Accounting FAQ

Note:

This article applies to users on Classic Billing. All concepts and processes are not applicable to EBM users.

How do I Rollover at the End of the Month/Year?

Actionstep calculates the retained earnings based on dates rather than journal entries so no 'rollover' process is required and all history is kept. Once you are happy with your figures it is good practice to set the Lockout Date to prevent posting to the past period.

At the end of the month your should do the following:

• Print the Exception Report (which shows any transactions that may have been coded to the wrong accounts) and fix any issues
• Complete all bank reconciliations
• Perform any required general journals
• Reconcile creditors
• Check the balance sheet
• Run the GST/VAT/Sales Tax returns if required
• Set the lockout date

How do I allocate an unallocated payment?

Note: You can only allocate deposits that have been received through the Sale/Purchase interface. If you record a deposit through the banking screens then you will need to delete that transaction and re-enter it via the sale/purchase screens

Go to Accounting/Sales or Accounting/Purchase and choose Deposits

• Find the payment in the deposits|payments list.
• Select edit from the menu to the left
• Allocate to the correct invoice.

I've coded an invoice to the wrong Job (Action/Matter), what do I do?

• If the invoice was done through the workflow area it cannot be changed. Either a credit and invoice or a GL Journal is a fix up.
• If it was done through accounting and has not been locked through reconciliation; change the transaction. (Note: You will need to 'unpost' the record first from from the record editing screen.)
• If it has been reconciled you have three options1.

1. use the In-line Edit function2.
2. a credit and invoice3.
3. a GL journal will fix it

How do I allocate sale and purchase invoices for the same amount?

I have a Sales invoice and a purchase invoice, both outstanding for the same amount & for the same company. How do I allocate one against the other to close them?

• Create a fake bank transaction for each side (A deposit and a withdrawal) and contra it out on the bank rec - use contra as the payments reference.

How to Refund a Locked Deposit

We have had to refund a deposit for a client who cancelled their order. The deposit has been reconciled through the bank etc. and is now locked.

The deposit is still sitting within the Action as unallocated. Can you please tell me how to get this out of the Action so the bank account can be reconcilled?

• Create an invoice for the value of the deposit.
• Create a credit off the invoice (make sure it’s the same date, acct code etc)
• Apply the payment to the invoice.
• Create a payment for the credit (using a -$ payment amount)
• This will give you a push to the bank account.
• The actual invoice and credit will cancel each other out.

How do I change the Status of a Quote, Order or Invoice?

• Go to the list view of the transaction/s you are needing to change
• Tick the box beside the transaction/s
• At the top you will now have the available options for multi select - one of these is status
• Now you will be given the opportunity to change the status.

Note: At times this may fail - for example if you are trying to unlock an invoice which cannot be edited.

Key Words

Post Invoices , Draft Invoices, Bulk Save, Auto Invoice, Close Invoice

Why is the Address on my invoice different from the contact details?

• At some point during the flow of transactions, the address on your invoice was correct.
• Many systems will start with a quote, Move to a Sales Order and then Invoices.
• If the initial quote was done prior to the address detail being loaded on the contact record, it will not pick it up.
• To fix

1. Open the invoice
2. Click on the Customer name (top left corner of invoice screen)
3. A box will appear with a list of Participants in the Action
4. Click again on the dot beside you customer and Save.
5. A message will come up asking if you would like to update the address.
6. If you are going to continue to use an incorrect source document, go back and change that too - avoiding the issue next time you invoice.
7. Tip: Using the address fields for the pt=SP_TheirName Field on the Sales Purchase Templates, will ensure that the Document goes back to look at the current address.

We have a New Bank Account, what do I do?

What you don't do is just change the existing account link to be the new Number.

Generally when a company has a new bank account they have changed Banks and the following process will need to be followed.

• Add the Bank as a contact and make sure you include the participant type of "Bank"
• Go to the Accounts list and add a new account for the Bank (or multiple accounts as required)
• Link the bank account/s (note: If you click on this link, scroll halfway down the page to the heading 'Linking the Bank Accounts')
• Update any invoice templates and | or the System accounts which may point to the account for displaying on invoices.
• Make sure you update any banking templates too

I'd like to provide my client with a list of all payments, How do I do this?

There are a number of ways to reflect this:

• Use the bank transactions screens and filter by participant- If you are using trust accounting, these payments are not included in the 'Deposits' list so you must view the Transactions tab for a full display.
• The Debtor Activity report will show all invoices and payments made over a date range - if you are using Trust Accounting it will only show the transaction where a portion of the Trust Balance was applied.
• The Trust Matter Accounts Ledger will show all transactions on both the Firms side and the client side in one report - extremely useful.

How do I define the starting number range for documents being generated such as invoices?

You can change the "our reference" number which does auto increment.

Admin > Accounting > Auto Numbers

The feature also allows you to use a mask, ie: "INV-[X]" will use "INV-1" to "INV-99999999" etc

Can you export the Aged Receivables Report to Excel?

The Aged Receivables (*Beta*) report has a feature to export data to Microsoft Excel. To do this you must first generate the report in 'Reports > Accounting Reports > Aged Receivables Report(Beta)' and then click the '↓ EXCEL' button.

How do I add a rounding line to an invoice?

You can add a new line item coded to 6-9999 (Sale & Purchase Rounding Errors), select it as N-T(non-taxable), add a description, select quantity, unit, then enter the amount in the amount field.

Why are some invoices not appearing in the Unbilled invoice options?

There are three invoice options. These options are Invoices (Draft), Invoices (Open) and Invoices (Closed).

Matters > Billing > Unbilled Matters

These will only show invoices that have been created through either Timesheet Entries or the Matter Billing screen.

Invoices that were created manually and populated with line items will not appear in these screens.

Why aren't my invoices showing when I try to make a payment?

Always remember to double-check the dates on both the invoice and the payment. If the invoicedate is after the payment date, it will not show as an option on the payment screen.