Application Features

Accounts Receivable provides the accounting information required for analysis and control your company’s revenues. Invoices, Adjustments, and Cash Receipts are entered through an on-line user workstation, and detail or summary information generated from Order Entry can also provide input to Accounts Receivable. All transactions entering the system are controlled and processed against individual customer accounts. Account validation, and other validation such as customer number and terms, occurs on-line and does not allow invalid or out-of-balance data to post to master files. During posting, Accounts Receivable transfers information to the General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Sales Analysis, and/or Commission Accounting applications.

Accounts Receivable can support either twelve or thirteen financial periods per fiscal year. The fiscal year may be synchronized with or independent of the calendar year. Other applications may coincide with the Accounts Receivable accounting, period, or may be ahead of or behind that used by Accounts Receivable. transaction entry functions allow the user to specify the month and year to which a transaction is to be posted. The Close Month function within Accounts Receivable deletes historical data older than the number of months of history you choose to keep and prepares the files for the next accounting month.

Customer Type and Area

Customers can be categorized using Customer types and Customer Areas. Many of the Accounts Receivable reports and updating functions can be sorted and selected by using these fields. For example, “customers” who are company employees that borrow funds from the company can be given their own Customer Type.

Transaction Control

On the Accounts Receivable Parameters file, there are two entries which allow you to define the level of transaction control detail that is appropriate for your business. These fields are labeled “Ask for Operator ID?” and “Use Transaction Control?”

Every transaction file is keyed by Operator ID and a sequential Control Number that is a part of your audit trail. If you enter ‘N’ (No) for “Ask for Operator ID?”, the system will automatically assign the Operator ID and Control Number for each group of transactions, but the Control Number can be changed. No operator will be allowed to edit another operator’s transactions. No control or hash totals will be kept, and no data will be posted to the Transaction Control file.

If you enter ‘Y’ (Yes) to “Ask for Operator ID?” and ‘N’ (No) for “Use Transaction Control?”, the system will assign the Operator ID and Control Number for each group of transactions, but the Control Number can be changed. Additionally, any operator will be allowed to edit another operator’s transactions. No control or hash totals will be kept, and no data will be posted to the Transaction Control file.

If you enter ‘Y’ (Yes) to “Ask for Operator ID?” and ‘Y’ (Yes) to “Use Transaction Control?”, the system will assign the Operator ID and Control number to each group of transactions, but the Control Number can be changed. In addition, control and hash totals can be entered and will be balanced against the sum of the transactions. Each control group can have a unique description. an “Operator Exclusive?” option allows any operator to restrict access to his or her transactions. One record will be written to the Transaction Control file for each group of transactions posted, detailing the Operator ID, Control Number, Description, Number of Transactions and last Transaction Posted, Total Amount Posted, Number of Errors, and Number of Warnings. This information can be printed on reports and viewed through an inquiry.

Cash Flow

For Cash Flow forecasting purposes, Accounts Receivable provides a Cash Receipts Projection report. this report shows a projection of receivable amounts, based on either the invoice due date or the discount due date, for whatever time intervals you designate.

Historical Information

Accounts receivable maintains historical information for several types of data. The Customer History file maintains total sales, total margin, the number of invoices, the high balance, and the total number of days it took to pay the invoices for each customer by month. You may choose to keep customer history by either calendar or fiscal year. On the Parameters file, you can specify the number of months of customer history you wish to keep.

The Transition History file saves invoice, receipt, and adjustment detail for each customer. When paid invoices are purged from the Current Transactions file at end of month, they are stored on the Transaction History file. On the Parameters file, you can specify the number of months of transaction history to keep.

The Transaction Control file keeps a record of each control group of transactions that is posted. Operator ID, journal code, file posted, number of transactions, and total amount posted are among the types of information kept. This information is available in inquiry or as hard copy. As with the other types of history, you can specify the number of months of historical transaction control information to keep with an entry on the Parameters file.

The advantage of saving data for an extended period of time is that it allows you on-line access to more information. The disadvantage of saving a great deal of historical information is that it consumes disk space and may affect system performance.

Service Charges

Service charges can be calculated by invoice, or by customer if you use the “Summary Service Charges?” field on the Parameters file. A response of ‘Y’ (Yes) to this question will result in a single service charge invoice per customer; a response of ‘N’ (No) to this question will result in a service charge invoice for each overdue invoice in the system. If you choose to issue individual service charge invoices, you can automatically write off services charges by using the “Write Off?” feature on the Customer master file. This “Write Off” files is attached to each invoice and can be modified either through Adjustments or through Cash Receipts entry.

You can also issue service charges using the “Average Daily Balance?” feature available on the Parameters file. A response of ‘Y’ (Yes) to this question will automatically cause a response ‘Y’ to the “Summary Service Charges?” question, and will result in a single service charge invoice per customer, based on the average daily balance in their account.

The number of allowable days overdue, the percentage for calculating the service charge, and the minimum service charge amount are all maintained on the Terms file, and can therefore be different for each customer (or invoice, if you are calculating service charges on a detail basis).

Customer Refunds

Refunds can be generated for any invoice with a credit balance. Generated refunds are placed in a file which can be edited and printed on a Customer Refunds Register. The Customer Refunds Register must be printed before refunds can be posted. Posting refunds creates adjustments in Accounts Receivable and open invoices in Accounts Payable, which can then be paid in the normal fashion.

If your system does not include Accounts Payable, you will be unable to process refunds in the manner described above.

Dunning Letters and Statements

The Dunning Letters feature allows you to set up a variety of different text options and assign different styles of letters of different customers. In addition, different types of text can be generated based on how many days overdue the oldest customer invoice is.

Statements can be issued monthly, detailing each overdue invoice and any adjustments posted to it. Optionally,. you can also print all detail for the current month, including any invoices that have been paid in full.

Open Item or Balance Forward Customers

You can keep current customer transactions either as “open item” or “balance forward” information. If you choose to keep a customer on an “open item” basis, all detail for any currently unpaid invoice will be kept until the end of the month in which the invoice is fully paid. This allows you to maintain a complete audit trail for any unpaid invoice.

Alternatively, you can choose to keep a customer on a “balance forward” basis. In this case, at the end of each month, open transactions are summed into a single “Balance Forward” record and the detail is deleted. Any invoice that is not due until the following month is retained in detail, however. The advantage of the “balance forward” basis is that it requires fewer disk resources because fewer transactions are maintained.

It is possible to maintain both types of customers simultaneously. In other words, you can have some customers that are “balance forward” customers, and some that are “open item” customers.