About Posting G/L Transactions

General Ledger Concepts

Transactions are posted to general ledger in the General Ledger Posting window. You can automatically post the financial transactions if the Auto Post feature in the (L2) G/L Master Numbers screen is set to Y. Even if you do post automatically, there may be times you need to manually change or post a transaction in the General Ledger Posting window.

Two types of entries are made in the General Ledger Posting window: daily entries or recurring G/L entries.

Posting to a daily batch is a simple process. The posting is automatically sent to the GL-BATCH file and is released when you release batches with the G/L Batch Report. When you have recurring entries that are posted periodically, post them to permanent batches.

When releasing batches, you can automatically release to general ledger, or you can manually post transactions in the General Ledger Posting window. You can choose to post, cancel, or reverse permanent batches. You can also import G/L entries from an Excel spreadsheet. See Importing G/L Entries from a Spreadsheet.

From the General Ledger Posting window View menu, you can add GL Specials, set grid options, posting history, chart of accounts (master) history, and export postings to a file.

You use the GL Batch Totals tab to view batches on screen. In the GL Batch Totals tab, you can set the grid to display only the information that you need to view. See Setting Grid Options in General Ledger Posting for more information.

You can also sort information in the GL Batch Totals tab by clicking the box to sort the information. For more information, see In the GL Batch Totals Tab.

If you try to release a batch for a closed period, a warning message appears. For more information, see Closing G/L Periods.

Posting to Permanent Batches

Most companies have expenditures or expenses that span more than one accounting period and must be posted periodically. For example, prepaid insurance or prepaid rent. The part of the rent or insurance that benefits the current period is treated as an expense. Often the expenses are related to long-term, intangible assets such as depreciation, amortization, and so forth. Post these to a permanent batch.

For example, you purchased office equipment with a life of five years. At the end of this time, you have determined that the cost of the office equipment is completely depreciated. You have estimated that this asset decreases in value by $84 a month. This monthly amount is posted to a permanent batch.

When you post to a permanent batch, the first two digits of the batch number must be 88. The last two digits can be any number from 01 to 99.

Note: If you have a particular account that you must post to on a periodic basis, but the amount changes from month to month, you can still use permanent batches. Before you release the permanent batch, go to the General Ledger Posting window and change the amount in the permanent batch. If you accidentally post the wrong amount in a permanent batch, you can reverse this amount by clicking . For details on reversing an entry, see Reversing a Permanent Batch.

Releasing Permanent Batches

You release permanent batches in the same way you release daily batches. You run the G/L Batch Report and specify Y in the Release field. However, do not release these batches by specifying a range of batches. We recommend that you release each permanent batch, one at a time, to the appropriate period.

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Posting to General Ledger