A 1099 form is used in the United States to report payments made to vendors subject to 1099 reporting.

The invoice type determines the type of details that appear on invoices in Accounts Receivable. Summary invoices include just enough information to update your receivables records and general ledger revenue account. Item invoices include details about items, and they update receivables records as well as the revenue, inventory, and cost of goods sold general ledger accounts.

You can enter a name or description of up to 60 characters for each General Ledger account. The description you enter is displayed with the account number in the Finder, so you can easily identify the account you want to use. The description also appears with the account number in some windows and reports. In addition, you can use the Account Description field to look up information about the account.

You can also include the account description on statements you print using the Financial Reporter.

The General Ledger uses standard account groups to select related accounts for reporting. The account groups are: Current Assets, Fixed Assets, Other Assets, Accumulated Depreciation, Current Liabilities, Long Term Liabilities, Shareholders' Equity, Revenue, Cost of Sale, Opening Inventory, Purchases, Closing Inventory, Cost and Expenses, Other Income and Expenses, Provision for Income Taxes, Other, and Unclassified.

If you don't use account groups, the program assigns accounts to the Unclassified Account Group internally; however, you can also use Other for accounts that you normally want to exclude from your balance sheet and income statement. You can change any of these descriptions to suit your business needs.

You can also use the Unclassified Account Group if you do not want to specify an account group when creating an account. Note that the default sort code for the Unclassified Account Group is ZZZZZZZZZZZZ, but the code is blank. If you use account groups, you must assign every account to a group, or the system will leave the account group as blank, which is the Unclassified Account Group, as well as the default.

A feature that allows you to define G/L account segments in G/L Options dynamically for flexible cost center posting.

For example, suppose you want to post payroll transactions by department. In G/L Options, you set up a G/L segment called Department, and then enter valid department numbers in the G/L Segment Codes window. Then, in the Payroll employee record, you can assign an employee to, say, Department 600 on the Cost Center tab. The employee's wages and other payroll totals will be posted to a cost center account for Department 600. You can enter a different department code (override) for each earning or deduction you assign to the employee. In addition, you can override the Department account segment for each earning/deduction on timecards on occasions when an employee works in an area to which he or she is not normally assigned.

After you set up the overrides in Payroll, the payroll-specific G/L account segments become components of the G/L account numbers to which you post payroll transactions.

An account number consists of from one to ten parts called segments. Each segment can be up to 15 characters long. You define account segments on the Segments tab of the G/L Options screen.

If you define more than one account segment on the Segments tab of the G/L Options screen, you must define account number structures. Account structures let you use different sets of account segments in different account numbers. They specify which segments appear in the account number and the order in which the segments appear. For example, you can define six account segments, then create one account structure that includes three of these segments, and another that uses four. Once you create the account number structures, you can add the accounts (specifying the structure that each account number uses).

Note: The total number of account segments you can define depends on the edition of Sage 300 ERP being used.

Individual account numbers cannot exceed 45 characters (including delimiter characters), so if you defined 10 segments, it is unlikely that any of your account numbers could contain all 10.

This is the portion of the General Ledger account number that identifies the account type as one of the income, expense, asset, and liability accounts that record the company's business transactions. Every account number requires an account segment. For example, if you have account numbers with two segments, one segment must be the account segment, and the other segment may identify the department. If your account numbers have only one segment, that segment is the account segment.

An account set is a group of general ledger account numbers that are used to categorize transactions by accounts to which they are posted in general ledger.

You can assign a status of Active or Inactive to an account. Select Active as the account status for all accounts to which you want to be able to post transactions. Select Inactive if you do not want to post to the account at the current time. For example, you can use the Inactive status to ensure no transactions are posted to an account you are planning to delete at the end of the year.

Each account in the General Ledger is identified as a balance sheet account (type B), an income statement account (type I), or a retained earnings account (type R). G/L uses the account types to compute account balances properly, and automatically transfer the revenue and expense account balances to retained earnings at year end. You must define at least one account as a retained earnings type, but you can specify a separate retained earnings account for each code for a particular account number segment.

The basis for the entire accounting process: Assets = Liabilities + Equity. (The equation may also be written Assets - Liabilities = Equity.)

In Project and Job Costing, a project's accounting method determines when you recognize revenue for the project. You can assign the Completed Project, Total Cost Percentage Complete, Labor Hours Percentage Complete, Billings And Costs, Project Percentage Complete, Category Percentage Complete, or Accrual-Basis accounting method to a project, but the accounting method must be consistent with the project type.

The period of time over which a company's business transactions are recorded and at the end of which the company's financial statements are printed. Most accounting systems have an accounting period of one month.

Money owed by the company for goods and services provided by its suppliers.

In Payroll, this term comprises vacation time or pay, sick time or pay, and compensatory time.

The date that dictates when unused vacation, sick, and compensatory time, up to the limit specified in the Maximum Carry-over column for the employee's years of service, is carried over to the new year. For more information, see Carrying Over Vacation, Sick, and Compensatory Time Accruals.

(1) A method of stating income in which revenues are recognized in the accounting period in which they are earned, not when the payment is received. Most businesses are required by law to use the accrual method.

(2) The accrual method is also a method of reporting value-added tax. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, a company can choose to report value-added tax by either the cash or the accrual method, depending on the size of the company. With the accrual method of value-added tax reporting, tax is accounted for when the invoice is issued, not when the money is received or paid out.

In Project and Job Costing, transactions for projects that use this accounting method are posted directly to the revenue and cost of sales accounts. (You do not run revenue recognition to clear amounts from the billings and work in progress accounts.) This accounting method can be used with all project types.

Expenses that have been incurred but have not yet been paid and recorded in the books because no invoice has been received.

Assigning a federal, state, provincial or local tax to your payroll system. Many, but not all, of these tax configurations are delivered to your system with Payroll tax updates and quarterly releases.

After you install a Sage 300 ERP accounting program, you must activate it using Data Activation in Administrative Services. This step adds the database tables required by the program, and puts the program icon on the company desktop.

An active order is an order that you expect to fill in a normal period of time. An active order may also contain items on backorder, or be on hold. If the order is not on hold, you can post and print an invoice for shipped goods.

Every account in the Account Master File has an Actual Fiscal Set that contains the balance and net changes for the account in the current fiscal year (and any past years that you keep). The amounts stored in the Actual fiscal sets of accounts comprise the ledger. This financial information appears on General Ledger reports such as the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet.

(See also: Fiscal Sets; Multicurrency Fiscal Sets; and Provisional Fiscal Sets.)

The period to which adjustments, such as depreciation of equipment, bad debts, and income tax, can be posted at year-end. The date of the adjustment period is always the last day of the last fiscal period. For example, if the fiscal year ends on March 31, the adjustment period is one day in length - March 31.

Journal entries to record accrued expenses, depreciation, accrued revenues, bad debts, and other items that must be recorded at the end of the accounting period in order to state income accurately. The journal entries to record adjustments are called adjusting entries. You use period 14 (the adjustments period) to record year end adjustments when preparing your financial statements.

Money or goods provided to an employee in anticipation of repayment.

A type of earning. For W-2 reporting of allocated tips, you provide the allocated tips amount either through timecard entry or by entering the amount in Employee Transaction History at year end.

General Ledger can automatically allocate an account's balance to other accounts according to your specifications. If you define the account as an allocation account, you must identify the accounts that receive the allocated amounts, and the percentage that they receive.

You specify this information on the Allocation tab of G/L Accounts. The Allocation Account distributes amounts to other accounts within the company. You make this choice for each account through your entry in the Auto Allocation field on the Detail tab of G/L Accounts.

Use Create Allocation Batch to generate allocation transactions.

The annual amount at which calculations for an earning/deduction should stop. The Annual Maximum does not apply to tips earnings or to any earning with the calculation method Fixed or Hourly Rate.

The factor by which wages subject to the tax should be calculated for a twelve month period. For example, if you are paying two weeks' wages to a weekly employee, enter 26 as the annualization factor in the Annualization column on the timecard. If you leave Annualization blank, the system uses the employee's pay frequency to annualize the tax.

All the items of value owned by a company including, for example, finished and unfinished inventory, land, buildings, cash, and money owed to the company by customers. Assets are listed first on the company's balance sheet.

Reports, journals, and listings generated to document and verify entries made in your accounting system.

Users can sign in to Sage 300 ERP using their Windows signon ID and password, or sign in using their Sage 300 ERP user ID. This option is set on the Users form by the administrator. When Windows is the authentication method, a domain name is required.

Use General Ledger's Automatic Reversal option to post a transaction and reverse it at the same time. To use the option, check Auto Reversal in the Journal Entry form, then enter the transaction. During posting, the system posts the original transaction to the specified fiscal period, and also calculates the reversing entry and posts it to the next fiscal period.

A document entered and applied to a revalued document, where the date of the applied document is earlier than the last revaluation date of the Apply To document.

For example, suppose an invoice dated June 1st is revalued on June 30th and again on July 31st. Later, the Accounts Receivables clerk applies a receipt to the revalued invoice using June 10th as the receipt date. The receipt is backdated because its date (June 10th) is before the date of the last revaluation (July 31st), although it was received subsequently.

