By Lynelle Hills

“How can I be assured that the financial data in simPRO matches our accounts program?”

This is one of the most common questions I get from concerned bookkeepers and Accountants regarding the use of simPRO. One of the most important things to do here is to ensure that the security profiles of your users are adjusted to ensure that transactions cannot be created, deleted or edited by a staff member who does not understand the accounting implications of doing so.

If a financial transaction in simPRO has been posted to your accounts program and that transaction is to be altered or deleted, the user who has rights to do this will receive a warning message in red. The alteration will need to be manually adjusted in the accounting program as well.

The list below contains a step by step procedure that should really be followed at the end of month to ensure that your simPRO and accounts package reconcile.   It could also be followed for the whole financial year when the accounts are being closed off.

1) Print out the invoices reports for the month from both programs and make sure they balance.

In simPRO go to REPORTS>SALES>INVOICES and bring up the report for all invoices for the month sorted by invoice number with both GST ex and inclusive values

In MYOB print out the “Sales Register” report and in QuickBooks select a monthly invoice report set to sort by invoice number

If all invoices are created in simPRO the two totals should match.  – If not the offending transactions need to be found and corrected in either simPRO or the accounts program, whichever is incorrect

2) Print out the Debtors/Accounts Receivable reports in both programs and make sure they balance

(Note if you have not been running simPRO long you may well have older balances owing in your accounts program prior to using simPRO and this will be out of balance until these transactions are paid or credited)

In simPRO go to REPORTS>SALES>DEBT COLLECTION and bring up all Outstanding invoices (not just the overdue ones)

In MYOB and Quickbooks use the accounts receivable report.

If all invoices are created in simPRO the two totals should match.  – If not the offending transactions need to be found and corrected in either simPRO or the accounts program, whichever is incorrect

3) Print out Purchases reports from your major suppliers from simPRO and compare both to the statement from the Supplier and from the Purchases transaction or details reports in your accounts program for that supplier.

Depending on your company purchasing all transactions should be in simPRO or those that are missing need to be accounted for only in the accounts program in separate account codes (E.g. tool purchases made from a wholesaler)

For more information on these or any other benefits simPRO can deliver for you, please feel free to contact us anytime.

Lynelle Hills is the Group Director of Finance for Acorn Software and is an experienced simPRO trainer.