The Accounts Receivable system was designed to support many small business environments. It provides the tools to manage outstanding payables, to control credit granted, and to improve cash flow. Integration with other applications improve reporting while minimizing data entry. Features of the AERIS/400 Accounts Receivable system include: |
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The Accounts Receivable system can make this key job both simple and effective. This section provides some guidelines for successful use of the basic functions of the system.
The processing of the Accounts Receivable system focuses on a register of outstanding invoices. Outstanding invoices include invoices that did not zero balance at the end of last month, and new invoices created this month. In addition to the invoice record which contains original and current status data, sub-entries are recorded for each payment and adjustment to the invoice. These sub-entries remain on file with the invoice until the end of the month in which the invoice reaches a zero balance position. The invoices are recorded and managed this way whether the statements are issued in open item or balance forward format.
Payment history is complete only for the current month. At the end of the month all the records for invoices that are zero balanced are dropped. Historical analysis of sales is better handled in Sales Analysis/Order Entry. There is no provision for analysis of payment history.
The Accounts Receivable system is intended to be operated primarily on-line. Invoices and adjustments are applied as they are entered into the computer. Invoices and adjustments are recorded as they happen instead of being collected into batches that are applied as a group. This results in up-to-the-minute completeness for inquiries of customer status.
A daily invoice list is available to provide printed documentation of invoices entered. This report can serve as a form of batch reporting of input. Because the report is produced after the invoices are applied any errors discovered on it must be corrected through invoice adjustments. Billing or invoicing sub-ledger systems assemble data, then produce a series of invoices in one operation. These invoices are applied to the Accounts Receivable as a group. This approach is effectively a method for batch entry of invoices to the Accounts Receivable system. The basic information for an invoice is the invoice number and amount. The amount must be distributed to at least one G/L account. It can be apportioned to many accounts. The invoices that are input on-line must be distributed as they are input because the invoice detail is not being captured simultaneously. The G/L distribution is recorded on the A/R transaction file of current activities separate from permanent invoice records.
New invoices are assumed to default their service charge status from the customer. They are initially assigned to the current period with the original amount being the amount due. The invoice date which may differ from the current date is not used in aging. The due date is calculated based on the invoice date, invoice type, and supplier parameters. Aging begins with the first month-end after the due date.
A credit invoice may represent a general adjustment to the customer account or a payment received without instructions for allocation. These must be recorded immediately in order to reflect the correct customer balance. A credit invoice remains in the system until it is zero balanced by distribution to other unpaid invoices. A credit invoice is not subject to periodic aging. A separate function is used to force or suspend the calculation of service charges for individual invoices.
Adjustments are recorded as individual transactions for an invoice. There are three types - discount, service charge adjustment, and amount adjustment. Each adjustment is distributed to one designated G/L Account.
Receipts are assembled in batches and edited before actually being applied to the invoices. The payment batch is stored and listed by customer name, cheque or deposit number, and invoice number.
To allow for off-line receipt entry and partial receipt entry, the process now incorporates all input edits into the Receipt Edit Report. The receipts can not be posted until the Receipt Edit Report is completely error-free. This is controlled by running the Receipt Edit Report as the first step of the Post function, with printing suppressed.
Using this method, receipts are selected by invoice from the list of outstanding invoices for the customer. After the customer is selected,enter the overall receipt data - date, amount, cheque number. Then a list of outstanding invoices appears. A cheque or deposit number should be entered before making the selection of invoices to be paid. The full amount can be paid or the invoice can be ignored. A partial payment requires an amount be entered with the selection code. There is no limit to the number of invoices that can be paid at one time in the payment process. The order of display is by invoice number for a selected customer. A credit note is effectively an invoice with a negative amount.
Operationally this method is similar to the customer selection. After the customer is selected, the user is prompted for the cheque number, check amount and the payment date. Next the invoice number and amount are entered. The invoice can only be entered once for the check selected. F10 will then temporarily save the payment and display all the receipts made with the check. From the list of receipts screen, the Enter key will prompt for another payment and the F10 key will save to disk all the receipts listed.