The amounts unpaid when customers fail to pay all or part of what they owe. You make an adjusting entry to record a bad debt as an expense.

A summary of what a company owns and owes on a particular day. It has three main categories: assets, liabilities, and equity.

A generic account whose segments adhere to the account structure defined for the account in General Ledger but refer to no real subdivision or entity within the company. You can assign base accounts to distribution sets when you intend to use segment overrides for the actual posting.

The deductions included in the calculation of an earning/deduction. The field to set up base deductions appears when you set up an accrual, earning, deduction, or benefit that uses the calculation method Percentage Of Base or Wage Bracket Table. These deductions are deducted from earnings to arrive at the calculation base for the earning/deduction being set up.

The accruals, earnings, and benefits included in the wage base used to calculate an earning/deduction. You can also choose to include or exclude regular, overtime, and shift differential earnings. The field to set up base earnings appears when you set up an accrual, earning, deduction, or benefit that uses the calculation method Percentage Of Base or Wage Bracket Table.

The hours-based earnings and accruals used in calculating the number of hours on which an earning/deduction is based. The field to set up base hours appears when you set up an accrual, earning, deduction, or benefit that uses the calculation method Amount Per Hour or Hours Per Hour Worked. The earnings you enter into the base hours field must be of the type Salary and Wages and must use the calculation method Flat, Fixed, Hourly Rate, Piece Rate Table, or Sales Table. You can choose to include or exclude regular or overtime hours.

The taxes included in the calculation of an earning/deduction. The field to set up base taxes appears when you set up an accrual, earning, deduction, or benefit that uses the calculation method Percentage Of Base or Wage Bracket Table. The taxes you enter in the field are deducted from earnings to arrive at the calculation base for the earning/deduction being set up.

The rate by which the withholding wage base (the employee's total earnings, for example) is multiplied before the withholding tax is calculated.

Basic information about the account is stored in the account master record. When adding an account, you define the account to the General Ledger system by specifying: account number, account description (name), account structure (segments used in the account number), account type (balance sheet, income statement, or retained earnings), normal type of account balance (debit or credit, account status (active or inactive), whether to post all details to the account in detail or consolidate them, whether to close by segment code (if income statement account), whether the account is a control account, whether to maintain quantity information for the account, account allocation instructions, if you wish to reallocate the account balance, currency information for the account (in multicurrency ledgers).

You use this style in Project and Job Costing for projects whose costs you need to track only at the category level. The program does not break down costs by resource for basic projects, so you do not need to identify resources when entering transactions for these projects.

A General Ledger batch is a group of journal entries, each of which contains at least one transaction with balancing debit and credit amounts. All journal entries must be entered in batches, then these batches are posted to the general ledger accounts. Before you can post a transaction, it must balance, use an open fiscal period, and contain valid account numbers and source codes. The specified accounts must also have Active statuses. If you use the Force Listing of Batches option, you can post batches only after printing them.

A contribution made by the employer on behalf of the employee, such as a medical insurance plan.

A project's billing type, together with the project type, determines the kinds of details that appear on job-related customer invoices. A project can be Billable, Non-billable, or No Charge. The project type and accounting method jointly determine whether you set the billing type for projects, for categories, or for both projects and categories on a contract, and whether you can change the billing type for individual transactions.

In Project and Job Costing, you use this accounting method to recognize revenue throughout the project based on the amount billed and the actual cost incurred to date on the project. This accounting method can be used with all project types.

You can maintain up to five sets of budget figures for each account and fiscal year using the Budget Maintenance window (in Account Activities). If you enter budget data, you can print financial statements that compare actual and budget figures. A fast way to set up budgets for a new year is to export current-year account balances or net changes to a spreadsheet file, use the spreadsheet to work out the new budget, then import the data to the new budget fiscal set.

The information, including earnings/deductions, taxes, and hours, that you set up for the system to use to calculate an earning/deduction or tax.

In the predefined methods Sage 300 ERP provides to calculate a payroll earning/deduction or tax. Examples of calculation methods are: flat, fixed, amount per hour, piece rate table, sales table, wage bracket table, percentage of employee contribution.

To open the calculator while in a field that accepts numeric values, press the plus key (+) on the numeric keypad.

The second half of a sale transaction. After pre-authorizing a transaction, the merchant processes the payment and clears the pre-authorization.

The person to whom a payment card is issued, or an additional person authorized by the original cardholder to use the card.

Accruals (vacation, sick, and compensatory time hours and amounts) are processed and carried over on the first payroll posting following the accrual carry-over date.

You set the default carry-over date when you set up the accrual in the Earnings and Deductions notebook. The carry-over year is automatically reset when a carry-over is posted. For example, if the accrual carry-over date is the date of hire, Payroll calculates carry-over and, upon posting the employee's first payroll after hire, consults the Service Year table set up for the accrual. The beginning amount or hours that you enter in the first bracket of the Service Year table are accrued on the first payroll. Posting then increments the carry-over year by one. Sage 300 ERP uses the accrual carry-over date and the employee's hire date to determine the service year for carry-over processing.

The employee moves into the next service year when the check date is one year (or more) after the hire date. For example, if the hire date is 01/01/2010 and the accrual carry-over date is 12/31/2010, the first payroll posted after the carry-over, on (say) 01/15/2011, is considered to be in the first service year for carry-over processing because the carry-over date is less than one year after the hire date.

The system refers to the carry-over parameters (Beginning Amt./Hrs., Maximum Unused Accrual, and Maximum Carry-over) for the first service year when processing the carry-over. Posting then increments the carry-over date by one. For routine accrual processing, however, the payroll is considered to be in the second service year because the check date is more than one year after the hire date.

The system refers to the accrual parameter (Increment Pct./Amt.) for the service year bracket covering the second service year when processing the period accrual. However, if the hire date is 01/01/2010 and the accrual carry-over date is 01/01/2011, a payroll posted on 01/15/2011 is considered to be in the second service year for both carry-over processing and routine accrual processing because both the carry-over date and the check date are a year (or more) after the hire date. Carry-over and routine accrual processing occur according to the parameters for the second service year. Posting then increments the carry-over date by one.

Accrual hours that remain credited to the employee when the company moves into a new year.

An amount of money paid in advance to an employee, who is expected to repay the loan.

A benefit paid to an employee that increases the employee's net pay.

A financial statement that shows a company's receipts and disbursements for a fiscal year.

A method of stating income in which revenues are recognized when the payment is received. The other method of stating income is the accrual method, which most businesses are required by law to use. The cash method is also a method of reporting value-added tax. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, a company can choose to report value-added tax by either the cash or the accrual method, depending on the size of the company. With the cash method of tax reporting, value-added tax is accounted for when the money is received or paid out, not when the invoice is issued.

Earnings/deductions in Payroll belong to one of the following categories:

• Accrual (vacation, sick, and compensatory time)
• Advance (money or goods provided in anticipation of repayment)
• Benefit (cash and non-cash contributions made by the employer on behalf of the employee)
• Deduction (amounts taken from employee pay to pay for union dues, disability insurance, and other items)
• Earning (salaries, wages, tips, commissions, bonuses, and similar compensation)
• Expense reimbursements (payments to the employee to reimburse company-related expenses incurred by the employee)

You use this accounting method when you want Project and Job Costing to calculate revenue for a project automatically using the ratio of the actual costs incurred for the project category to the estimated cost of the project category. This accounting method can be used only with the cost plus project type.

An upper limit on, for example, the amount the system can withhold of a payroll tax or the amount of wages that can be earned for tax to be withheld on those wages.

A list of the accounts in a ledger, usually organized by account number.

The codes that identify each of the Payroll classes. Payroll classes are used for sorting and selecting employees for processing and reporting. You use the Class Codes form to define the class codes to use in your Payroll system.

Financial statements that group accounts into sets that give similar information. For example, typical classifications on a balance sheet would be current assets, long-term investments, plant and equipment, current liabilities, and long-term liabilities.

An exchange gain or loss occurs in multicurrency ledgers when a check clears the bank at a different exchange rate than when it was posted. Clearing Exchange Gain or Loss occurs during check reconciliation. (See also: Exchange Gail or Loss; Recognized Exchange Gain or Loss; Unrecognized Exchange Gain or Loss; and Realized Exchange Gain or Loss.)

The account-number segment by which you wish to close at year-end. In General Ledger, you can define a separate retained earnings account for each segment code that you enter in the Segment Codes table. Any accounts for which you do not choose a segment will close to the default retained closing account. G/L will also use the default closing account if you have only one account number segment (the account segment).

A closing account is a retained earnings account to which you post the difference between the sums of revenue and expense account balances when you close these accounts at year end.

You can assign separate closing accounts for different segments (such as "Division" or "Department") that you define for your company.

The period to which revenue and expense accounts are closed at year end. The date of the closing period is the same as the date of the adjustment period (that is, the last day of the last fiscal period).

