchase and cost of sales variances if there are disagreements.

It also keeps track of any manual adjustments to stock control and creates journals that note these changes. A major advantage is that if a transaction outside the current accounting period is in any way changed, a new batch for the effected period is created. This is an ideal way to catch errors caused by incorrectly dating transactions. (strictly speaking, if many users are working with CAPITAL, the security system should be active and time based editing restrictions should apply.)

Note that on a busy network with multiple users, hardware malfunctions, operator errors and other problems could be common. If this were so, then it could lead to damaged systems batches, and less than 100 per cent accurate accounting information.

Delayed Journalling

Automatic journals can be created after transactions have been entered in CAPITAL Office. The utility make new system batches produces these journals. This is the recommended way in which to update CAPITAL GL Controller. There is also less of a performance hit on your computer or network if journals do not need to be immediately created as each transaction is processed.

A best of both worlds approach is to leave CAPITAL Office in automatic journalling mode so that you can inspect the automatic journals being produced, and to keep an eye on the accounting periods being altered by your staff. When finalising a period, delete the automatic batch and generate a manual batch via the make new system batches utility. Post this batch. Once you are satisfied that the system is operating the way you intended, automatic journalling can be deactivated to improve performance.