Q. Why is our G/L out of balance? What do we do about it? 

The General Ledger can become out of balance if a posting is interrupted by a system crash, a server freeze, or a network problem. If these events prevent a posting from being completed, only part of the transaction's entries will have been saved, resulting in one-sided entries and incorrect account balances. Since it's difficult to anticipate system problems, Clients & Profits X includes built-in G/L auditing tools. These tools, such as the Auditor and the Out of Balance Checker, help you find the incomplete entries. Once found, they can easily be fixed by making adjusting entries or verifying an account balance.

Q. Why do job tasks need debit and credit G/L account numbers?

The debit and credit accounts on your job tasks automate the financial accounting for job costs and client billing. These default accounts are copied from the Task Table when a new task is added to a job ticket. They are then copied to A/P and A/R invoices whenever you type in a job task then press Tab. They prevent data-entry errors that can make your financials less accurate, since cGLs (i.e., credit G/L accounts) and dGLs (i.e., debit G/L accounts) are set by default. They ensure that the same G/L accounts will be updated whenever a certain job task is used for costing or billing. (Plus, it's simpler for users since they don't have to decide which debit or credit G/L account to use for job costing and billing). The job task's cGL is copied to client invoices, and is an income G/L account. The job task's dGL is copied to vendor invoices and job cost checks, and represents a cost G/L account. For more information, see the Job Tickets section of the Clients & Profits X user guide.

Q. I'm adding a job invoice, but I think the wrong billing amount is coming up. Why?

The billing amount is based on the job's unbilled costs, which are totaled up on the "unbilled" column in the Job Ticket. The "unbilled" total is updated whenever a job cost is posted, and should always equal the total of the job's costs -- based on the gross amount, which includes markups and commissions. If the billing amount seems wrong, cancel the invoice then find the job in the Job Tickets window. Look at the task's "unbilled" total, then print a job cost report to see its detail. If the job task's costs (all unbilled costs added together) don't equal the "unbilled" total, then there was probably a posting problem. Problems like this are fixed by verifying the job's totals using the Verify/Recover utility (choose Setup > Utilities > Verify/Recover). For more information, see the A/R section of the Clients & Profits user guide.

Q. Why doesn't Clients & Profits print payroll checks?

The complexity of payroll laws and regulations in the U.S. and other countries makes it impractical to maintain a payroll system for specialized markets like advertising agencies and design firms. The resources needed to develop, test, and support a multi-state payroll are only supported by companies like CheckMark, who make generic payroll programs that apply to all kinds of businesses. Plus, many agencies outsource payroll to companies like Paychex and ADP, so you don't find in-house payroll processing cost-effective. For more information, see the General Ledger section of the Clients & Profits user guide. The Payroll FAQs page contains answers to other frequently-asked payroll questions.

Q. A job's cost report doesn't match its Job Summary - what's wrong?

The job summary's unbilled column is based on the job's unbilled costs, which are totaled up on the "unbilled" column in the Job Ticket. The "unbilled" total is updated whenever a job cost is posted, and should always equal the total of the unbilled job's costs -- based on the gross amount, which includes markups and commissions. If the job summary's "unbilled" amount seems wrong. Look at the task's "unbilled" total, then print a job cost report to see its detail. If the job task's costs (all unbilled costs added together) don't equal the "unbilled" total, then there was probably a posting problem. Problems like this are fixed by verifying the job's totals using the Verify/Recover utility (choose Setup > Utilities > Verify/Recover). For more information, see the Job Ticket section of the Clients & Profits X user guide.

Q. Why would we use client retainers?

Retainers are used to routinely bill clients for monthly service fees that are applied to the month's jobs. They are not billed to jobs, unlike job billings, so don't include a job number. Typically, a client gets an invoice at the beginning of the month for the agreed-upon retainer amount. Retainer invoices do not credit an income account, instead they credit a liability account that is used just for retainers. As jobs are billed throughout the month, payments are applied from the retainer balances. When the client's job invoices are printed, they will see each job's total billing less the payment applied from the retainer. Clients & Profits X keeps track of the client's retainer balance from month to month. You can even print a special client retainer aging report that summarizes unpaid retainer invoices. For more information, see the A/R section of the Clients & Profits X user guide.

Q. How do I credit a vendor's account?

Vendor credits can be added two ways: (1) as a separate A/P credit invoice, or (2) as an adjustment on a vendor check. The method you'll use depends on whether or not you want the job to reflect the credit amount (and therefore possibly credit the client's billing, too). If so, add the credit as an invoice into Accounts Payable just like any other invoice -- except with a negative amount for the credit. Just remember-- the gross amount is what you are going to bill the client, so if you don't want to credit the client's billing, just make sure the gross amount is zero. If you want the vendor credit to appear only on the shop's income statement, you can enter the credit amount as an adjustment on the next check you write to the vendor. For more information, see the Job Costing section of the Clients & Profits X user guide.

Q. How do I credit a client's account?

Like vendor credits, clients can be credited two ways: (1) as a separate A/R invoice, or (2) as an adjustment when a client makes a payment. The proper method depends on whether or not you want the job to reflect the credit amount. If so, add the credit as an invoice into Accounts Receivable just like the original job billing -- except that the billing amount will be negative. When this invoice is posted, you can mail it to the client as proof of their credit. The credit invoice will then appear -- with its negative amount -- on statements, the aging report, and in the Add Client Payments window. If the credit shouldn't affect a job ticket, then it can be added as an adjustment amount the next time a client payment is added. For more information, see the A/R section of the Clients & Profits X user guide.

Q. What happens to job costs when they are written off?

The cost's billing status is changed to "write-off" to indicate that it is neither unbillable, unbilled, or on-hold. Write-offs are summarized on Job Costs reports (see Snapshots) to track these unprofitable costs by client. Since job costs are debited to cost G/L accounts during posting, writing them off doesn't affect the General Ledger (i.e., because they already were accounted for on the income statement).

Q. Do purchase orders affect the General Ledger?

No. Purchase orders (as well as insertion and broadcast orders) only affect the job ticket. Since they only represent a commitment to purchase something, they aren't the actual bill from the vendor. PO amounts appear on job reports, but don't affect vendor balance, financial statements, or client invoices. (That's one reason why they're not posted.)

Q. Why isn't the accounting period based on the date?

Accounting periods are used to reconcile income, costs, and expenses into the period in which they occur, regardless of the actual date they are added into Clients & Profits X. If the accounting period were based on the date, you couldn't account for late invoices from vendors, pre-billings to clients, and other less-than-timely accounting entries. So why doesn't the accounting period change on the first day of the next month? That's because it's rare to have all of the month's entries added before the first day of the next month. If the period changed automatically, many transactions from the previous month would be inadvertently entered into the next period. Changing the period is user-defined so that the accounting manager can personally determine the right time to start next month's work.

Q. Why would I use the cash flash?

The Cash Flash is a fast, simple way to take a snapshot of the shop's financial status at any time. It gives you a single place to see what you owe to vendors, what's owed to you by clients, the day's checks and deposits, and the company's cash position. The Cash Flash report can be printed at the end of each day for the shop's principals to keep them up-to-date on the shop's balances. Unlike your old accounting, there's virtually no drudge work to get the shop's numbers -- it takes less than a minute to print.

Q. We want to change our fiscal year, how is this done in C&P?