The process of posting closing entries to clear the revenue and expense accounts and to transfer the net income to the retained earnings account(s) at the end of an accounting year. Closing the books ensures that the books are ready to record the next accounting year's transactions. In General Ledger, you use the Create New Year form to close the current year.

Shares that have no preference as to dividends and no fixed rate of return. They are the most common type of stock, and normally have voting rights attached to them. Since common stock is typically the only type of stock with voting rights, the shareholders who control the majority of the common stock usually control the company.

Contains information that is shared by all the company's accounting programs. This includes the company profile, fiscal calendar, optional field data, and all the program data for the company. You need to create a database for each company whose accounting records you keep.

The window that appears after you sign in to Sage 300 ERP and select a company to open. The company name is shown in the title bar, and the icons for programs installed appear in the right pane.

Contains address and options information for your company. The company profile is a common service that is shared by your company's integrated Sage 300 ERP programs.

The Options screens in each Sage 300 ERP module let you specify information for that module, (such as a contact person for matters concerning that module and, for some modules, whether the module is multicurrency).

A type of accrual, composed of vacation time and pay, sick time and pay, and compensatory time.

You use this accounting method for a project when you want Project and Job Costing to recognize all revenue and create billings only upon completion of the project. This accounting method can be used with all project types.

A G/L batch consolidated either by account and fiscal period or by account, fiscal period, and source code.

An account that links a subsidiary ledger to a corresponding account in General Ledger. When a transaction is entered in a subsidiary ledger, all relevant control accounts are updated automatically.

When you create an account in General Ledger, you may designate an account as a control account. You specify the Sage 300 ERP subledgers for which the account is a control. You cannot post transactions in General Ledger to accounts that are designated as control accounts. Only transactions created by those subledgers can be posted to the account. General Ledger checks the subledger by looking at the first two characters of the source code included with each subledger transaction. These first two characters must match the subledger codes. For example, all transactions created by Accounts Receivable use source codes that begin with AR.

A form of business organization that is legally separate from its owners, and in which the owners (called shareholders) have limited liability. Owners can only lose what they have invested in the corporation. A corporation has the right to sue and be sued by others. A corporation is also called a limited, public limited, or proprietary limited company.

A system of allocating costs or expenses to a particular job, department, or project so that a company's management can quickly determine whether the project is meeting its budget and is earning the company a profit.

A feature that allows you to set up and define payroll-specific G/L account segments that will become components of the G/L account numbers to which you post payroll transactions.

Up to three G/L account segments, selected in Payroll Options, that you will use to define payroll cost centers. You can click the down arrow beside each segment field to display a list of the segments defined on the Segments tab of the General Ledger Options form.

The cost of the raw materials, direct labor, and factory overhead incurred in producing all the goods manufactured during a period.

The cost of the raw materials, direct labor, and factory overhead incurred in producing all the goods sold during a period.

In Project and Job Costing, invoices for this type of project are based on actual project costs plus a percentage of those costs that you bill as profit. Cost Plus projects can use the Completed Project, Total Cost Percentage Complete, Labor Hours Percentage Complete, Category Percentage Complete, Billings And Costs, or Accrual-Basis accounting methods.

CPRS stands for Contract Payment Reporting System, a system used in Canada to record payments made to vendors subject to CPRS reporting.

A positive balance on the right-hand side of an account. Increasing the balance of an account that normally has a credit balance is called crediting, as is decreasing the balance of an account that normally has a debit balance. You indicate on the Detail tab of the G/L Accounts form whether the account normally has a credit or a debit balance.

In Payment Processing, a credit is a refund or price adjustment given for a previous purchase. A credit authorizes the transfer of funds from the merchant's account to the cardholder's account.

Multicurrency ledgers use currency information maintained in Common Services to convert transactions and report financial information for accounts.

You use the Currency screens in Sage 300 ERP Common Services to define currencies your company uses, and to enter the rates and rate types with which to convert transaction amounts to the functional (home) currency. See the System Manager help for more information.

The type of rate used to convert source currency amounts to their functional-currency-equivalent amounts, for companies that use multicurrency accounting. Examples of rate types are: forward rate, spot rate, contract rate, and average rate. You define rate types for currencies using the Currency Rates form in Common Services.

Currency rates are used only in multicurrency databases to convert one currency to another.

A table linking a currency and rate type, specifying whether a source amount is multiplied or divided by the rate to convert the source currency to an equivalent functional-currency amount. Each table contains the rates of exchange and the dates for which the exchange rate is active. You need to define a currency table for each combination of currency and rate type that you use.

Assets that can be converted to cash or realized in the ordinary course of business, usually within one year.

Debts that are payable within one year of the balance sheet date, and will require the use of a current asset.

Custom and local taxes are any taxes you need that are not included on the Sage 300 ERP tax updates. You set up these taxes in the system yourself.

A folder in Sage 300 ERP that contains a user's customized business forms (invoices, statements, checks, and so on). The system administrator sets up and specifies customization directories for users.

Card Validation Code - MasterCard term for the three-digit code printed next to the card number in the signature panel and used as part of the authorization process.

Card Verification Value - Visa term for the three-digit code printed next to the signature panel on the back of the card.

A set of files stored on a computer's hard disk in which information such as your company's financial data is stored. Each Sage 300 ERP installation consists of two databases: the system database and the company database. The system database contains information about Sage 300 ERP users, security and currencies, while the company database contains accounting information.

A unique code of up to 6 characters that identifies a system or company database. The code can consist of letters from A to Z, or digits from 0 to 9. You cannot change the database ID after creating the database.

Each exchange rate is stored by Common Services with an active date, and each Rate Type definition includes the method Sage 300 ERP uses to select an exchange rate when you enter or revalue source-currency transactions. Rate types can select the rate:

• With the most recent date prior to the transaction date (match the Earlier date).
• With the first date later than the transaction date (match the Later date).
• With the same date as the transaction date (match the Exact date).

A positive balance on the left-hand side of an account. Increasing the balance of an account that normally has a debit balance is called debiting, as is decreasing the balance of an account that normally has a credit balance. You indicate on the Detail tab of the G/L Accounts form whether an account normally has a debit or credit balance.

Financial and budget information is always stored with the same number of decimal places. This number is determined by the functional (home) currency you define for the company.

Quantity information (such as number of units sold) can be stored using up to three decimal places. You specify the number of decimal for storing quantity information using the Decimal Places for Quantity option on the G/L Options screen.

An amount taken from an employee's pay for union dues, disability insurance, and other items.

The retained earnings account used as a default to close the revenue and expense accounts. When you close the fiscal year, the system nets the income and expense account balances and posts the result to this retained earnings account if no other account is specified. If you use more than one segment in your account numbers, you can also close accounts by segments to various retained earnings accounts.

The Default Currency appears as the currency code when you enter transactions for an account. The purpose of the default is simply to speed up data entry. You can override the code during data entry.

The usual number of hours worked by the employee per pay period for a particular earning/deduction.

The Default Rate Type field appears on the Company Profile only if the Multicurrency option is selected for the company. It specifies the rate type to use for converting amounts entered in a currency other than the functional currency. (Rate type codes are defined in the Currency Rate Types form in Common Services.)

On the Posting tab of G/L Options, this selection allows you to set a default source code.

The delimiter character is used to separate segments within the account number for entry and display. Delimiters make account numbers easier to enter and to read.

A hyphen (-) is the default delimiter, but you can use any of the following characters:

- / \ , *

You specify the delimiter character to use on the Segments tab in G/L Options. Once you select the character, you cannot change it. You do not have to type the delimiter character when entering account numbers, as it is inserted automatically.

Allocation of the cost of a physical asset (like a piece of equipment) over its useful life. Depreciation transactions debit the depreciation expense account and credit (reduce) the value of the asset.

There are two methods of consolidating posted amounts in General Ledger, either during the posting process if you select this option, or after the transactions have been posted using the Consolidate Posted Transactions form.

When you define an account using the G/L Accounts screen, you specify whether the individual debit and credit details entered for the account are to be posted in detail or consolidated format.

When an account is posted in detail format, all the debits and credits posted to it are kept and can be listed individually on source journals and on the G/L Transactions Listing report.

A G/L batch that has not been consolidated. See Consolidated Batch.

The debits and credits for a journal entry are called its details or detail transactions. For example, if you wrote a check to pay rent, the debit to rent expense and the credit to cash would make up one journal entry with two details. When you print a report in detail format, all the detail transactions (every debit line and credit line) for the account are included in the printout unless they were consolidated during or after posting.

Wages paid to employees (laborers and supervisors) who work directly on the product being manufactured.

Accounts, other than the Salary and Wages Payable and Suspense accounts, to which you post payroll data. You set up distribution account sets for earnings/deductions and taxes.

A distribution code is a code that can be used as a quick method of specifying the general ledger accounts to which you post transaction data.

A distribution set is a group of distribution codes identifying the general ledger accounts to which you post transaction data.

A payment made to shareholders by a corporation, usually out of after-tax profits. The directors of the company make the decision for the company to declare and pay dividends.