In cases of pre-receipts and lump sum receipts received without instructions for allocations a special process is necessary. The amount must be recorded immediately in order to effect the true customer balance and to complete the cash control report. The Receipts on Account function meets these objectives by:
The input is very similar to that of a regular invoice even to the extent that the amount can be designated G/L accounts if required.
The purpose of this function is to provide a means of recording all cash receipts through Accounts Receivable for cash control purposes. This function operates by creating a temporary invoice for distribution purposes then immediately generating the payment for the invoice.
Because all invoices must be assigned to a customer, it may be necessary to set up a special customer number to handle the over-the-counter cash receipts from irregular customers.
You may remove an invoice from the selections or change the amount of the payment anytime after the selection has been made and before it has been posted.
The Receipt Edit Report shows all receipts selected since the last posting. The report totals indicate the cash received in this deposit. The amounts shown are conditional and therefore are not reflected in outstanding amounts for the invoices as yet. The outstanding amount of the invoice is only updated when the selected receipts are posted.
The Receipt Edit Report also applies all the input edits and notes any errors. If errors are found, an error return code is sent at the end of the job so subsequent steps, like the post, can be bypassed.
In the event that the payment selections have serious errors, this function is available to wipe out the entire selection and restart the selection process.
When you have completed your invoice selection and you are satisfied with the data on the Payment Edit List, you post the selected receipts. This process updates the amount due on the selected invoices. The posting occurs in cheque number sequence within a given posting run.
As invoices are entered they are assigned to the current aging period. Although the invoice date is recorded it is not used in invoice aging. Due dates are generated at the time the invoice is entered and may be adjusted later. The due date defines when the invoice moves from current to being overdue (30 day column). The due date is calculated from the invoice date and parameters associated with the invoice type. The due date may be specified as:
At the end of each period, or month, the invoices are moved up one aging period. Aging periods are viewed as covering 30 days in reporting. Freeing the aging from calendar constraints simplifies operations considerably. Aging reports stabilize so that period totals are meaningful and can be used for controls. Management can also choose to delay posting an invoice a few days into a later period, without confusing things by entering an artificial invoice date.
In addition, the aging period is independent of the run date. This allows month-ends to be rescheduled for practical reasons without complicating the operating environment.
Service charges are an accepted approach for encouraging prompt payment of invoices. The Accounts Receivable system provides three levels of control of service charge calculation. At the system level, service charge calculation is defined through the monthly rate, the minimum balance, and the minimum amount. The minimum amount is applied at the overall customer level. The net of all invoices, including credit invoices, which qualify for service charges must exceed the defined minimum balance before a service charge is calculated.
The calculated service charge is recorded as one separate service charge invoice dated at the month-end, no matter how many invoices were outstanding. Each customer is classified by Account Type as to whether they qualify for service charges. All invoices for a customer default to this qualification. Once an invoice is entered it can be forced to be either specifically free of service charges or forced to have service charges. This override can be applied to all types of invoice.
Statements can be produced in either open item or balance forward format. In the open item format each invoice is shown along with all receipts and adjustments. Service charges are recorded on a special invoice type. In the balance forward format only the invoices occurring in the current month are detailed. A total of receipts received is shown, as well as a total of service charges which includes all adjustments.
The statement form consists of three parts. The left-most part is an abbreviated form of the body of the statement which is your copy of the statement. The other two parts are sent to the customer. The right-most part is returned with the customer payment. It contains a list of invoice numbers and amounts and a column to check off those being paid. The center section is the customer copy showing the needed information on each invoice. It also contains the standard message and the service charge description if any. The return address appears on all three sections. Month-end aging summaries appear on the bottom of the left two sections. Up to three lines of standard message can appear on all the invoices printed during a run.
