General Ledger Features and Objectives:

The primary objective of the General Ledger System (GL System) by Legler Systems is to process accounting information in an online environment, so specific online procedures can be performed in seconds rather than the hours required by traditional batch methods of computer processing. This GL System performs the basic general ledger objectives by providing a complete and accurate bookkeeping record of all accounting transactions affecting each ledger account and supports either the cash accounting method or the accrual accounting method.

Specific general ledger features and objectives of this financial software application are highlighted below:

1. Maintain regular General Journal Records with a Source-Type code of "GJ" on the dollar amounts charged to various ledger accounts within an accounting period (YRMO).

2. Automatic journal voucher number assignment to new journal transactions added to the GL System for positive voucher number control and audit trail, so the user does not have to enter the voucher number. This automatic assignment of journal voucher numbers can be overridden by the setting of System-Option-16 (DB03).

3. Automatically post general journal voucher information (GL03) to specific Account Master Records by accounting period number (YRMO) to eliminating clerical posting errors. Multiple General Journal Records are processed at one time.

4. Print accounting reports, such as General Journal Report, Account Detail Report and Working Trial Balance, to provide an audit trail of accounting data entered in the General Journal Record (GL01) and to maintain adequate financial control.

5. Print comparative financial statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement) with the statement contents defined by the user. Historical financial data for as many as 13 accounting periods per year are stored with each ledger account. Accounting data from previous years is also available for use in financial statements. The user has the facility to define almost any type of accounting report without reprogramming the GL System, since financial statements are defined by separate Code Definition Records (DB01).

6. Calculate either "percentage change" from the current period over a prior period or "percentage of total" (sometimes referred to as common-sized percentages) for the current period in financial statements.

7. Automatically accumulate dollar amounts for any current or prior accounting period (YRMO) or any range of accounting periods, so financial statements can compare figures from any time period. Possible financial comparisons include current period this year versus same period last year, year-to-date this year versus year-to-date last year and current period this year versus prior period this year.

8. Store revenue and expense budget information on a period by period basis for use in monitoring actual versus planned expenditures and calculating budget variances for management review.

9. Automatically create closing journal vouchers for revenue and expense accounts to facilitate period-end closing. Additional closing journal vouchers can be manually entered with a separate batch number to support batch number control, if necessary.

10. Provide a summary method of storing period totals at the GL account code by accounting period number in the Account Master Record for use in quickly preparing financial statements and financial operating reports for management analysis.

11. Provide an easy method of defining line items in various financial statements independent of the account coding structure for maximum flexibility. Each line item in a financial statement is defined by a separate Code Definition Record (DB01).

12. Provide auxiliary data input capability for initial file establishment and the processing of general journal transactions created by other computerized systems (e.g. AP System or AR System), including separate data entry operations. Automatic batch number assignment for batch number control provides a way to track these GL transactions. Multiple general journal transactions are processed at one time by procedure GL13.

13. Handle any fiscal year for accounting purposes, even one different from the calendar year, through the use of a separate accounting period number (YRMO) field.

14. Provide online inquiry capability to identify total dollar amounts to a specific GL account code by accounting period number (YRMO).

15. Provide online inquiry capability to identify all dollar amounts associated with a specific account or department by month for the last five years.

16. Provide source document control over input journal transactions to the GL System by assigning a batch number to a group of journal transactions. This batch number control feature aids in providing a complete audit trail of documents processed. If no batch number is entered, the system date (YRMODA) is assigned to the GL batch number field.

17. Automatically create (a) fixed journal vouchers (procedure GL14) with a Source-Type code of "FJ" and (b) reversing journal vouchers (procedure GL12) with a Source-Type code of "RV" from one month to the next, so manual data entry operations are reduced.

18. Define an Active-Flag in the Code Definition Records for each GL account code and department to prohibit online entry of an inactive code, yet reference those old codes for historical reporting purposes.

19. Provide the capability to create custom GL reports where the user defines the data fields to be selected, sorted and printed (procedure DB12).

20. Automatically display screen GL01 when function key F7 is pressed from inquiry procedure GL10 and procedure GL15. This general ledger objective enables the operator to quickly drill down to more information.

21. Compute a dollar variance and percent change for the current period and year-to-date versus the prior year covering revenue accounts and expense accounts in the Financial Operation Report (procedure GL08).

22. Automatically create reversing journal vouchers for accruals made in the prior month to minimize data entry operations. System-Option-19 (DB03) sets the accrual accounting method.

23. Automatic account code lookup occurs whenever the Account-Type code is entered as the GL account code for fast account code lookup. The Account-Type code (asset, liability, capital, revenue and expense) is set in the Code Definition Record. For account code lookup by name, enter the "#" character as the account code and when prompted, enter the GL account name or account description.

24. Provide system options in the Company Control Record to handle 6-digit dates or 8-digit dates for data entry and reporting purposes.

25. In addition to online processing, batch job processing is supported where multiple GL report requests are entered online for later batch processing.

26. Easily enter notes or comments on a specific journal voucher (GL01) when the Trans-Code is set to "N" to automatically link to procedure DB17 (General Notes Record) in the DB System.

Since the GL statements program (GL07) is flexibly designed, financial statements can be printed at any time and can cover any accounting period range. The GL account codes that comprise a line item in the financial statement are user defined for maximum flexibility. Statements are printed on letter-size paper with the company heading format specified by System-Option-12 (DB03).

The GL System procedures that can be run by the user are identified in the General Ledger Menu document.

General Journal Record:

The dollar amounts charged (debit or credit) to various GL account codes are stored in General Journal Records for a specific accounting period (YRMO). Online procedure GL01 is used to add, change (modify), query and delete General Journal Records one at a time. For all new journal entries, the journal voucher number is automatically assigned using a sequence number counter in the Company Control Record (DB03) for voucher number control. This sequence number counter (SEQNO-1) is incremented by one each time a new record is added to the online database.

Procedure GL13 is used to edit multiple General Journal Records that were created by other independent sub-systems and add them to the online database. Other accounting modules (AP System and AR System) by Legler Systems create General Journal Records directly in the GL System to avoid this procedure. Alternatively, procedure DB18 can be used to import an ASCII file of comma separated values (csv) for creating General Journal Records. All these general journal transaction records in the online database are subsequently processed by procedure GL03 to update the Account Master Records for a given accounting period.

The primary key of the General Journal Record (GJR) is the Record-Type code, journal voucher number and accounting period number (YRMO). Five alternate keys are defined for rapid access to different groups of GJR data. With voucher number control, access to a specific General Journal Record can be quickly accomplished.

Account Master Record:

The Account Master Record contains summary dollar amounts for each accounting period (month) in a calendar year by GL account code and department number (optional). Online procedure GL03 updates the Account Master Record with the current months posting of General Journal Records. Procedure GL19 displays all information in a specific Account Master Record, including account name, Account-Type code and DB-CR code from the Code Definition Record (DB03). These Account Master Records are retrieved when printing financial statements. The operator cannot modify or delete these Account Master Records using procedure GL19.

The primary key of the Account Master Record (AMR) is the Record-Type code, year (e.g. 2011), account code and department number (optional). Five alternate keys are defined for rapid access to different groups of AMR data.

More Information on the GL Software:

For additional information on this online General Ledger software and a free CD-ROM demo, e-mail Bill Legler in the SF Bay Area, California or go to the General Ledger System main page.

Version 11.7 (2017). All rights reserved by Legler Systems Company.