In transaction screens and inquiry screens that display transactions created elsewhere in the module or in another module, you can "drill down" to view source documents in the screens where they were created.

If a Drilldown button appears beside a transaction or document number, you can click the button to view the source document.

Any pay factor (salary, wage, tip, commission, or bonus) that falls into one of the following six categories: accrual, advance, benefit, deduction, earning, expense reimbursement.

The frequency with which an earning/deduction is applied to an employee's pay. You can assign the following frequencies to an earning/deduction:

• Float
• Daily
• Weekly
• Biweekly
• Semimonthly
• 22 pay periods/year
• 13 pay periods/year
• Monthly
• 10 pay periods per year
• Quarterly

You can assign an earning/deduction to an employee only if the earning/deduction's frequency is the same as, or less frequent than, the employee's pay frequency.

A sub-classification of earnings/deductions. The selections that appear for earning/deduction Type depend upon your entry at the Category field. (The categories Deduction and Expense Reimbursement have no type.)

Benefit types (cash and non-cash): A cash benefit increases the employee's net pay. A non-cash benefit (for example, use of a company automobile) does not increase net pay but may be taxable as income. When you set up a non-cash benefit, you can choose to post amounts for it to expense and employer liability accounts or not to post amounts for it at all.

Advance types (cash and non-cash): A cash advance is an amount of money paid in advance to an employee, who is expected to repay the advance. A non-cash advance is goods or services (for example, supplying uniforms or tools), also in expectation of repayment.

Earnings types (salary & wages, reported tips, allocated tips): To set up an earning that tracks the amounts that employees report in tips, select the category Earnings and the type Reported Tips. To set up an earning that reports allocated tips on the W-2 form, select the category Earnings and the type Allocated Tips. (You can provide the allocated tips amount either through timecard entry or by entering the amount in Transaction History at year end.)

Accrual types (vacation, sick, compensatory time): You determine a base for the accrual of vacation time and sick time. Compensatory time can be accrued in payment for overtime hours worked.

The accumulated total of after-tax profits and losses from operations over the life of the company. Profits add to the total, and losses subtract from it. If a company has had more losses than profits, the amount is negative.

The effective date is the date that the exchange rate was set for converting a country's national currency to euro currency. It does not change.

The data from all previous payroll checks issued to an employee. Check data includes the amounts calculated for each earning, deduction, or other pay factor assigned to the employee as well as the amounts deducted for payroll taxes. Employee history also records the hours, pieces, sales amounts, or wage bases upon which payroll amounts are calculated; the rates, amounts, and percentages used to calculate them; and, if you use cost center posting, the G/L segments to which payroll amounts were posted.

An optional level of security available in the Payroll program that lets you restrict user access to employee records.

A list of employee numbers to be used in payroll processing. Also called Selection List.

The EMU stands for the Economic Monetary Union: countries in Europe that have joined together to operate with a common economy and currency (the euro).

The owner's claim on the assets of a business. To calculate the owner's equity, subtract the liabilities from the assets. Equity is shown on the right side of the balance sheet.

Euro conversion rates are the exchange rates set when a country joins the EMU. The country's national currency is converted to euro currency at this set rate.

Euro currency is the common currency of member-states of the Economic Monetary Union. Until the year 2001, each country continued using its national currency, but it was converted to euro currency at an exchange rate set when the country joined the EMU.

You choose the Euro option during the Company Profile setup only when you use multicurrency accounting and are a company located in a member-country of the EMU. This option allows you to print reports in both euro and your national currencies.

The difference between the original and current functional-currency values of a source-currency transaction caused by fluctuations in exchange rates. (See also: Recognized Exchange Gain or Loss; Unrecognized Exchange Gain or Loss; Realized Exchange Gain or Loss; and Clearing Exchange Gain or Loss.)

The rate at which a source-currency amount is converted to the functional-currency equivalent amount when you post transactions. Also, the rate at which the functional-currency or source-currency amount is converted to the check currency when you enter payments.

A payment to the employee to reimburse company-related expenses incurred by the employee.

The amounts that a company spends to provide goods or services to its customers or to carry on its business.

The embossed date on a payment card. After that date, the card becomes invalid and should no longer be accepted.

Exporting is the process of copying Sage 300 ERP data to files that can be read and used by non-Sage 300 ERP programs.

All costs incurred in the factory, other than the costs of raw materials and direct labor. Included are costs such as management wages, janitorial wages, and the costs of using and maintaining buildings, machinery, and equipment.

Taxes provided on the tax update diskette that accompanies Payroll. Federal and state income taxes, FUTA, SUTA, and several local taxes are automatically calculated and updated when you subscribe to the payroll tax update service for Sage 300 ERP.

The balance sheet, income (profit and loss) statement, statement of retained earnings, and cash flow statement.

The Finder is a tool for looking up records using the key fields of Sage 300 ERP records. When you click the Finder button, a form appears that displays the records you can choose from. The Finder also lets you search for records by specifying selection criteria (matching records based on the contents of particular fields), lets you vary the order in which records are displayed, and allows you to choose either a background or a text color that the records will be displayed in.

The fiscal calendar identifies the fiscal year and the start and end dates of each fiscal period in the year. It also designates the periods as open or closed. You can post General Ledger batches only to open periods.

Use the Fiscal Calendar screen in Common Services to enter and change information for the company's fiscal calendar.

Most companies divide their fiscal year into 12 or 13 accounting periods that correspond to the calendar months or to 4-week reporting periods.

Sage 300 ERP lets you store 12 or 13 periods of accounting data for each account (depending upon whether the ledger uses 12 or 13 accounting periods). Each set of balances (called fiscal sets) also includes an opening balance for the year, an adjustment period, and a closing period.

You set the number of fiscal periods in the Fiscal Calendar in Common Services, as well as the dates for each fiscal period. General Ledger uses the calendar when you create a new year.

The General Ledger system keeps account balances and net changes for each fiscal period in records called fiscal sets. Each fiscal set stores 12 or 13 periods of accounting data for one account (depending upon whether the ledger uses 12 or 13 accounting periods), opening balances, an adjustment period, and closing balances.

If you keep two years of accounting data, you will have at least two fiscal sets per account. If you keep budget or quantities data, you will have more sets.

Accounting entries are posted to an account's actual fiscal set. Accounts can also have quantity fiscal sets, budget fiscal sets, and provisional fiscal sets.

(See also: Actual Fiscal Sets; Multicurrency Fiscal Sets; and Provisional Fiscal Sets.)

The twelve-month period that a company chooses as its year for accounting purposes. It is not necessarily the same as a calendar year.

Assets such as land, buildings, equipment, and vehicles that are used in operating the business and that have a long life.

In Project and Job Costing, invoices for this type of project show either the full price or a portion of the price of the project, depending on the project's accounting method. Fixed Price projects can use the Accrual-Basis, Billings And Costs, Completed Project, or Project Percentage Complete accounting methods.

An FOB (free on board) point is the location at which the customer begins paying freight charges on an order. An order is shipped as far as the FOB point at no cost to the customer.

A foreign-currency bank can accept deposits and issue checks in only one currency—the bank statement currency. The bank statement currency differs from the functional currency. An example of a foreign-currency bank is a Japanese Yen bank account set up by a U.S. company to record payments to Japanese suppliers in yen.

The currency in which your company keeps its books (also known as the base currency or home currency). The functional currency is usually the currency used in the country where your business has its headquarters.

A code of up to three characters that identifies the currency in which the company keeps its books. Once the functional currency is specified (in the Company Profile in Common Services), it cannot be changed.

Whether or not you use multicurrency accounting, you must specify a functional currency code for the company. All the data in one company database (for example, the general ledger and accounts receivable ledger) must use the same functional currency. Once the functional currency is specified, it cannot be changed.

The monetary value of a source-currency transaction, stated in the functional currency.

A future order is an order to be filled on the future date you specify. When you run Day End Processing on that date, the order is automatically activated and posted.

A group of transactions that Sage 300 ERPcreates in General Ledger, which you can also export to non-Sage 300 ERP software.

An account in the General Ledger system that is a record of financial transactions for a particular item or type of transaction. For example, the Accounts Receivable account provides a record of the amounts of money owed your company during the current and previous years. Together, all the accounts related to a company comprise the chart of accounts.

The General Ledger system stores the following information for each account:

• Basic information that describes and defines the account (such as the account name and type).
• Amounts that reflect the actual monetary transactions of the company, and amounts that have been provisionally posted to accounts.
• Quantity information, such as number of units sold or purchased per fiscal period (optional); budgets (optional).

The number of budgets you can maintain depends on the edition of Sage 300 ERP you are using. In addition to the current year, you can maintain several years of data (the number of years depends on the edition of Sage 300 ERP you are using).

To add G/L accounts, select the Accounts icon. The Account History Inquiry form lets you maintain budget amounts, review account and transaction history, and compare data in different accounts and/or fiscal sets.

Corporations filing financial information as part of their T2 Corporate Income Tax Return in Canada use a General Index of Financial Information (GIFI) file.

