Accounting Sequence and Reports

This page has a detailed explanation of how the accounting transaction values accumulate in the software and where the summary totals are posted to.

The main Datahawk accounting rules are simple - All income, expenses, fees, interest, wages or payments must be input through the debtor or creditor transaction screens. Simply everything. If you do not know how to process a particular item, just use the Contact Support page to ask and we will explain a method.

The most important accounting task during the month is to keep on top of the bank reconciliation. If the bank account is correct, then all direct credit income and expense payments have been accounted for. Internet banking makes this a relatively easy task these days.

I am going to walk you through how the figures from daily transactions end up in the General Ledger. Once you understand clearly where the source values come from, it is easy to trace any data.

The software has two primary consolidation files named Sales Groups and Expense Codes. Every income transaction has a Sales Group number allocated to it so that it will subtotal into the required summary value. Every expense transaction entered will have an expense code destination.

These code files become the final GL batches that will be posted to the ledger. Use the 'GL Batch (Debtors)' or 'GL Batch (Creditors)' reports to view the current months accumulated posting totals.

The ledger batch totals accumulate in the following way...

Example - Flight Transaction total of $115.00 is input...

• Net Amount $100.00 credits Sales Group 1 = Fixed Wing Revenue
• GST Amount $15.00 credits Sales Group 1005 = Taxation Account
• Gross Amount $115.00 debits Sales Group 1002 = Sundry Debtors

When a Receipt is input...

• Sales Group 1001 = Bank Account is debited with total receipt amount.
• Sales Group 1002 = Sundry Debtors is credited with total receipt amount

The expense groups (expense codes) operate in a similar way with appropriate debits and credits between expense codes, bank account and sundry creditors.

If you study these two GL batch reports you see that normal 'double entry' accounting takes place for every transaction during the month but it is contained in the batching system until you close and roll debtors or creditors where these batches are passed to the GL Batch holding list. These totals will end up in the relevant General Ledger accounts when the batches are posted.

Primary Debtor Reports - These are the only reports that you need to monitor debtors on a monthly basis...

Account Balances - Various aged balance reports.

Account Class Balances - Best report to establish 'Prepaid Flying' total (i.e. debtor accounts holding credit balances) for a General Ledger standing journal each month.

GL Batch Debtors - As above, shows monthly sales totals.

Audit - Income Sales Group - Use this if you want to list all transactions for a particular sales group.

GST Report (Sales) - Full list of all debtor transactions sorted into sales group sub totals. Final summary totals on this report are used to verify GST Return reports.

Primary Creditor Reports...

Creditor Balances - Self explanatory.

GL Batch Creditors - As above, makes up the current GL batch postings.

Audit - Expense Code - If you need to list all transactions for a particular expense code.

GST Report (Expenses) - This report is the best option to use to look at your creditors system status. This report will clearly show you the expense code breakdown, amounts and aircraft costing codes on relevant items. A single scan through these pages will show you abnormal transactions such as mis-posted items, incorrect GST on non taxable items, missing or incorrect aircraft registrations on costed items etc. This report is also excellent as an audit report when wanting a breakdown of a General Ledger expense item.

General Ledger Reports...

GL Report (Full Report) - Best report for monthly printout.

GL Report (Year To Date) - For 31-March reporting. Shows previous year totals.

GL Trans (Posting Order) or GL Trans (Account Order) - Only if you need to list all GL posted transactions.

Audit - Ledger Account - Is useful for finding the source of posted transactions providing that they came directly from debtors or creditors system and have not been changed due to manual GL journal adjustments.

Trial Button (Located on the GL Batch screen) - This can be used to produce a Trial General Ledger Report using all the latest information from the accounting system. It simulates the roll over of debtors and creditors and the posting of batches to the GL.

For example, if the Debtors system for July has been closed off but the Creditors is still open waiting for statements and invoices to arrive from suppliers, you can view the accounts for July by running a Trial posting...

Click the Trial button (do not use the 'Post' button to post any batches) and select 0701 as the Debtors batch when asked, then type 'CR' into the creditors batch slot when asked and run a trial ledger roll over.

This function will produce a draft July GL report with all current information. The only difference to a final GL report will be that the Sundry Creditors are zero or low value because you have not yet input all of July creditor invoices and statements.

Summary: As you can see, you do not need to be concerned about all the other reports in the system. They are variations of those above or for flight operations purposes.

If there is a corrupted transaction or system problem you will get errors showing in various places that will clearly highlight a problem. If the bank account and reconciliation is correct and staff are inputting data correctly, the GL will produce the correct results without any additional work. As explained above, the 'Prepaid Debtors' journal is the only manual entry required at this stage.

After producing a final GL posting for any month, it is a good idea to verify the following accounts...

Bank Accounts - Should equal the reconciled balances for the end of that month.

Sundry Debtors - Should equal actual debtors owing (after prepaid flying debtors journal has been posted)

Prepaid Debtors - Should equal actual debtors with credit balances (after prepaid flying debtors journal has been posted)

Sundry Creditors - Should equal Creditor Balances report for that month.

If all these amounts are correct then the entire GL is correct.