The return address for statements is stored in a special Customer record. The key to this record is based on the Territory that the customer is assigned. This feature can be used to direct receipts to different collection centers based on Territory. The implementation is such that an address record need only be created for the highest Territory code in a series using the same return address.
The entry of invoice, adjustments, and receipts is an ongoing process that should not be subject to functional constraints if the data in the computer is to reflect the current business position accurately. Month end processing, on the other hand, is a review procedure that attempts to give an accurate picture of the business at a specific time -- the end of the last day of the month.
To reconcile these two objectives every activity record is given an effective date. This allows invoices to be entered several calendar days late and still appear in the correct reporting month at month end. When the month end preparation is run, the month ending date is entered. The reports include every activity in the system with an effective date on or before this date. Those dated later are ignored. This type of cutoff is particularly important when selecting transactions to journalize to the General Ledger for a given reporting period.
The first step of the process is to prepare the system for final month end completion. This step begins with the calculation of monthly service charges. A series of reports are produced which are used by management to confirm the integrity of the data at month end. If any errors or omissions are discovered, the application can be restored to the pre-month end position, corrections be made, and the preparation repeated.
Completion of the month end begins with close off reports, statements of account, and preparation of the transactions for the General Ledger. It ends by performing the aging calculations, cleaning up the data base, and producing opening reports for the new month.
The General Ledger transactions are generated into a hold area file. They remain there until the General Ledger is ready to receive them. The transactions are then released to a new batch in the General Ledger assembly area. The General Ledger system then takes over responsibility for them.
Credit Administration is an optional subsystem to the Accounts Receivable. The role of Credit Administration is to give the user on-line support to administer credit follow-up activities. The service is based on a memo log. Each memo is identified with an Accounts Receivable customer and the date on which the memo is to be actioned. Several memos can have the same Action Date.
A memo has a fixed format consisting basically of a title and twelve lines of body. The originator and the creation date are noted. For follow-up the current status is recorded along with the date it came into effect and which user made the status change. An audit trail of status changes is not maintained for individual memos.
The basic Accounts Receivable system provides a function to view all the outstanding invoices for a customer. In Credit Administration this function is expanded to mesh with the memo functions to simplify support for the Credit Administrator while he has the customer on the phone.
Memos are logged by Action Date for each customer. When the Credit Administration wants to review a customer situation he can print all the memos for the customer as a hard copy reference, or scan them on the screen. To help organize the follow up schedule all memos with action dates in a selected range can be printed in customer number sequence.
The Status code can be used to highlight the progress of follow up on a particular memo. When a memo is created the status is set to A. When the memo is completed and no longer of value the status is set to Z. At the next purging the memo will be deleted from the file. All memos must pass through the purge function before they are removed from the system. All other values of the status code can be assigned to meet the needs of the individual Credit Administrator.
When the status of a memo is changed, the date and the operator id are also needed.
When a Customer number is not known this function is provides an on-line mechanism for obtaining it without having to leave the current function. The alpha search works as follows:
If Cmd 9 is pressed and no number is specified at the prompt, the customer id for the customer displayed at the top of the screen is displayed.
The Accounts Receivable system handles exchange processing for offshore customers. The face value of the invoice is recorded in the Accounts Receivable system. Distributions to the General Ledger are done in standard currency-- Canadian dollars. Exchange is calculated at the time the invoice is entered into the system and when receipts are posted. The exchange is applied to an exchange clearing account in the General Ledger. Only one exchange clearing account is supported.
The standard implementation of exchange accounting works as follows:
Currency Exchange is handled by many of the sub-ledgers to the General Ledger in order for the sub-ledger to operate in face value of currencies and report to the General Ledger in standard value-usually Canadian Dollars. Exchange rates vary between currencies on a daily basis. (Any variations within a day are inconsequential).