Sage 300 ERP General Ledger features an Excel macro for creating a GIFI file. In a GIFI file, each chart of accounts account is associated with a unique Canada Revenue Agency code.

The sum of an employee's earnings, accruals, benefits, advances, and expense reimbursements in any given pay period.

The profit made on selling inventory before the selling expenses and general and administrative expenses are taken into account. It is the value of Sales less the Cost of Goods Sold.

The data from all previous payroll checks issued to an employee. Check data includes the amounts calculated for each earning, deduction, or other pay factor assigned to the employee as well as the amounts deducted for payroll taxes. Employee history also records the hours, pieces, sales amounts, or wage bases upon which payroll amounts are calculated; the rates, amounts, and percentages used to calculate them; and, if you use cost center posting, the G/L segments to which payroll amounts were posted.

The process of copying data from an external program into Sage 300 ERP. You use the Import command on the File menu to import data.

You can import account information from a variety of file formats (such as CSV or spreadsheet files). You can use this feature to speed up your initial ledger setup (especially if you are converting data in a non-Sage 300 ERP database to Sage 300 ERP), or to add a new department to your chart of accounts (by exporting an existing department set, changing the department account number segment, then re-importing the file).

You can import transaction batches created in non-Sage 300 ERP programs, then post them to General Ledger accounts. (You can also export batches from General Ledgers at other sites and import them, or use export and import for creating and using batches of recurring entries.) When you import a batch, it is assigned the next General Ledger batch number. You can edit imported batches only to the degree you specify for the Edit Imported Entries option on the Posting tab of the G/L Options screen.

The amount left over after all the revenues for a period are accounted for, and all costs and expenses for the same period are deducted. Income is also called net income, profit or net profit.

A statement that shows the revenues, expenses, and net income for a particular period, also known as a Profit and Loss statement. Use the Financial Statements form in General Ledger to print income statements.

A license to increase the user count for programs using XAPI.

The process of verifying that your Sage 300 ERP accounting data is not damaged. To check program data integrity, choose the Data Integrity icon in Administrative Services (if you are authorized to do so).

If you use Sage 300 ERP Intercompany Transactions (ICT), you create an ICT company to handle transactions between an "originator" company and a "destination" company. (For example, originator Company A pays for a transaction for Company B.) There can be intermediate companies between the originator and the destination.

The goods a business has for sale to its customers. For retailers or wholesalers, the goods themselves are not modified in any major way from the time they are received to the time they are sold. A manufacturing company's inventory consists of raw materials, work in process, and finished products manufactured but not yet sold.

See A/R Invoice Type.

In a manual accounting system, the journals are the books of original transaction entry, from which transactions are posted to the general ledger. Usually, a company organizes its journals by transaction type (such as the receivables journal, payables journal, payroll journal, etc).

In Sage 300 ERP, batches and batch listings are the "books" of original entry. However, you can still organize your transactions according to type by assigning them a source code. You can then print a list of all transactions that have the same source code by printing a source journal.

A journal entry in General Ledger is a complete accounting transaction, with both the debit and credit details. All journal entries must balance (that is, the credits must equal the debits). The General Ledger automatically assigns a number to each journal entry to identify it for the audit trail. Each debit and credit in a journal entry is called a detail.

You use this accounting method if you want Project and Job Costing to calculate revenue for a project using the ratio of the total labor hours incurred to the total estimated labor hours of the project. This accounting method can be used only with the cost plus project type.

Licensing system that allows multiple Sage 300 ERP users to simultaneously access a company's accounting data.

A book of accounting information in which each page contains the records of one account. In Sage 300 ERP, the ledger is a set of records containing general account information (such as the account number and type), period balances for the current and past years, budgets, and posted quantities. Your ledger can also contain provisionally-posted amounts, depending on your edition of Sage 300 ERP.

A number between 1 and 999 that you assign to taxes and earnings/deductions. The level dictates whether amounts calculated for an earning/deduction or tax can be included in the calculation base of another earning/deduction or tax. All calculation base earnings/deductions must have levels lower than the earning/deduction or tax whose base they constitute.

All the debts and money owed to others by a company. Liabilities are listed on the right side of the balance sheet. They include loans from banks, loans from shareholders, and unpaid amounts owed to suppliers and others.

Taxes that you set up in the system yourself. Local and other custom taxes are any taxes you need that are not included on the Sage 300 ERP tax updates.

Liabilities that are not due to be paid within the year following the balance sheet date.

A set of commands that performs a task or series of tasks. Macros often perform repetitive tasks, such as printing a series of reports at period end.

You use General Ledger to keep statistical information (such as the number of units purchased or sold) with financial information for accounts. After you select the Maintain Quantities option for the General Ledger, you can further specify the accounts to which you can post quantity information.

If you select the Maintain Quantities option for an account, you can post a quantity to the Quantity fiscal set each time you post a financial transaction to the account. Each account that maintains quantities stores a financial balance and a quantity balance for each fiscal period.

A common use for the quantity fiscal set is to keep a sales quantity with each sales transaction. Unlike financial information, quantity information has no balancing requirements (that is, credits are not required to equal debits within a journal entry).

Quantity information is maintained for as many years as financial information for accounts.

A way of entering payroll check data into Sage 300 ERP without generating a paycheck. Entering manual checks is also known as "after-the-fact" payroll. Instead of processing a timecard and printing a check from within the system, you write the check by hand, outside the system, and enter the check data in the Manual Check form. When you process and post manual checks, the system refers to permanent employee information such as ceilings and year-to-date amounts, and updates employer liabilities and employee records.

Refers to the principle of matching expenses with revenues by recording expenses in the same period as the revenues that they generate.

A seller or a business accepting credit card payments for products or services.

Merchant Identification Number - The identification number assigned to a merchant by a financial institution or merchant service provider.

Miscellaneous charges are the charges added to invoices and credit or debit notes for costs other than for items purchased and returned. For example, miscellaneous charges can include postage, shipping, handling, and restocking charges.

The ability to process and report transactions in a variety of currencies, and to maintain both source-currency and functional-currency-equivalent values for each transaction.

You specify whether your system uses multicurrency accounting when you create the Company Profile. (This option is available if you are using an edition of Sage 300 ERP that supports multicurrency.)

A multicurrency bank can accept deposits and issue checks in any currency that is allowed by the bank. When you enter a transaction in a currency that is not the functional currency, the Bank Services program converts the transaction amount to the functional-currency equivalent. The bank statement currency is the functional currency.

An example of a multicurrency bank is a U.S. Dollar bank account that accepts transactions in Japanese Yen, Mexican Pesos, Canadian Dollars, German Deutsche Marks, and U.S. Dollars.

Multicurrency ledgers have more fiscal sets than single-currency accounts. These additional fiscal sets hold amounts in the source, functional, and equivalent currencies.

If your company profile has been set up with the euro as the functional currency and a reporting currency, then each account also has fiscal sets that store the reporting currency equivalent of each of the source currency amounts and the reporting currency equivalent of all amounts posted to the account.

General Ledger's Account History Inquiry and Fiscal Set Comparison forms both access fiscal sets using account, year, currency, fiscal set designator and type. For more information about currency fiscal sets, see the General Ledger Getting Started guide.

(See also: Actual Fiscal Sets; Fiscal Sets; and Provisional Fiscal Sets.)

If you are using a version of Sage 300 ERP that supports multicurrency, you can maintain balances for an account in more than one source currency.

To create multicurrency accounts, you must first select the Multicurrency option for the company and for General Ledger. Then, you can select the Multicurrency option for each account on the Detail tab of the G/L Accounts screen.

You can switch an account from single currency to multicurrency at any time. However, once you save the multicurrency option for an account, you cannot turn it off again. You can effectively turn off multicurrency for any account by restricting the posting currencies to your functional currency (on the Currency tab of the G/L Accounts screen).

The sum of an employee's earnings, accruals, benefits, advances, and expense reimbursements, less taxes and deductions, in any given pay period.

The Normal Balance setting on the Detail tab of the G/L Accounts form lets you specify whether the account balance is usually a debit or credit amount. For example, most asset and expense accounts normally maintain debit balances, whereas most liability, income, and retained earnings accounts normally maintain credit balances. The normal balance type can be used on inquiries and reports as selection criteria and can help you distinguish between asset and liability accounts (balance sheet accounts) and income and expense accounts (P & L accounts). You can also make use of the normal balance for two-column accounting in financial statements. It does not affect account postings.

The number of periods in the fiscal year is defined during setup and maintained using the Company Profile form in Common Services. The Number of Fiscal Periods setting operates for General Ledger and other Sage 300 ERP subledgers. The ledger has either 12 or 13 accounting periods in the fiscal year. You can change the number of fiscal periods at the beginning of a new fiscal year; however, if you do, any statements comparing fiscal period amounts between years will be misleading.

Sage 300 ERP programs allow you to define additional information fields for your company and add them to your programs. You can set an optional field as a required field and as an automatically inserted field.

The types of optional fields include: Text, Amount, Number, Integer, Yes/No, Date, and Time. Only the Yes/No type cannot be validated. Text and Date types can use blanks if the Validate and Allow Blank options are chosen.

