Accounting FAQs

This page contains Frequently Asked Questions and technical notes about the Accounting modules of DDMS and DDMS software, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, general ledger, payroll, taxes, and retained earnings.

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Overview

New! Executive Dashboard (pdf) ECi DDMS now extends modern SQL and spreadsheet-like graphing capabilities to a high-level overview of your business — the new Executive Dashboard. You can easily monitor your company’s cash flow, and manage the display of (and access to) the data. The Executive Dashboard allows you to view and monitor the totals for your business. These totals are based on fiscal year totals, previously presented in the text-based (PD) President's Screens. However, the Dashboard includes a complete visual breakdown of all accounts receivable, accounts payable, bank totals, and sales totals. While the Sales tab pulls from the previous Day-End's closed business, all other tabs (Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and Bank) pull data in real time. For a different way of looking at your business, you can add new panels and screens, adjust screen layout or columns, and customize the graph type. With user groups and user security, you can grant executives and salespeople access to read-only views of data essential to their aspect of your business.

Accounting Concepts (pdf) This beginner’s guide to using DDMS’s accounting programs is designed for those new to the software’s accounting modules. This overview is also perfect as a refresher course. It discusses basic parameter options, how the chart of accounts works with all modules, basic accounting flow, and how the batch system and double entry balancing systems work.

Accounts Receivable

New! Accounts Receivable: Import Remittance Data (pdf) DDMS 8.25 and higher lets you import check remittance information and post it to accounts receivable. You may receive this data in the form of a Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet either from an individual customer or from a bank. Banks view the check stub or remittance attached to the check and manually enter the information in a spreadsheet. When you receive the spreadsheet, you can import the details into accounts receivable.

New! Electronic Billing and Order Confirmation (pdf) In DDMS 8.24 and higher, the (TR) [M] Send Invoices Electronically function to let you send invoices to multiple contacts. The new Order Confirmation enhancement lets you automatically send electronic confirmation back to a customer when an order is placed. With just a few steps you can set up your system to automatically fax or email order confirmation to a default contact or to multiple contacts. You can also tie an attention to a contact and automatically send them order confirmation.

Accounts Receivable (pdf) The graphical A/R application makes managing customer accounts quicker and easier than ever. Learn how to get the most from the software. A general overview of the module is supplemented with coverage of posting payments, adjustments, and credits, as well as a look at time-saving features like the

DDMS Daily Audit Log for Accounts Receivable (xls) To make it easier than ever to complete your daily balance log, we’ve created a handy spreadsheet. It gives you space for a month of daily audits per location. First, carry over last month’s President’s Screen Total and enter the dates you do business this month. Then, simply fill in your current batch total and current President’s screen total as you file your day-end reports. The spreadsheet will calculate any variance, and the variance column's background color will indicate whether your A/R master file is greater than the G/L A/R Trade account, or vice versa. Updated 7/18/2007 with practical sample numbers, and dates that skip weekends and holidays.) To learn how to find A/R batch & (PDA) totals, see Balancing your A/R (pdf).

Setting Up and Using Credit Cards and Approval Link 4.0 (pdf) Released with DDMS 8.12, Approval Link™ 4.0 is the interface between your DDMS system and Verus/Net1 Payment Solutions automated authorization and capture software. Learn how to set up and use Approval Link™ software to process credit card transactions with Verus/Net1.

Setting Up and Using Credit Cards and Approval Link 3.0 (pdf) Do you know what your processing rates are today? Have they changed in the last year? Now dealers using ECi business systems have new options for processing credit card transactions — as well as other types of payments. Learn how to set up and use Approval Link™ software to process credit card transactions quickly and efficiently. Topics include software setup, the flow of credit card transactions, Level II and Level III credit card processing, and options for authorizing gift/reward cards, check conversion, and processing electronic fund transfers using the Internet.

Setting Up and Using Credit Cards and Approval Link 2.0 (pdf) Reducing credit card fees can add dollars to your bottom line. Now dealers using ECi business systems have new options for handling credit cards, as well as other types of payments. Learn how to set up and use Approval Link™ and POS-partner software to process credit card transactions quickly and efficiently. Topics will include software setup, the flow of credit card transactions, Level II and Level III credit card processing, and options for authorizing gift cards and processing electronic fund transfers using the Internet.