A common exchange handling method is used in all sub-ledger applications. It is supported by a single Exchange Rate file. The Exchange Rate file is assigned to a suitable database for regular backup. e .g. Payables if activity has them being backed up daily. For independence of operation a standard update program is implemented in each application. A procedure links each program to the common Exchange Rate file.
A standard subroutine module is copied into each program that needs to calculate exchange. The subroutine is passed the currency code and the effective date of the transaction. It then returns the buy or sell exchange rate in effect on that day. If you are not entering the exchange rate on currencies every day, so in the event that an exchange rate was not entered for the exact date given the subroutine returns the exchange rate for the most recent date preceding the effective date. In the case that no exchange rate is available the default value of 1.0 is returned.
The exchange rate is precise to 7 decimal places and can handle up to 1,000,000 times unit conversion.
This section contains detail descriptions of the functions that are used regularly in the course of Accounts Receivable processing.
To enter standard invoices into Accounts Receivable. In fact, any type of invoice, like credits, can be done this way.
To prepare receipts for accounts receivable invoices. Receipt Entry is a multiple-phase function consisting of:
To select accounts receivable invoices for payment individually, by customer.
To confirm the selected payment, press enter. When the payment entry is complete the screen will display an OK to process message which then entry can be applied, or an error message if fields were entered incorrectly.
To list all of the invoices selected for payment. The list is in customer name sequence. Verify Receipt control copies to this list.
None. The list is put on the job queue immediately.
To alter data in the invoice selection. You can change the amount to be paid on any selected invoice or you may delete any of the selected invoices.
To get rid of all selections made to date and start again.
Updates the outstanding amounts on the associated invoices.
None. The posting is put on the job queue immediately.
To record adjustments applied to receivable invoices.
To cause an invoice to be either:
To review the invoices registered to a customer account.
A list of invoices and related transactions appears. If more than 1 screen of etries is available, you can page through the list.
| F9 | Display summary Aging Analysis based on the Invoice Date. |
| F17 | List invoices for all customers with this Customer key as the Bill-to address. This is used for large customers, like Chevron, who have several branches as customers. |
| F21 | Show the Ship-to data for each invoice. |
The month end functions are on a separate menu.
The Accounts Receivable data base should be backed up to diskette before beginning month end processing.
Calculates the service charges and prints analysis reports. If corrections are necessary, the Accounts Receivable data base must be restored from back up before this procedure is rerun.
Prints the statements and other final reports. The General Ledger transactions for the month are moved to a hold area. Then the month end rollover is done which includes aging the invoices. Closed invoices are purged and outstanding invoices are aged. Finally, the opening reports for the new month are produced. There is no input required by this procedure.
Transfers transactions to a hold area file where they must be accepted through the G/L system. When accepted through G/L system they come in as a batch.
The Contra Accounting functions automate the netting out of invoices between Payables and Receivables. This is implemented in both Receivables and Payables. It is best to start from the side with the lesser outstanding amount. The edits insist that everything be balanced before the transactions are recorded, so the starting side is only important when you want to clear one side and do not know how much is outstanding.
General Table entry GL-CA defines the Contra Account in the General Ledger. This entry appears in both applications. Each side of the contra entry process generates a journal to this account for each invoice affected. These journals are generated during the Post function of the regular payment process in each application.When a contra has been completely processed the journals net out to zero.
Although the entry programs are modelled on the Payment and Receipt Entry programs, do not generalize the screens to serve both purposes. The Payment and Receipt Edit programs are used directly in a combined edit function. The posting process for contras is very basic in Receivables. However, backing up two databases in one function could make a combined posting function confusing for the user. Therefore separate posts are used and are presented in both applications.
Contra processing uses the same work files as payments and receipts. In theory the two forms of pay transaction could be processed together. However the post programs do not differentiate and would generate invalid journals. It is left to the user to insure that this does not happen.
Lists displaying basic customer information are available in several sequences. The selection criteria used are dependent on the report selection.
Print mailing labels for Accounts Receivable customers.