All programs can use the same optional fields. Modules that use exactly the same optional fields can exchange optional field information.

If you use retainage accounting in Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable, "original invoice" refers to the invoice from which retainage (or a holdback) is deducted. A "retainage invoice" is used to bill for outstanding retainage that is due.

Employee-specific G/L segment codes you set up, if you use the override feature for posting to payroll cost centers, on the Cost Center tab of the Employees form. The system uses these codes as the default segment codes to which to post each earning/deduction assigned to an employee.

In the Employees Earnings/Deductions field, you can change the employee-specific segment codes for a particular earning/deduction. The segments you selected in Payroll Options for use in cost center posting and the codes defined for the employee on the Cost Center tab of the Employee screen appear, allowing you to override the segment code for a particular employee earning/deduction.

The G/L segment codes you enter override the G/L segment codes in the distribution accounts. At each of the G/L segment override fields, the system displays the G/L segment code you entered on the Employee Cost Center tab. You can accept the default, override it with another segment code, or blank the field. If you accept the default, the system will always use that segment code as the G/L account segment override even if you subsequently change the segment code for that segment on the Employee Cost Center tab. If you blank the field, the system will post to the distribution account segment entered on the G/L Distribution page.

The rate by which overtime pay is calculated. If you pay overtime as wages (rather than compensatory time), you enter a rate multiplier for each set of overtime criteria (hours over regular hours within a period of days) you have entered.

The information you enter for the system to use to calculate employee overtime pay. You may be able to set up one schedule that covers employees in all pay frequencies. Or you can set up as many overtime schedules as you need. You can override overtime schedule assignments when you enter timecards and manual checks.

The interest or stake the owners have in a company. It is the owners' original investment plus the accumulation of all profits that have been retained in the company since its inception. To calculate owner equity, subtract the liabilities from the assets.

A form of proprietorship in which there is more than one owner. The owners have unlimited liability, and any one of them could be sued separately for the entire debts of the partnership. The partners usually agree to share the profits and losses of the firm on an equitable basis.

Any of the earnings/deductions and taxes involved in the calculation of employee pay. The term "pay factors" comprises the following: accruals, advances, benefits, deductions, earnings, expense reimbursements, and taxes.

See Class Codes.

Any general ledger account to which the system posts payroll data, (but not salaries and wages Payable or Suspense accounts).

The Payment Card Industries (PCI) Security Standards Council is an open global forum for the ongoing development, enhancement, storage, dissemination and implementation of security standards for account data protection. The PCI Standard is a mandatory global standard established by the Card Associations to ensure merchants make their physical and virtual environments secure to ensure protection of cardholder data.

The smallest and the largest amounts, base amounts, or number of units, based on your response at the Minimums And Maximums Based On field in Earnings/Deductions, that may be used in calculating the amount for the pay frequency. These fields are skipped if the Minimum/Maximum Based On field is set to No Limit.

A number you enter that enables the system to annualize a tax. If you pay employees by the day, the number of daily pay periods is the number of working days in your payroll year. If you pay employees once a week, the number of weekly pay periods is the number of working weeks in your payroll year, and so forth.

Before you invoice an order, you can print a picking slip to send details of the items on the order to your warehouse or other location from which your orders are filled.

The process of transferring information from a batch of transactions to the general ledger accounts. General Ledger allows posting directly to accounts, or provisionally posting transactions to test their effect. You use the Post Batches form to post all or a range of unposted batches. You can also post individual batches by selecting a batch from the G/L Batch List screen, then choosing Post or Prov Post.

You can set up General Ledger to allow or prevent posting of batches to periods in prior (closed) years. Most of the time, you will probably want to deny posting to previous years to maintain the integrity of your financial information; however, there are some circumstances under which it should be allowed. For example, you may need to post to a prior year to enter the last year's closing account balances; correct errors in prior-year figures; enter adjustments for a prior year after the year is closed.

Note that the Active field in the Calendar in Common Services determines whether you can post to a fiscal year. General Ledger can post only to an active fiscal year.

The first half of a sale transaction. Pre-authorization reserves an amount against a credit card's available credit limit for intended purchases. Permission is given to (or denied) the merchant, to accept ("capture") a specific transaction from the cardholder account, and the credit limit of the cardholder's account is decreased for a set period of time (usually 7 to 10 days).

Stock that may pay to its owners a dividend that is usually fixed in amount or percent. Preferred stockholders receive dividends before dividends can be paid to common stockholders.

Expenses that are paid for in advance, such as insurance and rent. Prepaid expenses are current assets.

A price list allows you to vary your basic item prices. For example, you can set up price lists that calculate sale prices, give volume discounts, or assign different regional prices for items. Price list codes are defined in Inventory Control.

A processing code specifies the bank, currency, and merchant account that will be used when a credit card transaction is processed.

The Profile ID defines the fields that will be hidden for specific users.

The amount left over after all the revenues for a period are accounted for, and all costs and expenses for the same period are deducted. Profit is also called net profit, income or net income.

A statement that shows the revenues, expenses, and net income for a particular period. Also called the Income Statement.

A department, sales region, project, or any other unit of a company for which revenues and expenses can be identified, to determine whether the unit is earning profits.

You assign this accounting method to a project if you want Project and Job Costing to calculate revenue throughout a project based on the percentage complete for the project. This accounting method can be used only with the fixed price project type.

Project and Job Costing lets you use the Time And Materials, Fixed Price, and Cost Plus project types. A project's type restricts the accounting methods that you can assign to the project. It also affects how you set the billing type for projects and categories that you assign to the contract.

A provisional fiscal set holds amounts that represent the net result of a provisional posting to the account. This fiscal set is maintained by the system and is deleted when the provisional data is posted permanently or deleted. After choosing the Allow Provisional Posting option in G/L Options, you can post batches provisionally to test the effect of the provisional transactions. You can list the provisional data on the Trial Balance and Provisional Posting Journal, and on source journals and financial statements.

(See also: Actual Fiscal Sets; Fiscal Sets; and Multicurrency Fiscal Sets.)

Depending on the edition of Sage 300 ERP that you are using, you can temporarily post batches of transactions to General Ledger accounts so you can test their effects, and include provisionally-posted amounts in financial statements. This feature is particularly useful when you are doing period-end or year-end adjustments, and want to ensure that you have entered all the transactions correctly before you post them.

You can edit provisionally-posted batches until you post them permanently (or discard them). General Ledger assigns a posting sequence number to each batch of transactions you post provisionally. This number is listed on the Provisional Posting Journal. General Ledger automatically creates and maintains provisional fiscal sets for each account to which a provisional amount has been posted. The set is deleted when the provisional data is deleted or posted permanently.

To use provisional posting, you must select the Allow Provisional Posting option on the Posting tab of the G/L Options form.

Note that if you do not use the Force Listing of Batches option, you can post batches provisionally only if you have printed listings for them or you have selected the Ready to Post option for the batches in the Journal Entry screen.

This journal lists all transactions that are currently provisionally posted. Provisional batches are not deleted during posting: you can continue to edit them -- or delete them -- after posting. You can post batches provisionally only if you select Allow Provisional Posting on the Posting tab of G/L Options.

Using General Ledger, you can keep statistical information with financial (and, optionally, budget) information for accounts. Once you select the Maintain Quantities option for the General Ledger, you can further specify the accounts to which quantity information (such as the number of units purchased or sold) can be posted.

Each account that maintains quantities stores a financial balance and a quantity balance for each fiscal period. You can post a quantity to the quantity fiscal set each time you post a financial transaction to the account.

A common use for the quantity fiscal set is to keep a sales quantity with each sales transaction. Unlike financial information, quantity information has no balancing requirements (that is, credits are not required to equal debits within a journal entry). Quantity information is maintained for the same number of years as is financial information for accounts.

Quantity fiscal sets store quantity data (such as number of units sold) that you post to accounts that use the Maintain Quantities option. You determine whether you can post quantity information to General Ledger accounts by selecting the Maintain Quantities option in G/L Options, and by choosing the Maintain Quantities option for each account on the Detail tab. You can enter and post quantities with transactions for accounts, using the Journal Entry and Post Batches forms, respectively.

If you use a 13-period ledger, you must specify which accounting quarter will have four fiscal periods rather than three. If necessary, you can change your choice for this option after Setup using the Company Profile form in Common Services; however, quarterly comparisons could then yield unreliable results.

A quote is an order with an expiration date. When you run Day End Processing on that date, the quote is removed from the system. If a quote is accepted by the customer before the expiration date, you can change the order type to Active to save you re-entering the order details. Quotes do not affect quantities on sales orders until you make them active.

A descriptive name for the kind of rate you use when converting source currency amounts to their functional-currency-equivalent amounts, in a company that uses multicurrency accounting. Examples of rate types are forward rate, spot rate, contract rate, and average rate.

The method by which source-currency amounts are converted into their functional-currency equivalents. Source-currency amounts can be multiplied by an exchange rate or divided by an exchange rate to calculate the functional-currency-equivalent amounts. You specify the rate operation method for each currency on the Currency Tables screen in Common Services.