Work in Progress for DDMS Office Furniture Edition (pdf) Work in Progress” (WIP), a powerful add-on-accounting function for DDMS Furniture Edition, gives you the ability to view and compare your actual costs on an individual order basis prior to and after invoicing to ensure a more accurate bottom line. WIP also helps to eliminate over-payments to vendors, correct payment of commissions to salespeople and helps in the overall order process.

File #254: Posting Deposits on Furniture Orders A common misconception is that posting a deposit does the same thing as using a pay code of prepay. Learn the important differences between these two types of advance payments and how to ensure that you are posting deposits properly. (file: Furn-deposits.pdf)

Multiple Credits (Text-based software only) Learn how to create multiple credits for the same invoice during the same day’s business. Each credit has its own unique number, all linked to the original invoice number. (file: multcred.pdf)

Balancing your A/R (pdf) learn to balance your A/R daily in the President's Screens (file:arbalnc.pdf)

Got Them Ol' (B) Screen Blues? Post payments in A/R more efficiently using the (BQ) screen and the graphical Accounts Receivable Posting screen. Learn to post to multiple accounts from one check, and to accept credit card payments. (file: better_ar.pdf)

Finding and managing inactive customer records determine who your inactive customers are, and delete records when necessary (file: cusmanag.pdf)

A/R Tips Solutions to four common A/R problems (file:ar-tips.pdf)

Resetting A/R totals recalculate A/R totals when an Age Only Trial Balance Report is not calculating correctly because of file problems (file: ar-clear.pdf)

Backing out finance charges reverse finance charges after you have accidently added them (file: fincharg.pdf)

Converting A/R journals learn how to convert A/R journals when you upgrade to Version 4 (file: cnv-ar.pdf)

Accounts Payable

New! Voiding Accounts Payable Checks Voiding an Accounts Payable (A/P) check restores the amount due for an invoice, debits cash and cash discount accounts, and credits accounts payable. This video tutorial shows two methods of voiding such checks and discusses your options after voiding them.

See also: Voiding Accounts Payable Checks (pdf) Learn how to correctly void A/P checks, including those that have already been purged

Accounts Payable (pdf) This in-depth handout focuses on managing payments using the graphical A/P ®environment makes handling payables easier than ever, including posting payments, marking checks for payment, and cutting individual hand checks. You will also learn how to post invoices by matching on existing purchase orders. Other topics include navigation of the Post P/O tab, posting procedures, including posting multiple P/O’s, limiting by dates and adjustments, suppressing check detail on multiple invoices, posting freight and other charges, changing dates and discounts, printing checks, and adjusting costs. Also, a brand new feature – paying multiple vendors with ONE check. This feature makes buying group transactions easier than ever.

Processing Credits and Freight Charges: S.P. Richards (pdf) It's now easier than ever to process S.P. Richards credits and freight charges. When you receive electronic invoices via PSN, DDMS can automatically post vendor credits to Accounts Payable, and post Freight charges to customer pick tickets in Order Entry. It eliminates several labor-intensive steps.

DDMS Daily Audit Log for Accounts Payable (xls) To make it easier than ever to complete your daily balance log, we’ve created a handy spreadsheet. It gives you space for a month of daily A/P audits per location. Simply carry over last month’s (QR-B) Totals-Only Trial Balance, and fill in your current batch total, current (QR-B) Total, and current (QR-C) Checks total, as you file your day-end reports. The spreadsheet will calculate any variance, and the variance column's background color will indicate whether your A/P master file is greater than the G/L A/P Trade account, or vice versa. To learn how to find A/R batch & (PDA) totals, see Balancing your A/P (pdf).

Balancing your A/P (pdf) Learn to balance your A/P daily in the President's Screens

Reprinting A/P checks (pdf) Learn to reprint checks when something goes wrong

Paying invoices and generating checks (pdf) Learn the flow of A/P, including two methods of paying invoices

Correcting payments that post without the year (pdf) If you use software older than Version 4.C, payments made in 2000 will have problems with the year. This file explains how to correct this.

