Special Considerations for Initial Setup Phase

Before beginning Initial Setup and prior to making any substantial changes to your system, your company should consider several issues and options that may affect system operation. This chapter provides information which should be considered when installing Accounts Receivable.

Master Files

Initial Setup procedures are designed to establish master file records and to facilitate transfer of information from existing records to Accounts Receivable.

The first step in Initial Setup involves entering master file and historical data for the application. Data can be entered into the following files:

Parameters Descriptions Customers Customer Divisions Customer Areas Customer types Sales Tax Codes Terms Dunning Codes Recurring Billings Customer History Miscellaneous Customers

In the next step, Opening Entries functions are used to establish the open transactions. This information is verified by printing a Transaction Register.

Process Initial Setup is then run to ensure that required records have been entered accurately. An error log is created if any mistakes are found. Once the errors have been corrected, Initial Setup reports should be reprinted to check information for accuracy.

The final step in Initial Setup is End Initial Setup. Once this menu option is selected, the system begins Live Operations.

Transaction Control

As a function of setting up Accounts Receivable, you should decide how much detail you need to keep for transaction control. In general, the term “transaction control” means maintaining of the audit trail of transactions that are entered and posted in Accounts Receivable. Regardless of the level of detail that you choose to keep, all transactions will be entered, printed on journals, and posted by Operator Id and Control Number. Beyond that, you have several options. These options are controlled by two fields on the Accounts Receivable Parameters file, called “Ask for Operator ID?” and “Use Transaction Control?”. Refer to the chapter on Application Features for a detailed description of the Transaction Control options.

Establishing a Transition Date

It is important to carefully consider when your system is to begin Live Operations, since this affects the opening data that is entered. When the transition date has been established, you must identify the first month of Live Operations by entering it as the Calendar Month and Calendar year on the Accounts Receivable Parameters file.

When establishing a transition date and determining the way in which account history records can be entered, the following options should be considered:

1. You can use the Initial Setup Opening Transactions menu to enter all of your outstanding invoices and whatever payments or adjustments may have been made against them. If you choose this option, you should enter Customer History from the Initial Setup File Maintenance menu, for as many years as you wish to keep. Then, run Process Initial Setup, and End Initial setup. The advantage of this option is that you begin Live Operations with a good quantity of historical information; the disadvantage of this option is that it requires a fair amount of data entry.
2. Alternatively, you can enter just the basic master file information, run Process Initial Setup, and End Initial Setup. to begin Live Operations, set your “Post to GL?”, “Post to SA?”, and “Post to CA?” fields in the parameters file to ‘N’ (No). then, enter your outstanding invoices and any adjustments and payments through transaction processing; print journals; and post your opening transactions. After your opening transactions are posted, you can then change your “Post to...” fields on the Parameters file to their proper values. the advantage of this option is that it requires fewer keystrokes and automatically creates all your historical files. The disadvantage of this option is that you have less beginning historical information.

If you choose the second alternative, you can “Change Phase” back to Initial Setup and enter additional Customer History, if you wish. In this case, however, you should NOT run “Process Initial Setup” a second time; after your Customer History is entered, simply End Initial Setup.