Currency rates are used only in multicurrency databases to convert one currency to another.

The recording of revenues or expenses. Revenue is realized when the title to goods or services passes to the customer. Expenses are realized when they are incurred, or, if they can be matched to a certain good or service provided, they are recorded at the time the revenue for that particular good or service is recorded.

The exchange gain or loss that occurs when you issue or receive payment at a different rate of exchange than was in effect when you recorded the invoice. In other words, it is the amount by which an invoice increases or decreases in value in the functional currency from the time it was issued to the time it is paid. For example, when you post a payment, a journal entry containing the exchange gain or loss is posted to the Realized Exchange Gain or Loss account and the Payable Control account. If you had already revalued the invoice and posted an unrealized gain or loss, that amount would be reversed when the invoice was paid. (See also: Clearing Exchange Gain or Loss; Exchange Gail or Loss; Recognized Exchange Gain or Loss; and Unrecognized Exchange Gain or Loss.)

General Ledger can automatically allocate an account's balance to other accounts according to your specifications. If you define the account as an allocation account, you must identify the accounts that receive the allocated amounts and the percentage that each account receives. You specify this information on the Allocation tab of G/L Accounts. An allocation account distributes its amounts to other accounts within the company. You select the Auto Allocation option for an account on the Detail tab. Use the Create Allocation Batch form to generate allocation transactions.

Exchange gains and losses are recognized when the foreign currency monetary items are revalued or settled using the exchange rate in effect at the revaluation date (balance sheet date). These gains and losses will be shown on the income statement and will be included in the determination of net income for the current period; causing tax implications for the recording entity. (See also: Clearing Exchange Gain or Loss; Exchange Gail or Loss; Realized Exchange Gain or Loss; and Unrecognized Exchange Gain or Loss.)

An analysis explaining the difference between the book balance of a bank account and the balance on the bank statement for the account.

A complete set of data for one individual entity (for example, a customer record or an account record).

The form each employer must complete for every employee who stops working in insurable employment. Employment history information on the ROE is used to decide if a person qualifies for EI benefits, what the benefit rate should be, and how long a person may be eligible for benefits.

A transaction created in a subledger that is processed on a regular basis.

In Payment Processing, a refund occurs when a merchant rebates all, or a portion, of an original transaction amount to a cardholder. Refunds are made to the same card that was used for the original transaction.

Remit-to locations are the addresses to which vendors want payments sent (the remit-to address may be different from the vendor address because the address in the vendor record is just for ordering).

An automatic deduction set up to repay a cash or non-cash advance.

A type of earning. Reported tips can be marked for disbursement, as when you pay employees tips that were included on credit cards, or not marked for disbursement, or when you include cash tips that employees received and reported to you for tax purposes. Disbursed tips are included in gross pay when you process timecards and print payroll checks.

Reporting Currency is an option for companies that are located in a member-country of the EMU. This option lets you generate reports in both euro currency and the country's national currency.

This option is available only if you selected following options for your company in the Company Profile in Common Services:

• Multicurrency
• EUR is the functional currency
• Euro

A record of a Sage 300 ERP operation that was not completed due to errors. Each restart record identifies an error condition by company, task, date, time, and user (the person performing the task). The record describes any action that must be taken.

Retainage accounting is optional in Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable. You turn on retainage accounting if you need to account for retainage (holdbacks) that occur when you or your customers withhold a percentage of invoiced amounts, usually by mutual agreement or according to a statute (such as a Builders' Lien Act).

If you use retainage accounting in Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable, you bill for outstanding retainage that is due using a retainage invoice.

The accumulated total of after-tax profits and losses over the life of a corporation. If a corporation had more losses than profits, the amount of retained earnings is negative. Any dividends paid are also subtracted from retained earnings.

The process of recalculating the functional-currency-equivalent values of source-currency balances at new exchange rates. This task is accomplished automatically when you post revaluation batches in General Ledger (to revalue account balances), and Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable (to revalue document balances).

Revaluation codes are defined in the Revaluation Codes form in G/L Setup.

A multicurrency General Ledger allows you to record amounts in more than one currency, and automatically converts these amounts to the functional (home) currency of your company during transaction entry and posting. As currency rates fluctuate, you may need to revalue account balances at current rates, particularly at period and year end or before printing financial statements and reports.

Revaluation codes provide General Ledger with the rate type, the source code for transactions, the unrealized exchange gain/loss account, or the recognized exchange gain/loss account. In the recognized gain/loss method, revaluation transactions are considered permanent, so no reversing entries are created. Entries are assigned to the next open batch, which you can view, edit, and post in the same way as other batches.

The amounts that a company earns by selling products or services.

The amount of unrealized exchange gain or loss that is reversed when realized exchange gain or loss is recognized by payments.

An account that shows the relationships between accounts that can be used for classification, budgeting, and reporting. Creating a relationship between accounts lets you consolidate or roll up account balances (and quantities, if applicable) to provide a summary balance.

Sage Virtual Terminal is a secure website that allows merchants with a Sage Payment Solutions merchant account to process credit card transactions, settle batches of transactions, and view and print reports and receipts.

A type of earning. Earnings are composed of Salary and Wages, Reported Tips, and Allocated Tips.

The liability account to which total net employee wage amounts (gross wages minus tax withholding and deductions) are credited. This account is also debited with the total amount of the checks written manually or printed by Payroll.

In Payment Processing, a sale transaction authorizes the transfer of funds from a cardholder's account to a merchant's account. If a pre-authorization exists, the sale occurs when the pre-authorization is "captured."

The amount that a company earns by selling products.

A calculation method for earnings, benefits, and deductions. The earning, benefit, or deduction amount is calculated as a percentage of sales. The system chooses the percentage to use according to a bracket table of sales amounts and the percentages assigned to the separate brackets.

If your account numbers have two defined segments, one segment identifies the department, and the other is the account segment. Additional account number segments can distinguish other functional areas within the company.

A code assigned to a schedule. When creating a schedule, use a code that is related to the purpose of the schedule (for example, MONTHLY).

You can send your print jobs to a remote printer by choosing the Schedule option in the Print Destination dialog box.

To schedule transactions to be processed on a recurring basis in Sage 300 ERP subledgers.

If you import the same fields in records to or from an external file on a regular basis, you can set up a script to save time. You should create the script when you are ready to import data the first time.

A user group that can perform specific tasks. The system administrator creates each group, selecting the tasks from the list of available choices for Administrative Services, Common Services, and accounting programs. Security groups are system-wide. All companies that link to a system share the same groups. The same user can be assigned to different groups for different programs.

All the valid entries for each account number segment (except for the account segment) must be listed in the table in the Segment Codes form. For each valid segment code, you can optionally specify a description and a retained earnings account to which closing entries for accounts with this segment value will be posted at year-end. When you add a new account, General Ledger verifies the account number by segment against the segment codes table before allowing the account to be added.

A list of employee numbers to be used in payroll processing. Also called Employee Selection List.

The number of years the employee has worked for the company. Sage 300 ERP uses this number in accrual calculations.

There are two main types of services that form the System Manager in Sage 300 ERP:

• Common Services manage company, fiscal calendar, currency, and optional field data for all your integrated Sage 300 ERP programs. The services you are authorized to use appear as subfolders and icons in the Common Services folder.
• Administrative Services maintain user, security, program version, and data integrity information for Sage 300 ERP. Administrative Services also include a restart facility to track procedures that were not successfully completed, and will remind you of how many days are remaining in any temporary Sage 300 ERP program licenses.

If you have other accounting modules (such as Accounts Receivable or Payroll), you also use Bank Services and Tax Services.

The services you are authorized to use appear as subfolders and icons in the Administrative Services folder. License information appears on the About Sage 300 ERP form.

The date associated with the current work session, used as the default date for all transaction entry. The session date appears in the status bar at the bottom of the company desktop.

In Payment Processing, the process in which a merchant transmits batches of transactions to a financial institution for processing. The financial institution credits the merchant account with the amount of the credit card purchase, and the credit card company credits the financial institution and debits the card issuer for the transaction.

The exchange rate at which a transaction, or a portion of the transaction amount, is paid. The payment rate.

Paying transactions in full, or applying transactions to other transactions to reduce their balances to zero.

Persons or other companies that own shares (stock) issued by a corporation. The shareholders own the corporation, but are legally separate from the corporation. They have limited liability and can lose only what they originally invested in the corporation.

The money originally invested in the company by the shareholders, plus the retained earnings.

The rate by which the regular hourly rate should be adjusted for each shift. Use the Shift Differential Schedules form to specify the shift differential rates in your payroll.

The information you enter for the system to use to calculate employee pay for different shifts worked. With the shift differential schedule you can assign a different rate to each of the company's shifts. You can override shift differential schedules when you enter timecards and manual checks.

Ship-via codes identify the shipping methods or carriers you use to deliver goods to customers (for example, courier, airmail, parcel post).

A type of accrual. Accruals are composed of vacation time and pay, sick time and pay, and compensatory time.