General Ledger

General Ledger (pdf) Harness the power of the graphical G/L application and its new features.
Have you seen the DDMS’ graphical G/L application? It’s not only easier, but much more powerful than the text-based version. This document offers an in-depth look at graphical G/L with the information you need to begin using this application in your own business. We’ll explain how to maintain a more accurate general ledger by helping you understand the flow of G/L data through your system. Topics include posting journal entries and viewing batch totals on-screen. You’ll learn the time-saving benefits of recurring batches and allocations. You’ll also explore and find data using the powerful drill-down capabilities in G/L Posting History and learn how to complete or close a specific business period using the new Closing G/L Period feature. See also: DDMS Default Chart of Accounts.

New! General Ledger Drill Down Tutorial DDMS General Ledger stores all your posting details, and the G/L History window gives you fast, flexible access to all of it. You can start at the broadest levels, and "drill down" to the smallest details: Limit by account major, account minor, invoice, order, batch, or date range. Search posting history among accounts receivable, accounts payable, journal entry, machine, or payroll sources. Print a report, and export to Excel.

Closing G/L Periods (pdf) For many dealers, the G/L Posting window's new Close G/L Period menu option (and the logic behind it) represents a welcome change to the period-end flow for General Ledger. Before DDMS 8.13, only periods 12 and 13 were open to posting after closing G/L for the year. With version 8.13, it's easier than ever to close general ledger on the final day of the fiscal year. Although you can't release a batch to a closed business period, you can reopen it, release postings to it as needed, even adding new G/L accounts as needed, and close it again. You can set passwords for this new function in the new graphical General Ledger Close Period Passwords Parameters.

Note: After installing version 8.13, all of your previous year’s business periods will be open to posting. If, however, you wish to resume the previous G/L flow, take these steps: First, set your passwords in the General Ledger Close Period Passwords Parameters boxes. Then, go to the new Close G/L Period dialog box and close the period. This will limit prior-year postings to periods 12 and 13, just as before.

Financials (pdf) Learn how to use the new graphical financial reporting tools. Prepare your Chart of Accounts by assigning the critical Categories and Subcategories. Build Financial Profit & Loss (P&L) statements and balance sheets. Either print them or view them on screen just by making a few simple selections.

G/L Categories (pdf) The General Ledger Chart of Accounts window has default assigned Categories and Sub-Categories that are required to use the G/L Drill-Downs feature. Categories include various assets, property, equipment, liablilities, notes payable, shareholder's equity, revenue, cost of goods, expenses, and so on. Sub-categories of Current Assets include, for example: cash, accounts receivable, inventories, prepaid expenses, and deferred taxes.

DDMS Default Chart of Accounts Here is a list of the general ledger numbers and descriptions in the chart of accounts that is set in the DDMS software by default.

Advanced Accounting (pdf) As a multi-location dealer, you have unique financial needs for your business. This in-depth session will cover the use of responsibility centers and 15-digit account numbers to manage multiple profit centers.

File #253: How to Prepare Journal Parameters for Graphical General Ledger Conversion In Version 7, the new graphical General Ledger (G/L) application requires a conversion of your Accounts Receivable (A/R), Accounts Payable (A/P), and Purchase Order Entry (P/O) journal files and G/L files from previous years. The Version 7 software update automatically runs a journal file conversion program. However, this automatic conversion fails if your journal file names and volume serials are not properly set up in the A/R, A/P, and P/O journal parameter screens. This technical note contains detailed instructions for setting journal parameters and, if necessary, converting journals manually.

Posting retained earnings When you close general ledger for the year, you need to post retained earnings by following these steps (file: retainearnings.pdf)

Reversing G/L postings learn when to use credits and when to use debits to reverse a G/L posting (file: reverse_accts.pdf)

Using the New A/P General Ledger Detail Features (pdf

GST, PST, and HST Setup Procedures (pdf)

Canadian Harmonized Sales Tax in A/P Posting (pdf)

Taxes

Updated! Setting (L4) Federal Payroll Tables for 2011 (file: payFedTax11.pdf) Every year, you must update your (L4) Federal Payroll Tables screen to reflect annual tax changes. The best time to do this is after you have closed 2010 payroll and printed all 2010 payroll reports and W-2 forms, but before you run your first payroll of 2011.

