TRAVERSE Global v11.1

Setting Up Initial Balances

You must enter actual balances for each past period in the current fiscal year.

  • To produce an audit trail of all the entries in the current fiscal year, enter the individual transactions in the GL Journal and post them to the appropriate general ledger periods.
  • To produce a less detailed audit trail, enter one transaction for each account with activity in each period, except the current one, representing the total period activity. Then post the entries to the appropriate general ledger periods.
    Note: For the current period, enter individual transactions and post them to the current general ledger period.
  • If an audit trail is not required, enter the beginning balances and the net change in each period for each account when setting up a company's chart of accounts. For the current period, enter individual transactions and post them to the current general ledger period.
ClosedEntering Initial Balances

Follow these steps when entering initial balances to produce an audit trail of the current year's past-period activity:

  1. To establish beginning balances for your current year, change fiscal years to your last year and enter a transaction equal to your ending balance from last year into period 12, for each account.
  2. Post to master your last year transactions.
  3. Change fiscal years to your current year and run the update current year function. This will establish a beginning balance for your balance sheet accounts into period 0 of your current year.
  4. Enter all the transactions or the total period activity for each account for period 1.
  5. Use the Copy Recurring Entries function to copy recurring entries for period 1 to transactions. Then use the Transactions function to edit them and write them to the GL Journal, or write them directly to the GL Journal.
  6. Print the GL Journal for period 1 and check it for errors.
  7. Use the Edit Transactions function to correct transactions that have errors. Then print the GL Journal again.
  8. Use the Post to Master function to post the period 1 transactions to the GL Master.
  9. Print a Trial Balance Report for period 1 to check for errors.
  10. If you find errors in the Trial Balance Report, use the Transactions function to make correcting entries. Then post the entries to the GL Master and reprint the Trial Balance Report.
  11. Print financial statements for period 1.
  12. Repeat steps 1-8 for each past period in the current fiscal year.

When you finish entering the activity for the past periods, you can begin entering the transactions for the current period.

ClosedOut-of-Balance Entries

For every debit you enter in the GL Journal, you must enter an offsetting credit and vice versa. If entries are out of balance during setup, you can use the forced-balance password to exit from the Transactions function without balancing the entry.

If you use automatic reversing entries when accounts are out of balance, even if the overall totals are in balance, you must enter a forced-balance password. If you use the forced-balance password, print the GL Journal to determine why the journal is out of balance. Then correct the situation as soon as possible.