Financial Series

General Ledger with FRx Professional

The heart of the entire accounting system, Great Plains General Ledger features the tools you need to master your financial data. Flexible, intelligent, and sophisticated, General Ledger captures and analyses vital business information to show you where you've been, and help you chart where you're going. It includes highly flexible account and fiscal period setup, including different account structures for separate companies. The account numbers can be up to 66 characters long in 10 segments. General Ledger provides:

• Statistical accounts for tracking non-financial information, such as head count and square footage
• Standard, recurring, auto-reversing, clearing and "quick-journal" entries
• Unlimited budgets
• Unlimited years of history.

General Ledger is the hub for financial information across your organisation, offering the flexibility to adapt to changing needs with process controls to ensure accuracy and consistency. Extensive setup flexibility lets you define differing account structures for each company you control, and up to 367 fiscal periods can be defined for precise financial period control. Account setup allows you to define standard accounts, plus variable and fixed allocation accounts for streamlined processing of sophisticated allocations. Unit accounts can be defined to track non-financial or statistical information on your financial statements. And multiple retained earnings accounts can be updated as fixed allocations, or as divisional retained earnings accounts to record divisional profits.

Efficient transaction entry processes enable you to record recurring, auto-reversing and standard transactions, clearing transactions and "quick journal" transactions in which the distribution accounts are predefined and only the dates and amounts change. Electronic "notes" can be attached to individual transactions to record additional audit trail information. And batch controls enable users to quickly verify they have entered all batch transactions properly, reducing errors and speeding the audit process.

Instant access to information is embedded throughout Great Plains, including the ability to drill down from General Ledger detail back to the originating transactions, giving you, in just a few seconds, the detailed underlying information you need for complete audit control.

FRx Professional (included with General Ledger)

FRx is a financial reporting tool that works with Great Plains to provide comprehensive, meaningful, and highly customisable financial and management reports. FRx is unique in its ability to access financial data from a wide range of financial databases and consolidate them into a single financial report. Your FRx reports can even include data from Lotus and Excel spreadsheets. Because of these unique capabilities, FRx can serve as a reporting solution for an enterprise-wide multi-vendor, multi-currency, consolidations and reporting tool that effectively meets the needs of most complex and diverse enterprises.

FRx uses a spreadsheet-like interface. Powerful row, column and reporting tree "building blocks" make it easy to construct new reports and shed new light on your financial picture. And, because FRx seamlessly integrates with Great Plains, changes to the chart of accounts are instantly reflected in the financial statements, reducing costly errors and expensive maintenance. Once the report is created, it can be printed, viewed on-screen, e-mailed, exported to a spreadsheet, or dynamically updated in a spreadsheet. And FRx for Great Plains offers the exclusive drill-down functionality that allows users to drill down into the Great Plains inquiry system from FRx reports, instantly reviewing the underlying detail for complete, accurate answers fully supported by the data.

Receivables Management Receivables

Management is the critical meeting point between your financial system and the reason you're in business - your customer. Detailed customer and sales data provides the information managers need to fine tune product and service offerings. Predictable cash flow helps drive business decisions. Timely cash collection gives you the opportunity to invest in your future sooner. And satisfied customers increase business by purchasing more and by spreading the good news to an ever-widening circle of prospects.

Receivables Management provides comprehensive transaction processing capabilities, including sales, payments, returns, debit and credit memos, repairs, warranties, finance charges and scheduled payments. Transaction entry takes advantage of default information entered throughout the system to efficiently process transactions. Receivables Management serves as the pipeline between your sales systems and General Ledger, helping you efficiently manage customer statement cycles and cash receipt processes, as well as gather customer and sales data for analysis.

Payables Management

Great Plains Payables Management provides critical control over cash disbursements and meaningful access to vendor and disbursement information. Access to both detailed and summary, current and historical information, helps staff and managers make informed vendor choices and purchase decisions. Tracking vendors, managing vouchers, processing payments and analysing your vendors' performances will give you a clear picture of your cash flow and provide the level of payables processing you need for you business. Payables Management saves time and eliminates entry errors with automatic calculation of applicable taxes, which also provides an audit trail for sales and use tax audits. It automatically calculates the number of days it takes to pay each vendor and allows you to put transactions on "hold" until you want to pay them. It also prints a computer cheque at the same time you enter the voucher for immediate payment. Streamlined master record and transaction entry, flexible payment entry systems, in-depth analysis reports and detailed vendor inquiries allow payables personnel to turn knowledge into leverage when managing payables activities. Serving as the link between General Ledger and your purchasing systems, Great Plains Payables Management offers ease of integration and the ability to track the information most important to your business for billing and analysis purposes.

Automatic Bacs payments are made using the Albany Albacs communications package.

Analytical Accounting

Analytical Accounting is a tool that helps you to analyze, interpret and create reports based on your company's chart of accounts. You can enter analysis information for a group of analysis dimensions, set up unlimited analysis dimensions and perform comprehensive reporting without using segmental accounting. You can generate queries based on your specific requirements and print them to a Microsoft Excel worksheet.

Advanced Bank Reconciliation

Advanced Bank Reconciliation is a third-party add-on module for Great Plains that provides automated multi-currency bank reconciliation. Bank transactions are read into the reconciliation module directly from the general ledger. Then the bank statement information can either be imported or manually entered into the system. Once both bank transaction and bank statement details are available, a reconciliation window is provided with the means to match the two. Full support is provided for a single bank transaction to match multiple lines of detail on the statement, or several bank transactions to match a single summary line on the statement, as well as simple one-to-one matches. A 'propose' button is provided on the reconciliation window that proposes matches between the bank transactions and the statement - this should clear the majority of transactions with minimum effort. A full audit trail of reconciliations are recorded and printed. The option is also provided to use a 'double entry bank' system. Great Plains transactions post to the initial general ledger account(s) for each bank, which is the 'un-reconciled account'. When a reconcile is performed, it makes a general ledger batch to remove the transactions from the un-reconciled account and post them to a second 'reconciled account' for the same bank. Support is provided for a system with multiple bank accounts, and for a bank tracking transactions in multiple general ledger accounts. Support is also provided for Euro and multi-currency transactions.