The IRS has published its payroll tax withholding tables, from IRS Publication 15 (Revised Dec. 29, 2010), “Circular E, Employer's Tax Guide (Including 2010 Wage Withholding and Advance Earned Income Credit Payment Tables).” Please note, you are responsible for determining exactly how the tax laws affect your payroll. For additional assistance, consult your accountant.

For related tips, see also the announcement, Update (L4) Federal Tax Tables for 2011 Payroll Now.

New! Setting Up Address Taxability (pdf) Sales tax rates vary not only from state to state, or city to city, but even within a zip code or city limits. The challenge is to keep up with local sales tax district rates for your nationwide customers' many remote locations. By default in DDMS, if you needed to change a tax rate, you had to create dozens of new tax districts and mass change your customers just to ensure your history would retain the original tax amount while new tickets reflect the new rates. Switching to the Address Taxability module allows you to more easily update tax tables on a regular basis. You can set up each tax authority (state, county, city, zip+4) with its own easy-to-maintain rate. You can set up individual items to be taxed correctly where they are only taxable in a specific jurisdiction. Item taxability is no longer tied to the general ledger department or item SIC code — eliminating double-use of these fields, and freeing you to use item departments and SIC codes for other purposes.

If you wish to switch the SQL tables to maintain Address Taxability, it will require authorization with no additional charge from ECi DDMS Support. If you wish to automatically populate address-specific tax tables using CCH Tax Import subscription — instead of creating your own — please contact ECi Sales.

Using CCH Taxing with Your DDMS System (pdf) In DDMS 8.15 and higher, you can take advantage of the CCH Taxing feature, and use just the right tax rate according to your customer's tax jurisdiction. The CCH Taxing Service provides you greater flexibility of maintaining tax information for customers nationwide — without having to do the state-by-state research yourself. You can subscribe to services from CCH Group (cchgroup.com), to update your DDMS Server's tax tables on a periodic or monthly basis. The CCH Taxing feature allows you to set up individual items so that they can be taxed correctly by category, within each tax jurisdiction.

Tech Tip: Don't Change or Delete Sales Tax Districts As regional sales tax changes take effect on a frequent basis, ECi DDMS Support oftne receives questions about DDMS tax districts. There is one important thing to remember: If your state sales tax rate changes, or if the rate changes for a particular tax district, you must create a new tax district on your system. This condition applies if you are not using CCH Taxing or Address Taxability. — And now DDMS offers a short video to walk you through the steps!

ShipTo-Based Tax Rates Learn how to link the tax district to a customer’s shipping address, using new fields in the (AX) Customer Attentions screen and the Customer Shipto/Attention Tab. (file: shiptotaxable.pdf)

Taxing Enhancements Learn to use three new tax enhancements: tiered sales tax districts, nesting combined tax districts, and tax rates that vary by category. We created these enhancements to cover the new Tennessee tax laws, but they can be useful to dealers in other areas as well. (file: TaxTierCombo.pdf)

Changing tax rates for states or districts If your tax rates change, create a new district using these instructions (file:tax-chg.pdf)

You are responsible for determining exactly how the tax laws affect your payroll. Please consult your accountant and the IRS Web site.

GST, PST, and HST Setup Procedures Canadian dealers will learn how to set their system to calculate GST, PST, and HST taxes, and which invoice formats and reports include these taxes. (file: gst.pdf)

Period-Ending

New! Year-End Spot Check Tutorial This animated tutorial shows the screens to check so that you can be sure your year-end figures are properly zeroed out and journals are properly updated. This spot check should be done after completing year-end and general ledger procedures and before you resume business.