Print the detailed Accounts Receivable report showing aging, interest and total due by customer. The report shows receipts received and adjustments made. The basic sequence is by Customer Name. An alternate sequence by Location and Territory is available.
Print the aged Accounts Receivable Summary report. The basic sequence is by Customer Name. An alternate sequence is available by Location and Territory.
Prints a detail journal showing adjustments, discounts, invoices, receipts and other journal entries to the General Ledger from the Accounts Receivable system. The basic sequence is by transaction type. An alternate sequence by G/L Account is also available.
To create a new memo for a customer. This function may be used independently, or as a sub-function to the Review Accounts.
Most entries are duplicated when the add is repeated for several memos.
To add a customer or change descriptions of customers.
These application tables are AERIS General Tables for this application. They are supported using the utility programs for the tables assigned to this application. The Application Code for Receivables is "R". The tables used in Receivables include:
The utility Update for General Tables is used to maintain these tables.
The utility Table Print for General Tables is used to print these tables.
Normally the buy and sell exchange rates are recorded each working day. Transactions use the appropriate rate for the effective date of the transaction. If there is no exchange rate defined for that date, the rate for the nearest preceding date is used. For an exchange rate to be completely defined it must have a description as well as rates. If the description is missing some functions will not accept the currency code.
To define a currency code and its exchange rates.
The normal selection is to update exchange rates for which the parameters are:
Print a complete list of all exchange rates on record.
Delete all records up to a selected date.
None
To remove all memos whose status is purgeable. The job runs immediately without additional input.
This section is used to file print images of menus and screens for reference purposes away from the computer.
Most of the functions of the system are used by all users of the application. They are available to them through the menu structure that starts at the entry menu to the application - usually MASTER. There is a small group of functions that are essential to complete operation of the system but which should not be generally available. These include functions which do general cleanups, like deleting defunct customers. It could also include functions to bring in data from other customer bases. These functions are available through the management services menu, MANAGE. This menu is not directly linked into the regular menu structure, therefore it is not available to anyone who is limited to mandatory menus.
From time to time it is necessary to purge inactive or defunct customers in order for the customer list to be an effective control. The cleanup is a multi-step process to insure that no valuable information is lost.
This function is similar to the Customer Update. You select the customer and the information is displayed in the same format used in the Customer Update. This information can not be updated though. A Status is displayed at the same time for updating. Put '*' in the Status for customers to be purged. The customer is not deleted immediately. Customers with activity cannot be Purged!
- OR -
This is a list of all customers that have been given the delete status code of '*', identifying them as purgeable.
This Option allows the user to physically remove the purgeable customers from the Customer Master File. Any Customers with a STATUS Code of * are eliminated from the file.
From time to time you may find that you may have to change the Accounts Receivable Control parameters as defined. This is accommodated with the following functions provided.
This Option allows the user to Update the Accounts Receivable Systems control parameters. These parameters identify Company information, G/L Accounts specific to A/R, and General control information for the System.
Work files are used at times in the application - often when preparing reports. With basic AS/400 security logical files can not be created by regular users because the *PUBLIC only has change authority. To give the proper users the authority they need to create logical files an Authorization List is created for the application, e.g. RCVCLERK. It contains all Receivables users giving them *ALL object authority. The Authorization List is then attached to each file that the users could create logical files from. At this time these files include:
Customer Masters
Invoice Headers
Invoice Details
Interim Receipt Headers
Interim Receipt Details
When a new user is being set up for Receivables, their name is added to the Authorization List and they get authority to create all work files in the application. When a user no longer works in Receivables. their name is deleted from the Authorization List.
This manual contains the entire documentation for this system. It defines this system as it is known at the present time.
The System Manual documents the functions in the recent standard release of the system. Older Releases may not contain all the functions described.
A E Rose Information Service Ltd.
400 - 10123 99 Street NW
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Phone: (780) 424-5844
Fax: (780) 421-4060