Serialized Concepts

You can perform four different types of month-end procedures in the (EZ+S) Serial Setup screen. They include the following:

Note: An additional step in performing month-end procedures is to depreciate your items. You do this by using the [D] Deprec action code in the (EZY) Serial Maintenance Report Selection screen.

At month’s end, you can perform each of these procedures, or any combination of them. The purpose of each procedure is described below.

 

Transferring Deferred Income

You need to transfer deferred income only defer income from contract billings. This procedure transfers a portion of the deferred income from the general ledger (G/L) liability account to the G/L account for contract sales. You specify the amount the transfer for each contract in the Amount To Transfer Each box in the Contract Detail Deferred Income tab.

 

In addition, if you set the Defer Sales To “JOUR-S”, “C-AUX”, & “S-HISTORY” For Deferred Income field to Y in the (EZ1B) Serial Contract/Meter Billing Parameters screen, the system updates the sales journal, customer history, and salesperson history by adding the amount you transfer. To do this, the system creates an invoice for amount, using the same invoice number that was used for the original contract billing. The uncataloged contract item on the original invoice, Contract-UC, is replaced by the uncataloged item Defer Income-UC on the new invoice.

 

Before actually transferring income, you can print the To Be Transferred Report, which lets you preview your transfer. We recommend that you print this report so that you can check the results before transferring income.

 

The To Be Transferred Report includes the following information for each contract that’s included: the system, subsystem, and serial number; the item number and company; the customer’s name; the amount transferred this month; the total amount billed for this contract; and the amounts deferred and transferred (including the current transfer). The total number of contract records and the total amount transferred also print. On a separate page, a general ledger summation prints that includes the following: the general ledger number and description of the deferred income and contract sales accounts; the total amount debited from the deferred income accounts, and the total amount credited to the contract sales accounts; the total contract record count; and the current business period.

 

When you transfer income, the system prints the Serialized Deferred Income Report, which includes the same information as the To Be Transferred Report. In addition, if you set the Auto-Post field in the (L2) G/L Master Numbers screen to Y, the system posts the transfer to G/L batch 9997.

Note: No matter which dates you use for the transfer, the system uses the business period you specify in the Current Period field in the (L2) screen when posting to G/L batch 9997.

To determine which contracts to include, the system compares the transfer date, which you specify during the month-end procedure, with the date in the Next Batch box in the Contract Detail Deferred Income tab. If the transfer date is on or after the date in the Next Batch box, the system includes the contract.  If you set limits, contracts must also meet these limits before they are included.

 

Updating Salesperson History

You use this procedure to record your salespersons’ sales for the month. During the month, the amount that each salesperson sells is accumulated in the Month To Date Sales box in the Salesperson Technician tab.

 

If you choose to update salesperson history at month’s end, the system moves the amount from the Month To Date Sales box to the 24 Month History box for the month that just ended. (You can specify which month to update.)

 

Suppose that the fourth month of your fiscal year has just ended, so you specify month 4 during the month-end procedure. The figure in the Month To Date Sales box moves to the 4 box in the 1-12 column of the 24 Month History boxes.

 

The amount previously in the specified box in the 1-12 column, if any, moves to the corresponding box in the 13-24 column. Using the same example, the figure that was in the 4 box of the 1-12 column moves to the 4 box in the 13-24 column.

 

In addition, the system recalculates the Avg Monthly Sales box. To do this, the system adds all of the amounts in the 1-12 and 13-24 boxes, and divides by the number of these boxes that are not blank. For example, if you only specify amounts for months 1 to 9, the system divides by 9.

 

Finally, the system clears the Calls box that corresponds to the month you specify. (The Calls box accumulates the number of calls credited to each salesperson for the month.) If you specify month 4, as in the previous example, the system clears the fourth Calls box.

 

Clearing the Number of Times Called

This procedure clears two boxes: the Calls # box in the Customer Machines tab, and the Calls # box in the Machine Detail Machine Other tab. The Calls # box in the Customer Machines tab records the number of times a customer calls. The Calls # box in the Machine Detail Machine Other tab records the number of times a customer calls about a particular serial item.

 

If you never clear these boxes, they display the total number of calls for each customer and item.

 

If you clear these boxes at the end of every month, they display the number of calls made to date for the current month.

 

Note: Clearing the number of times called is an optional month end procedure.

 

Purging Technician Information

This procedure clears technician information from the Tech Recap and Tech Totals tabs. You use the information in these tabs to view and print data concerning your technicians' performance. For example, you can view how many billable hours each technician works. You can also see how much time they spend traveling, and how their actual travel time compares to the travel time you bill. The Tech Totals tab lets you analyze your technicians' long-term performance.

 

When you purge this information, you cannot set limits. Therefore, the system clears information for every technician in your database from the Tech Recap and Tech Totals tabs. Since you cannot save this information to a journal, you should not purge the information in these screens until you are certain that you no longer need to view or print it.

Note: Purging technician information is an optional month end procedure.