A form of business organization in which the owner and the company are not legally separate, but keep separate accounting records. A sole trader (the owner) has unlimited liability, and can be sued personally for the debts of the company.

A source code is a two-part code of four characters that is used in General Ledger to show where a transaction originated:

• The first two characters, the source code prefix, identify the ledger or subledger where the transaction originated (for example, GL for General Ledger).
• The final one or two characters, the source code suffix, describe the type of transaction—such as a cash disbursement. Source codes are assigned automatically by subledgers, and you can assign a default source code on the Posting tab of the G/L Options form.

Each journal entry is assigned a source code. For example, GL-CD might identify a cash disbursement entered in a General Ledger batch.

The currency in which a transaction is processed.

An invoice, bill, or other document on which the transaction recorded by a journal entry is based.

Source journals group and list posted transaction details (single debit or credit entries) according to their source codes. (All transactions in Sage 300 ERP are assigned a source code.) Common examples of source journals are cash receipts journals, cash disbursements journals, or a check register.

You use the Source Journal Profiles form in General Ledger to define the source journals you need. However, you are not required to predefine source journals. You can sort source journals at print time by account number, account segment, or account group, and you can print them for a range of dates, account numbers, segments, fiscal periods, references, posting sequence numbers, sort code ranges, optional fields, or batch numbers.

In a multicurrency system, you can also select transactions by their source currency.

Source journal profiles are reports you can define to meet a variety of transaction reporting requirements. You use them to group and list posted transaction details (single debit or credit entries) according to their source codes. (Common examples include a cash receipts journal, cash disbursements journal, and a check register.)

You can sort source journals at print time by account number, account segment, or account group, and you can print them for a range of dates, account numbers, segments, fiscal periods, references, posting sequence numbers, or batch numbers. In a multicurrency system, you can also select transactions by their source currency.

In General Ledger, you create the source codes, then use the Source Journal Profiles form to specify which source codes you want printed together, and the order in which you want transactions printed.

You can define an unlimited number of source journals, but you are not required to define any. Although you must define source codes before entering transactions, you can create source journals to use the source codes at any time, even after transactions have been posted.

You can include up to 50 source codes in the definition for a single journal, and you can change the names and definitions of your source journals as often as you want.

If you consolidate details, either during posting or at period end using the Consolidate Posted Transactions form, the source journal cannot print the batch number with the consolidated details. The journal also cannot print the posting sequence number of consolidated transactions.

To include consolidated transactions on a source journal, you must specify a blank as the starting batch or posting sequence number on the Ranges tab of the Source Journal Report when you print the source journal.

To assign scheduling tasks to a particular user, choose the Specific User option when setting up a schedule. The assigned user must have security authorization to maintain schedules and process transactions from subledgers.

The maximum amount that the rate for a transaction may vary from the exchange rate kept for the currency in Common Services. When you are entering transactions, the program uses the spread to check that you have entered a reasonable rate. You will receive a warning message each time you enter a rate that varies by more than the specified spread.

In Project and Job Costing, you use this style for complex contracts with a number of projects that extend over several periods. The program tracks costs for each resource (such as material or labor) and cost category (such as finishing) used on a project.

A standing order is an order that is filled regularly for the same customer, or for different customers. You create an active order, future order, or quote from a standing order by calling up the standing order, making required changes (such as the customer number or quantities), then posting the order. The original standing order is retained in the system, unchanged and with the original order number), regardless of how many orders you issue from it.

A financial statement that shows the accumulated net income retained by the company that will be reinvested in the company.

The relation of the employee to the company. The employee's status can be: Active, Inactive, or Terminated.

Certificates that represent ownership of a portion of a firm. Stock is also often referred to as shares.

A ledger that contains the details for a General Ledger control account. For example, the Accounts Receivable subsidiary ledger contains the details of all amounts owed to the company by its customers. The total of these amounts is summarized by the Accounts Receivable control account in the General Ledger. Subsidiary ledgers are also called subledgers.

The rate by which the withholding tax is multiplied to increase or reduce the amount of tax owed.

The asset account that is debited with the amounts, if any, by which deductions from paychecks exceed wages owed.

Contains security and currency information for all companies that use the same system database. If necessary, you can create more than one system database (for example, if you keep records for companies that have different security classifications).

The taxing bodies, such as federal, state, county, provincial, or municipal governments, that levy taxes in the areas where your company buys and sells products. If your business has a head office and branch offices, different taxes may apply in the different geographical locations.

Categories of customers, vendors, and items to which you assign tax rates in sales and purchases tax tables.

Consists of all the tax authorities that charge sales taxes in a particular selling area. For example, if your business is in an area subject to federal and state sales taxes, and you remit separately to each tax authority, you need one tax group for the two authorities.

If you sell to customers whose shipping and billing addresses are in areas where different tax authorities apply, or to customers who have shipping addresses in more than one state or province, you need to set up a tax group for each address.

Each tax group can consist of up to five tax authorities.

If you use multicurrency accounting, each authority in the group must use the same source currency. You can define more than one group for each currency, if necessary.

Information that is correlated for tax purposes. For example, a sales tax table consists of customer classes and item classes; a purchases tax table consists of vendor classes and item classes.

The setup information, partial or complete, for a "generic" employee. You use the template to reduce the amount of data you need to enter when setting up a new employee.

In Project and Job Costing, invoices for this type of project list all billable transactions. No-charge transactions appear as additional information on billing worksheets. Fixed Price projects can use the Completed Project, Accrual-Basis, and Billings And Costs accounting methods.

The function you use to enter unique pay information for an employee for a specific pay period. Timecards override the permanent pay information set up for an employee.

Reported tip amounts added to a customer's credit card total rather than paid directly to the employee in cash by the customer. You disburse these reported tips via timecard entries.

You assign this accounting method to a project if you want Project and Job Costing to calculate revenue automatically using the ratio of the total cost incurred to the total estimated cost of the project. This accounting method can be used only with the cost plus project type.

In Payment Processing, the fee charged by a credit card processor for processing a credit card transaction. This fee is usually a percentage set by the credit card processor and is specified in the contract between the merchant and the processor.

If you have a multicurrency ledger and are entering details for a multicurrency account, you can also select the currency and specify the rate type and rate for each detail. You can mix currencies so each detail uses a different currency, and you can override the displayed exchange rate, as required.

A list of all the debit and credit balances of all the accounts in the General Ledger. Use it to ensure that there have been no posting or adding mistakes, and that the total debits equal the total credits.

A UI Profile ID hides fields in forms and dialog boxes.

The exchange gain or loss that occurs when you revalue transactions. It is the amount by which a transaction increases or decreases in its functional-equivalent value, from the original exchange rate to the current exchange rate, when it is revalued by Create Revaluation Batch. (See also: Clearing Exchange Gain or Loss; Exchange Gail or Loss; Recognized Exchange Gain or Loss; and Realized Exchange Gain or Loss.)

The process of assigning users to security groups so that users can have access to specific Sage 300 ERP tasks.

A record that contains a user's ID, name, language code, password, password options, authentication method, Windows domain, and Windows user name. The system administrator creates a user record for each user. All the company and system databases that the system administrator has set up for use with Sage 300 ERP share the same user records.

A type of accrual. Accruals are composed of vacation time and pay, sick time and pay, and compensatory time.

In Payment Processing, removes a credit card transaction that has not been settled, so that the card is not charged.

A calculation method that uses brackets, each bracket covering a range of wage amounts. Using wage brackets that you set up, the system selects the correct bracket according to the amount of wages for the given period and calculates the correct amount. This calculation can be a flat amount, or an amount plus a percentage of the excess wages over the lower amount of the bracket's wage range.

A mandatory deduction from pay for a debt.

The window that appears after you sign on to Sage 300 ERP on the Internet or through your company intranet, and select a company for use. The company name is shown in the title bar, and the icons for programs installed appear in the right pane.

(1) The money taken out of a company by a proprietor or partner.

(2) In Bank Services, the Reconcile Statements form displays as "withdrawals" all types of transactions that credit the bank account, including payments, transfers from a bank account, reversed receipts, and bank errors.

A code assigned to an employee's earnings that represents a particular workers' compensation insurance rate and an annual compensation limit.

A list of all the accounts in the ledger that is used to work out the balance sheet and profit and loss statement in a manual accounting system. The worksheet is created directly from the trial balance.

The number of years that financial, quantity, and budget fiscal sets are saved for accounts (including the current year). When you perform Period End Maintenance, you can have General Ledger delete fiscal sets that are older than the number of years specified for the Years Of Fiscal Sets option on the Posting tab of G/L Options.

Depending on your edition of Sage 300 ERP, you can maintain up to 99 years of history. However, be aware that maintaining history consumes disk space.

The number of years of posted detail transactions Sage 300 ERP saves. The number of years for which you keep details must be equal to or less than the number specified for the Keep Years Of Fiscal Sets option on the Posting tab of G/L Options. One or two years of transactions is usually adequate. When you perform Period End Maintenance, you can delete transactions older than the Years Of Transaction Detail you specify.