General Ledger Checklists

The following checklists are provided as examples for using General Ledger to perform various daily and periodic tasks.

The tasks are presented in a logical order. You should adjust the checklist as necessary to meet your own needs. Consult with your accountant for advice on organizing your own checklists to ensure the efficiency and security of your business operations.

Daily Operations Checklist

Use the following guidelines for performing daily General Ledger tasks:

EACH DAY	EACH DAY, AS NEEDED
Enter manual debits and credits using General Journal. Print an edit list to verify your entries and then post these entries to the General Ledger Transactions.
	Enter new G/L accounts using Chart of Accounts. (If you are using other modules, these accounts should also be entered into Valid G/L Accounts.)
	Inquire into accounts, using View Accounts.
	Enter new recurring journal transactions using Recurring Journal (Enter). See the Recurring Journal chapter.
	Select recurring journal transactions for use, using Select for use.
	Copy selected recurring journal transactions to General Journal Transactions using Use selected.
	Post the recurring journal transactions using Distributions (Post).
Mark entries in the General Ledger Transactions as correcting entries using Correcting Entries.

Periodic/Monthly Operations Checklist

Use the following guidelines for performing periodic and monthly General Ledger tasks:

EACH PERIOD	EACH PERIOD, AS NEEDED
If you are using A/R, A/P, I/C, P/R, CR, or J/C, follow the Get distributions procedure described in the Distributions chapter to pull debits and credits from these modules into General Ledger.
Print a Trial Balance Report using Trial Balance.
	Print the Source Cross Reference report (as needed) to print a list of entries in General Ledger Transactions by either their source code or journal number.
Print a Working Trial Balance. Use this worksheet to make adjustments for the period.
If you have set up Standard Journal, edit the transactions in the Standard Journal as needed. The standard journal would normally contain debits and credits for the adjustments to be made for the accounting period. Print an edit list to verify your entries and then post the standard journal to General Ledger Transactions. (If you have not set up the Standard Journal, use General Journal to enter and post your adjustments.)
Print another Trial Balance as a permanent record of the debits and credits for the current period.
Print financial statements using Print financial statements. Optionally, you may create a CSV file and view the data in Excel.
If you are using multiple companies and need to consolidate entries, do so using Consolidating Entries. This function is run in the Consolidation company. Then print consolidated financial statements using Print financial statements in the consolidation company.
	Using Extract Financial Data export your financial data to a CSV file. View the data in your chosen spreadsheet type program.
	Use Summarize general ledger (if needed) to reduce the number of General Ledger Transactions. Be sure to read the chapter titled Summarize General Ledger before running this function, as this function compresses the General Ledger Transaction information. (You may also want to consult with your accountant before using this function.)

End of Fiscal Year Checklist

Use the following guidelines for performing end-of-fiscal-year General Ledger tasks:

EACH FISCAL YEAR	EACH YEAR, AS NEEDED
Perform all the periodic/monthly actions described above for your final accounting period of the fiscal year. If you must start your new fiscal year prior to entering your final adjustments for the fiscal year just ended, refer to the Close a Fiscal Year chapter, which describes how to start the new fiscal year without closing the previous fiscal year.
Once you have entered and posted your final adjustments for the fiscal year, you may print your final financial statements for the fiscal year. Financial statements for the closed year may also be printed after the year-end close.
Print a detailed trial balance for the entire fiscal year, which will serve as a permanent record of the fiscal year.
Follow the procedures described in the Close a Fiscal Year chapter to close the fiscal year.

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