Fixed Assets Management

Great Plains Fixed Assets Management helps you gain insight to make better decisions and put assets to the best use within your organisation by enabling you to quickly and accurately record, track, depreciate and analyse your company's assets. With an intuitive graphical user interface, you'll find Great Plains Fixed Assets Management easy to use-yet it's packed with the features you need to handle complex asset management requirements. Easy setup of classes, or groups, of assets, provides superior control over asset maintenance and depreciation. You can create an unlimited number of books for each company including corporate, federal tax, alternative minimum tax and more. After creating assets, you can review and analyse associated financial information at any point in the asset lifecycle. Fixed Asset Management handles depreciation methods, averaging conventions and switchovers required for tax filings, plus other tax requirement options such as luxury auto limitations. You can depreciate all assets in one or more books, a specified group of assets, or one book for a single asset.

Collections Management

Collections Management, with its seamless integration into Receivables Management, will enable you to improve your cash flow by getting your customers to pay faster, reducing administrative cost, bad debt expense and interest costs. Collections Management provides the ability to increase cash collection by maintaining detailed records of customer contacts, schedule follow-up actions and "Task" items, easily print out documents commonly requested by the customer, target customers matching certain criteria, and track detailed contact notes for sales purposes.

• The Build Query window will allow you to build a subset of customers to work with. For example, you may only want to see customers for whom you are the Credit Manager, or perhaps customers who have outstanding receivables of more than £100.00 that are more than 60 days past due, or who have a particular Customer Class, or any customers that match of all these criteria
• The Task List will display all follow-up actions created in Collections Management and allow you to close them as they are completed
• The Main window acts as the control centre for Accounts Receivable. It will allow you to view all contact notes for a customer, attach new notes and assign follow-up actions for a later date. It will also allow you to work with only those customers who matched the query generated from the Query window. Virtually every key function or piece of information can be accessed directly from this window or with a single click from this window
• The Query Letters window will allow you to create a letter, print statements and invoices and assign follow-up actions for a group of customers in a query
• The Print Selection window will allow you to instantly print or fax commonly requested documents such as cover letters, statements and invoices
• The Transfer Credit Manager window will allow you to assign customers to a specific Credit Manager to help divide the collection work that needs to be accomplished
• The E-mail window will allow you to send customised e-mails to your customers

Multi currency

In a world of expanding global opportunities, Great Plains gives you the ability to fully manage multinational operations with comprehensive multi currency capabilities. Great Plains multi currency complies with FASB-52 and BASDA standards on the accounting and reporting of multi currency transactions, helping you handle the often complex process of issuing and receiving transactions in numerous currencies.

Great Plains delivers superior multi currency flexibility with the ability to define an unlimited number of currencies and exchange rates per currency. Because exchange rates can change several times a day, each exchange rate's date and time is tracked, along with expiration dates to ensure the current rate is always available. Exchange rates can be kept indefinitely, facilitating audits and allowing after-the-fact transaction entry.

Realised gains and losses for sales and purchase are automatically recorded to track the effect of currency changes over the life of the transaction. Financial reports show all multi currency activity and reports can be translated into multiple reporting currencies to be shared with your associates around the world. The Great Plains enquiry system shows multi currency transactions in both originating and functional currencies, giving you instant access to the information you need.

Cash Flow Management

All great financial managers require an accurate and timely way to gain insight into their cash positions to help them make better educated day to day financial decisions. Cash Flow Management, with its user friendly calendar based interface, gives you the ability to view the summary or detail of any given day's cash inflow and outflow. Using Cash Flow Management you are armed with a better and easier way to analyse and answer the questions and concerns arising from your company's cash management.

Weekly and monthly reports help you answer questions such as how much cash you have available to invest, for how long, or when the operation might exceed its line of credit. Greater control of cash flow means a smoother operation and greater business success.

Inter-company Processing

Inter company transaction processing enables you to freely exchange funds or do business between companies in your organisation, with complete multi currency capabilities to handle multi national trades. Streamlined, automated transaction processing between two companies or among multiple companies reduces administrative work and increases the value and timeliness of information throughout your organisation.

Unlimited flexibility in defining intercompany relationships, definable due to/due from relationships and limited account distributions per journal entry streamline the process of managing complex intercompany transactions. With its comprehensive online enquiry system, Great Plains allows you to trace transactions back to their origins in seconds, even across companies. Great Plains provides solid audit support by including with each transaction an originating audit trail code, journal entry number and company ID.

Enterprise Reporting

Enterprise Reporting is designed for sophisticated group reporting and consolidation needs, featuring advanced multi currency capabilities and multidimensional consolidations and eliminations.

With Enterprise Reporting you'll finally have the proper data set you need to see your entire organisation, or any part of it, the way it really is. An unlimited number of tree structures of multiple dimensions allow intuitive graphical manipulation of reporting structures, powerful analysis and reporting via the web, and flexible "what if" analysis for potential changes in structure and roll-up reporting.

Enterprise Reporting combines the power and flexibility of a spreadsheet with the organisational benefits of a centrally controlled reporting application. One database/one reporting tool for actuals, forecasts and budgets gives you powerful central control, and forms and replication make it easy to collect information from users throughout the organisation.