New! Year-End Spot Check (pdf) To verify you did DDMS Year-End procedures right, spot check your figures after finishing your year-end and general ledger steps, and before you resume business. This page recaps the Year-End Spot Check Video Tutorial to show you how to be sure your year-end figures were properly zeroed out, and journals properly updated. If any item does not check out, contact your DDMS Support team for help before the start of any business.

Updated! Setting (L4) Federal Payroll Tables for 2012 (file: payFedTax2012.pdf) Every year, you must update your (L4) Federal Payroll Tables screen to reflect annual tax changes. The best time to do this is after you have closed 2011 payroll and printed all 2011 payroll reports and W-2 forms, but before you run your first payroll of 2012.

The IRS has published its payroll tax withholding tables, from IRS Publication 15 (Revised Jan. 10, 2012), “Circular E, Employer's Tax Guide (Including 2012 Wage Withholding and Advance Earned Income Credit Payment Tables).” Please note, you are responsible for determining exactly how the tax laws affect your payroll. For additional assistance, consult your accountant.

For related tips, see also the announcement, Update (L4) Payroll Tax Tables for 2012.

Bank Statement Reconciliation (pdf) You'll also see how easy it is to clear checks and make deposits with DDMS’ Bank Reconciliation feature. You'll see how quickly and easily the graphical on-screen worksheet lets you balance your checking accounts.

Using Daily Reports (pdf) Learn to interpret and apply the information in your daily reports. Monitoring daily accounting activity helps you identify discrepancies quickly and prevents their source from becoming obscured as days and weeks pass. This document covers how to use your daily reports and other system tools to ensure your A/R, A/P and G/L information balances at the end of each day. Learn how to put the Open Pick Report, Exceptions reports, POS Tender Totals Report, Daily Invoice Register, and the President's Screen to work for you.

Getting More From Month-End (pdf) Discover new ways to use DDMS system reports to manage and grow your business. Month-end procedures are required to establish your company’s financial status as of a given date. However, month-end also provides an opportunity to analyze your business and identify trends. This document looks at additional reports you can run as part of your month-end process that will help you analyze your sales activity and identify risk areas and opportunities for growth.

December - Year-End Key Ops

This newsletter provides brief instructions all period-ending procedures, including year-end. For year-end, it summarizes: to what extent year-end procedures also do month-end procedures, what to do whether your fiscal year coincides with December or any other month, printing an item catalog master listing; printing a customer master listing with history, printing a full YTD sales analysis, executing serialized inventory year-end procedure for depreciation, copying V-AUX vendor history, changing the current period, resetting finance charges, journalizing customer history/service quality/sales totals/hits, printing 1099s, executing vendor period end, journalizing inventory history, journalizing YTD sales figures, running an aged A/R trial balance report, renaming sales journals, printing W-2 forms, closing payroll, opening the new year's general ledger, and posting retained earnings. It also covers suspending and reactivating your Web storefront and any automated procedure files, and making inventory counts.

Year-End 2011 procedures for the ASP service
DDMS customers on the ASP platform receive separate instructions via email (Year-End Hints 2011 for ASP Customers ) to reflect unique procedures. The Special ASP Edition of the Year-End KeyOps includes all the updated features of the standard Year-End KeyOps. However, the ASP Year-End Road Map, ASP Year-End Tips, ASP Year-End Backup and Day-End Schedule, FAQs on Renaming and Merging Sales Journals, and all other procedures do not include any steps that do not apply to ASP customers.

ERP Business Management Software for for
Office Products, Furniture, Equipment and More

ERP Business Management Software for
Office Products, Furniture, Equipment and More

Accounting FAQs

Overview

Accounts Receivable

Accounts Payable

General Ledger

Taxes

Period-Ending

December - Year-End Key Ops

ERP Business Management Software for for Office Products, Furniture, Equipment and More

ERP Business Management Software for Office Products, Furniture, Equipment and More

Accounting FAQs

Overview

Accounts Receivable

Accounts Payable

General Ledger

Taxes

Period-Ending

December - Year-End Key Ops

ERP Business Management Software for for
Office Products, Furniture, Equipment and More

ERP Business Management Software for
Office Products, Furniture, Equipment and More