Debit / Credit + -

[LaRetta]

Hi everyone!

I'm trying to figure out how to give Management and our Accountants exactly what want. Management wants services refelected as a plus and payments reflected as a minus (which makes sense to me). But our Accountants want everything listed as Debit/Credit - listed as a plus on both sides.

And then Adjustments can be either a plus or a minus depending upon the adjustment! Our new AR and GL is functioning but I can't seem to make everyone happy. Services reflect as a plus in Services dB and payments reflect as a minus in Payments dB. When it posts to the GL, I convert payments to a plus to post to both debit and credit. But then Management wants to see the GL and wants the bottom figure to show profit/loss, so for their report, I'm considering creating a calc (?) to convert payments to a minus for summing on the reports. And then would I always *reverse* adjustments depending upon whether it's + or -?

Geeez! What do I do with Adjustments? Always reverse them? I don't want to be converting data back and forth. Obviously I don't have a clear perspective on this issue. Double-entry is a bit ridiculous anyway in my opinion. It was fine in the manual bookkeeping days, but with a compter it always sets both Debit and Credit to the same figure anyway!!

Can ya'all (particularly if you have an accounting background) give me a clearer perspective on this issue? I'm coding the GL piece now and would like to keep it lean, mean and logical. Any suggestions?

LaRetta

[Ugo DI LUCA]

Hi La Retta,

You surely wouldn't change your calcs. What is plus is + and what is Minus is - !

They just want to see their reports in an "opposite" way, but they surely do not work with the same reports/layouts.

So why not just working on layouts rather than on the data itself ?

[Lee Smith]

Hi LaRetta,

Please don't take this personal, but I hope that either you, or their accountant can explain to them what GAAP means. (General Accepted Accounting Practices). There are very good reasons for it to be in existence and adhered to. For one thing, bankers, investors, IRS and others frown on company's having more than one set of books. You know, the banks copy, the IRS copy and the company's copy (the real status). By chance these people aren't fugitives from the ENRON company are they?

I know that you are in the middle, but this flawed accounting system will do nothing but confuse, and distort. And guess who they will blame in the end. Maybe you can do something with a layout to satisfy them, but do not change debits to credits and vice versa in the process.

Sorry, after spending over 30 years as a banker and financial consultant, I go a little crazy when Management thinks stupid like this.

Lee

[LaRetta]

Hi Lee and Ugo!

Thanks for your input. I'm not changing debits to credits. I am attempting to provide Management with a logical balace sheet and the only way to do that is to reflect payments as a minus. Possibly I didn't explain myself very well. I'm unsure whether to use calcs or add an auto-enter field which will just enter a + or - figure based upon the type of entry.

LaRetta

[LaRetta]

Lee,

I really didn't appreciate your comments about our flawed accounting system or comments about our Agency. What I am attempting to do is provide Management with Reports, not change accounting procedures.

Please don't make assumptions about a business based upon a post, which can not possibly address a company's complete situation. If I have not made myself clear in a post, please ask for clarification instead ...

Again, I would like to ask others on this forum for input. I am attempting to provide each Department Head with a report by their GL # which will reflect a true profit/loss. I assume I need to use calcs to convert the data but I'm (obviously) unsure how others address this issue. If anyone can help me I would appreciate it.

LaRetta

[Lee Smith]

You have a hard time telling who your friend are, don't you?

[jasonwood]

Hi LaRetta!

I think Ugo makes a good point that this is not so much about how your data is organized, so much as it is about how your data is displayed in reports.

Management is right not to want it displayed in strict debit/credit form. Management accounting is about making reports easy to understand so that they can facilitate management decision making.

It's hard for me to give any more specific advice without knowing more about how your system is set up, and the extent to which your accounting is done in FileMaker.

Where I work, FileMaker is used for operating the business. It's our "StoreOS" , it produces reports to aid the accountant but there is no integration with the accounting system. Accounting gets a stack of invoices and a stack of "payments" to enter into AccPac on a PC, and that's about as sophisticated as our accounting integration gets! If you're actually recording transactions in FileMaker using debit/credit form, you've got to be really careful in how those transactions are processed. There's a lot that can go wrong!

[LaRetta]

Hi Jason!

Thanks for the input. Our system produces the detail for the GL (and handles invoicing and payments) but each GL total is then entered into AccPac. What our accounting department gets is pure debit/credit data totals. My GL Detail is strict debit/credit format.

Our Managers want a *zoom* of each GL total, except they want it to display in one line with + and - format, to give them specific *logical* bottom-line. I have resolved this issue by adding a calc, unstored, number (Management). The calculation reviews the GL line and Line Type then converts each figure to it's proper +/- in the Management line. Now Management can get their detail GL listings in logical views with proper bottom-lines.

LaRetta