Features Added in General Ledger 5.5

The following points summarize the new or changed features in General Ledger 5.5:

• We introduced the most sophisticated treatment of currency revaluation on the market.

  With this version, exchange gains and losses are treated as permanent or temporary, depending on the exchange Gain/Loss Accounting Method specified for your Sage ERP Accpac system in the company profile.

  Under the Recognized Gain/Loss accounting method, fluctuations in exchange rates are considered to be permanent. Exchange gains and losses are recognized when foreign currency monetary items are revalued or settled using the exchange rate in effect.

  The Revaluation process:

  • Calculates new functional-currency values for each specified source currency using the specified exchange rates.

  • Creates a batch with revaluation transactions that will adjust the original functional-currency values to new functional-currency values for the specified account(s).

  • Uses posting dates to select open documents for revaluation, so that revaluation adjustments are posted to G/L accounts in the correct fiscal year/period.

  Note that exchange gains and losses are included in the determination of net income for the current period. They appear on the income statement, and they are taxable immediately. They are not automatically reversed in the next fiscal period.

  When you select the Recognized Gain/Loss method, new labels for G/L account fields appear on the G/L Revaluation form, as follows:

  • Unrealized Exchange Gain Account changes to Exchange Gain Account.

  • Unrealized Exchange Loss Account changes to Exchange Loss Account.

  Note that to revalue a G/L account, you must assign revaluation codes for each currency used in the account.

  • Before upgrading to version 5.5, or later, from an earlier version, you should process and post your revaluation batches prior to upgrading General Ledger. You cannot activate General Ledger if you have unprocessed revaluation transactions.

  • If you decide to switch to the Recognized Gain/Loss accounting method, later, you should post any batches you created under the Unrealized and Realized Gain/Loss accounting method.

  For steps for changing the accounting method, see Switch the Accounting Method for Foreign Currency Translation.

• With this version, we increased the number of segments, account structures, budgets, and years of history you can keep:

	Sage ERP Accpac 100	Sage ERP Accpac 200	Sage ERP Accpac 500
Account Segments	up to 3 account segments	up to 4 account segments	no change
Account Structures	up to 3 account structures	up to 4 account structures	no change
Budgets	up to 2 budgets	up to 3 budgets	no change
Years of history	keep 7 years of history	keep 7 years of history	no change

• Sage ERP Accpac 100 lets you define custom account groups. This feature was previously supported in the 200 and 500 editions only.

• You do not need a separate license for G/L Security. Since version 5.5, it is installed with General Ledger and is activated when you activate General Ledger. (To use G/L Security, select the Use G/L Security option on the Account tab of G/L Options, then close and reopen your company database. You can then use the Account Permissions icon, which becomes available in the G/L Accounts folder, to assign permissions.)

• If you use Sage ERP Accpac 500 ERP, you can designate an account as a rollup account to which you can add member accounts. You can create multiple levels of account relationships.

You can print rollup information for certain reports, and you can use rollup features in Financial Reporter. You can also view rollup amounts in several inquiry forms.

For instructions on creating rollup accounts, see To add a rollup account.

• Sixteen new FR reports are available.

Balance Sheet summaries

Financial Analysis statements

Forecasting

Income Statement summaries

• We have also enchanced multi-user entry and posting.

  • Batches are not allowed to be posted if it is being edited by someone or if data is being poured into it (import, generation).

  • Batches can be posted concurrently.

  • Multiple users can now enter entries in the same batch. If both of them add the same entry at the same time, the program will attempt to assign the other entry to a different one.

• Journal Posting rights and Journal Entry rights are now separated.

  • Allows better separation of duties so that when a user is assigned Journal Posting rights only, the system will not automatically assign Journal Entry rights to them.

• Create Recurring Entries Batch has been enhanced to include options for creating the recurring entries in a new batch or appending to an existing batch.

• Dashboard security permission lets you customize the dashboard Web site. If you have access to G/L Dashboard, you can access any dashboard pages that are based on data stored in General Ledger. See the System Manager online help for information about using dashboards.

See also

Features Added in General Ledger 5.4