General Ledger

The General Ledger module is a Fund accounting system with the necessary functions to track the financial information for almost any organization, and a rich set of features designed specifically for charitable organizations. The system can report at the Fund level (for example, to produce donor statements) and the organization level (to produce consolidated statements). It also maintains unlimited years of financial information. Financial statements can compare actual to budget for this year or perform comparisons to any prior year for which General Ledger history is available.

All journal entries are created in the General Ledger Journal – regardless of whether you enter them manually or FIMS posts them automatically from transaction entry in a subsidiary module. You must run an error-free Edit report on these transactions prior to posting them to the General Ledger itself. Posting will update the General Ledger Account balance records for the proper period (determined by the transaction’s Apply Date). Once the Account records are updated, the information becomes available for financial reports. Because financial transactions that you enter in subsidiary modules automatically make G/L Journal entries, the number of manual journal entries is greatly diminished, and accuracy is enhanced.

Posting from the following modules will create journal entries: Donor and Gift Management, Accounts Payable (both Grant and Administrative vouchers), Administrative Fee Calculation, Spending Policy Calculation, and the Fund and Account Tracking System (FACTS). Several General Ledger routines also create automatic journal entries.

The General Ledger module offers many standard reports. You can also use the flexible Row and Column Formatters in Design Statements to create custom financial statements and schedules. For presentation quality custom donor statements (which include Gift and Grant detail), Fund Statements Export passes the data to MS Word mail merge. The Consolidated Statements Export creates presentation quality consolidated financial statements. Refer to Working with Design Statements for more information.

General Ledger Account records are automatically created during initial implementation, and anytime you add a new Fund record. Account records must exist before you can enter beginning balances or transactions. Each Fund’s accounts are determined by its Fund Class, and based on a template called the Master Chart. The End of Year process allows you to recreate the entire set of Accounts for each new year.

The General Ledger Account Key (G/L account identification number) includes segments for Fund categorization codes. Financial reports for specific Funds, Fund categories, or divisions within the organization can automatically be “rolled-up” based on these code segments.