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Introduction
One of the most important functions in handling the Corporate Receivables module is the
month-end process, which the Advantos Enterprise Accounts
Receivable module shares with all other Advantos Enterprise modules. This process
updates customer balances and totals, cleans up paid invoices, and flags all
transactions as having been printed on a monthly statement.
One key point to understand, and to train your Operators to be observant about, is the monthly
accounting period that the A/R module is currently processing in. This period is shown on
the main web form for the module. During month-end processing, operators should not
enter transactions until the system indicates it has been updated into the next processing
month unless they are processing month-end transactions. If this convention is not observed,
you will be adding data to your totals as you are trying to balance and balancing problems
can occur. In addition, transactions may be posted the aren't captured by the reports
prepared. To minimize this problem, the Accounts Receivable System sets a flag so no
further transactions can be processed until the system indicates it has been rolled into
the next processing month. A System Adminstrator security level can over-ride the flag. In
addition, we recommend the user for each module also be responsible for
month-end processing. This restricts the number of persons accessing the module during
critical periods, and will provide important feedback to the user as to the effects of
decisions made during the processing month.
Cautions
Use the A/R checklist for the month-end processing (see link above). We will review all steps,
explaining what is to be accomplished and what to do if information does not balance. In looking
at the actual checklist, you will note there are navigation instructions to the menu selections
and reports you are instructed to print or the processes you need to perform. It is important to
note, a great deal of balancing is required during this process. Balancing is critical to the
proper operation of the accounting system. It is critical to know when the accounting
system is having problems and the balancing processes will detect problems before an update is
run and errors work their way into financial statements. In many cases, an imbalance can be
caused by hardware malfunctions or connectivity issues, but it is important to know when such
conditions have affected your data base.
The following steps are indicated on the End-Of-Month checklist:
Import Mgmt Fees if they are Invoiced at EOM via T/R
If the management company bills at the end of the month this is the appropriate time to import the billings
into the management company's A/R module. Here the user creates A/R invoices from the A/P invoices created
during the T/R month-end process (that is where the actual management fees were created). This updates the
management company's books with invoices and can also create receipts for these same A/P checks.
If the management fees are created and collected at the beginning of the month then this process should be
skipped because it has already been done for the management fees. However, there may easily be other A/P
checks issued to the management company throughout the month and these checks can be imported into A/R at
this time.
Validate Financial Totals and Balances
- All Payments Verified and Entered - Payments are posted throughout the entire month. This
step simply reminds you to post any payments, NSFS, or other transactions, not already posted
(and deposited). Don't forget to process a deposit if one is needed.
- Set End-of-Month Processing Flag - Use menu# 1.7.1 to set the End-Of-Month processing flag. This
restricts the ability to post additional transactions to update and system administrator
security levels. Error messages are displayed, though, for all who attempt to create
additional transactions.
- Validate Cash Totals - This process ensures cash balances are the same in A/R, the Bank System,
and General Ledger. The deposits to the bank should balance with these amounts. The Operator must
verify all payments received in the current processing month are deposited, posted to the A/R System,
and a record of the deposit (a bank deposit receipt) verifies this. It is very important to know
you have deposited all funds received and posted. Therefore, as deposit receipts, NSF notices,
and other bank adjustments are received from the bank, they must be posted and the documents
must be held until month-end processing so they may be totaled and used as part of the cash
receipts balancing procedure.
If there are errors, you will need to research the difference(s) and make corrections.
For example, a common cause of a discrepancy is an item included in a bank deposit (or a
bank adjustment, such as an NSF) but not posted to A/R. This would indicate deposit items
(receipts, NSF items, etc.) were not properly reflected by the system and additional training
could be done (e.g. an operator may have processed a deposit before verifying data against the
pre-deposit report). It is always possible some hardware or network issue has occurred. In
this case detail reports will need to be printed for the bank account (deposits), G/L Postings
detail for cash, and Cash Receipts reports. These detail reports provide information needed to
track down the imbalance. Note: the three reports should be attached to the checklist when
completed. All notations of errors and the corrections needed should be written on these reports.
If new reports are run they also should be included with the checklist.
- Print Customer Invoice Balance Report - Run this report to determine if the A/R module has an imbalance
between A/R invoice totals and Customer balances.
Clean Up Customer Accounts
- Print Delinquent Listing Report - This report shows all unpaid invoices by customer# with dates,
descriptions, and total balance due. It is an excellent delinquency report when no agings are
required. This is a "file copy" report.
The accounts on this report have to be cleaned up. This is accomplished by applying advance payments
and credit memos to outstanding invoices. This task can provide an excellent opportunity to review
your Operator's understanding of the Payment Posting function.
Print Point-in-Time Reports
These reports are the normal end-of-month reports that are kept in the monthly financial folders for
each client. By running these reports, each client has a single ".pdf" document with all appropriate
reports contained within it.
These reports are created and transferred to the management company's secure FTP directory on the
Advantos server(s). They can be collected from there by using the proper SFTP Client software,
normally Bitvise SSH Client (formerly Tunnelier).
Run Month-End Processes
These processes should be run at the end of each monthly financial period. It cleans up various
financial information and prepares each module to begin the next financial period.
- Process End-of-Month Update - The A/R Update is the most important function and must be performed
at month-end once all data has been posted and management reports printed. The system will run this
process automatically with only a few prompts, allowing you to record select information. Many
housekeeping tasks are performed here. Customer month-to-date data is cleared, paid
invoices are deleted, cash receipts are deleted, current postings are flagged as having
appeared on a monthly statement, and finally, the current processing month is set forward
one month. Also the year-end update will automatically occur when updating December of any
year. This year-end update will perform a data backup on media and year-to-date purging of
customer account totals. You will not be allowed to maintain the A/R System more than one
month in advance of the General Ledger System. Also, you will not be allowed to do a
General Ledger update when an A/R update has not been performed.
- Create Monthly Automatic Charge/Credits - After the end-of-month process is finished, the first
entries for the new month should be the recurring charges/credits booked to customer accounts.
By running this process now, these items will be the first entries on the account every month,
and you will ensure they will not be forgotten.
Create Mgmt Fees if they are Invoiced at BOM
If the management company bills at the beginning of the month this is the appropriate time to create the
management fee billings which creates A/P from clients to the management company. The user then makes
sure the A/P is paid (via an A/P check-run). Then A/R invoices from these A/P checks can be imported
into A/R that, essentially, updates the management company's books. This entire section should be
skipped if the management fees are billed during the T/R EOM process.
This process is normally run at the end of T/R because a percentage fee is based on receipts received
throughout the entire monthly period.
- Client Fees and Other Data Report - Print and review this report to ensure the management fees will
be processed correctly and have the correct amounts.
- Create Management Fees - This process creates the company's management fees and creates A/P invoices
from each client to the management company's vendor. Once these are created you can then either print
checks or run another process that will transfer funds to the management company's bank account.
- Create A/R from A/P - This process creates the management company's A/R invoices from the A/P invoices
to the Management company's vendor. It can also record the A/P checks as "receipts".
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