Great Plains Accounts Receivable / Payable & General Ledger

I agree with Leslie that using and balancing GP is rather easy. But I can only say that after working through several months where things didn't balance. There are several small items that can really catch you up:

1) The system date often seems to drive what period you are posting to, not the document date. Most of the systems I used prior allowed you to post to any open period from whatever system date you were on. That took some getting used to.

2) If you process an account write-off, or void an outstanding item from a prior period and don't change the date, you can get the system out of whack or leave unposted items hanging.

3) It isn't always 100% clear when something gets stuck in batch error, especially when you are in a hurry and simply 'cancel' each window that opens as you are trying to post. When you go back to confirm that all the items are posted, the batches in error don't show up leaving you thinking all is well - until you can't balance something.

4) If you post payment receipts to multiple bank accounts, you can also create a reconciling nightmare if you missaply cash but don't correct the bank AND the distribution at the same time before you post.

I am only reminded of the frustrations I faced when I try to train someone new on the software and something I am used to automatically checking receives a blank stare and a sigh at 'how much' they have to check for everything.

I would be happy to be a resource for the small headaches that follow GP. It is usually easier to treat these questions as you would if you had access to a helpdesk - at the time of the problem.

let me know if what I showed you helped

When I started at my current position, GP was in use with a lot of problems. We were spending thousands each year for updates and support. Within the month, I had our company running on a much cheaper, more user friendly software and we are saving thousands (4k +) per year. Does your company really need the GP? Does it make sense to move to a cheaper software? I know this doesn't answer your question, but it may be something to consider.

I would suggest you contact:

Kerri Reinholtz at Crestwood Associates, LLC
240 E. Lincoln
Mount Prospect, IL 60056
(847) 394-8820 , Ext. 28
www.crestwood.com

Crestwood is an expert in GP and Microsoft Dynamics President's Club Winner.

I used them for over 5 years and Kerri is great. Crestwood is very reasonable and always gives you the first 10 or 15 minutes of any call for free.

Closing the periods (2nd post by Leslie above) is the key to managing the periods. However GP does give you options that should be set simply but may not be for your company. These options are in the POSTING setup.

1) You can choose whether posting - especially in the G/L - is done by the batch date or the transaction date. Simple is the transaction date - especially in the G/L. In the sub-ledgers can be more of a choice - do you want to back date documents to a prior period but post them in the current or not. Either decision you make has some impact on your transation entry process.
2) You can choose to 'post to' or 'post through'. Post through is the simple option - and the one folks should be using unless there is some reason to do otherwise. Post to lets your team post the sub-ledger transactions - but the G/L impact is not realized until you post the transactions again in the G/L. This can let G/L accounting review the accounts used in the sub-ledgers prior to having a final transaction. However it can also setup the use of the dates (above) related to the accounting period selected.

Ideally the two options above would have been set to simplify your situation so that posting / closing would be streamlined and easy. Since you have come into the middle of things it is harder to know what may have occured before.

The option to get some expertise - or even just re-start your Microsoft support plan - could help you get up to date more quickly. As a FYI - by the end of this year version 8 will be 4 versions back from current - it is currently 3 versions back.

Bob Scarborough

After closing the General Ledger for year 2015, the management reporter reports are showing double the actual amounts. does anyone know why?