GENERAL LEDGER SET UP#
If a General Ledger Interface is going to be used between Wiki and your general ledger system, then there are several forms and concepts that must be completed and reviewed.General Ledger Company (IDGC)#
The General Ledger Company (G/L Company) is the entity legally responsible for the accounting of the organization and which reports the organization in its general ledger and accounting journals. The G/L Company is defined in the Define G/L Company (IDGC) form.
The general ledger company is used to define each organization’s general ledger account structure and accounting journals (one per chart of accounts). The general ledger company will be associated to a fiscal calendar, which is used in creating postings to the financial systems. A fiscal calendar must be established through the Business Calendar (IDCL) form.
The General Ledger Account Distribution Format is defined at the G/L Company level, which determines how the distribution code is formatted and segmented. The format determines how the distribution code will be viewed/keyed by users throughout the system and how it can be validated. The Distribution Heading determines the report headings for each segment of the distribution code.
Once the G/L Company has been defined in the IDGC form, it must then be associated to the Entity defined in the IDEN form.
General Ledger Segments (IDGS)#
The distribution code may be formatted into segments representing specific areas of the general ledger company. For example, segments can represent a division, cost center or account. A segment is defined as alphanumeric characters separated by a ‘-’ or a ‘.’ (e.g. ‘DVCNT-ACCT’).
It is possible for Wiki to ‘validate’ each segment of the distribution code defined in the G/L company. The G/L Segments (IDGS) form is used to enter all the segments you wish to validate. Once these segments have been defined, the Application will validate the distribution code via the Distribution Editor button for any forms that invoke this Distribution Editor, for example IDDP and IDJB.
General Ledger Accounts (IDGA)#
General Ledger Accounts are defined in the Maintain G/L Accounts (IDGA) form. A G/L account code, a short name or abbreviation, represents either a distribution code or a distribution mask. That distribution code may be a general ledger account, but distribution codes are not limited to containing general ledger accounts only. They may also contain additional segments for costing or other accounting purposes.
The G/L accounts must then be attached to the pay components that are to be journalized in the Maintain Pay Component (IPPC) form.
A report of the G/L accounts may be printed by running the List G/L Accounts (RDGA) function.
Distribution Code#
The distribution code may then be associated to a department via the IDDP form.The distribution code may also be associated to a job via the IDJB form.
The distribution code may also be associated to a position via the IDPS form.
The distribution code must then be established at the assignment level for each employee. This is done through the Distribution tab on the Assignments (IEAS) form. Distribution codes may default from the department (IDDP), job (IDJB) and position (IDPS) to the employee’s assignment (IEAS). For more information on how the distribution defaulting logic works see the DISTRIBUTION DEFAULTING LOGIC page.
Allocation#
Allocation is the means to determine benefit costs (employer contributions/portions). This can be done through one of two methods: burden or fringe.Burden and fringe are normally mutually exclusive. This is due to the fact that there are different accounting philosophies behind burden and fringe. Both methods may be used within the same organization, but they do not usually occur on the same person.
Burden assumes you are using an estimate or "averaging" method of cost accounting, by burdening your labor costs for a percentage in respect of fringes. One of the main reasons for using burden is for timeliness sake as Labor G/L can be run on a daily basis as time is entered prior to paying the employee.
Fringe on the other hand is a more accurate (but less timely) method of apportioning or allocating expenses after the employee is being paid.
As far as the two methods working together, from an accounting point of view, if you have already "burdened" the labor expense with a budgeted percentage, you would have to "relieve" the original burden before you could allocate actual fringe expenses. Practically speaking, this seldom happens; instead any 'profit' or 'shortfall' from burdening gets accounted for separately.
Both allocation types are set up at the Group level on the IDGR form. Burden allocation may have an overriding % placed at the Department level if desired.
If an interface file is to be created then the G/L file format must be defined in the Interface Formats (IDIF) form.
