General Ledger End of Course Assignment

Training Homework/Practice Guide - General User/GL Session

Module 1 - Records > Accounts

Task 1 - Account Screen Navigation

In the Accounts screen, click on the Help menu to display the Help article for this screen. You don’t have to review it all, just understand how the Help button works and the articles that come up.
Utilize the Search box under description to locate an existing account. (find an account that has activity use)
Right-click on that account and choose transactions. Toggle the period range to show transactions going back further.
Hit the magnifying glass by the account number at the top and choose a different account. Re-display and find a journal entry in the transactions (or choose another account that would have JE’s).
Right-click on the JE line and choose “Browse Journal Entry”.
Hit your keyboard escape button a couple of times to get back to the Account list screen.

Task 2 - Account Creation

Try to consider some new GL accounts that may need to be created or might be used in the future. Otherwise, we can just create some dummy accounts and then deactivate them afterwards.
Click on the “New” button. Create 1 new GL account by entering all the divisions and hitting enter. Rinse/repeat and do one more account this way.
Back to the account list screen, click the drop-down next to “New” and click “Multiple Accounts”.
From the pick list, choose some different combinations to create multiple accounts. Maybe choose one location, one department, and multiple minor account codes. Let’s use the “Preview” button instead of “Ok” so we don’t actually create these accounts. Review the GL accounts that would be created here, but don’t create them.

Task 3 - View Screen Configuration

In the upper right of the screen, where the “View” option is selected, click the grid/waffle button. Select some additional columns to display, and move some around via the arrow keys. De-select a few columns as well, then click OK.
Save that new view via the save button, give it a new name, and save it only to an individual user - yourself. Now toggle between the original view and your new view. Feel free to delete the new view via the button or keep it, whichever you want.

Task 4 - Miscellaneous Navigation

Click the Reports button drop-down at the far right of the light blue menu bar to download the list into Excel. This is a common button in several screens in the system.
Click the drop-down button next to Edit in the light blue menu bar, and go to Merge. Click the question mark in the top right corner to make sure you can access the article and video tutorial when a merge might be needed in the future.
Click the drop-down button next to New in the light blue menu bar, click the clone button, and make sure you can get to the Help article via the question mark.
Once you click the question mark button, click into the “Open in full site” link at the bottom of the Help article. Scroll through the index, including the training videos section at the bottom, to familiarize yourself with the Help resources.

Module 2 -User/Group Setup

Task 1 - System Group review and Setup

Navigate to Users>System Groups. Right-click on one of the groups and choose “Permissions”. Look at the various task permissions assigned to this group and the access levels thereof. See how they can be changed via the drop-down menus, and also look at the descriptions. Don’t change anything at this point.
From that permission screen, change the “Application:” drop-down menu to the various applications within the permission structure and view those lists of permissions as well.
Pay particular attention to the “Accounts Payable” user group and the “Budget Entry” group, as those will likely be utilized as active groups.
Understand that the role of these groups is to assign permissions to users in groups instead of person by person for efficiency reasons. Each user can be assigned to a group, and then that user assumes all the permissions of that group. Person-by-person permissions can still be done, but it takes more time.

Task 2 - System User review and Setup

Navigate to Users>System Users. Right-click on one of the users and view the permissions. Notice that users have their own set of permissions, but these are generally copied over from the groups they are assigned to. Permissions can be increased for an individual user as part of a group, but they can’t be decreased unless that user is pulled out of the group.
Double-click on a user and see the setup, along with the 3 tabs for General, Password, and Member of. The “Password” tab has a check box that will generate a random password and send a notification to the user so they have a link, a new temporary password, and instructions to log in. This is most useful when creating a new user, but can be done anytime.
From the user screen, click New to pull up the new user setup screen. Click the question mark help button and see the instructions along with the video tutorial available.
Right-click on an existing user, choose the Account/Object restrictions, and review the screen that applies the GL restrictions to a user. Click the pick list to choose any segment of the GL that would be applicable to a new user. Understand that no restrictions listed would be just that - no restrictions to GL access in the system.

Module 3 - Journal Entries and Imported Transactions

Task 1 - Manual Journal Entry

Navigate to Daily > Journal Entry. Notice the different aspects of the journal entry screen. Change the period to a different month. Click the attachments button in the light blue bar and add an attachment to the entry.
Click into the account field and either type in or use the magnifying glass to select an account. Plug in some debits and credits, type in comments, and type in a description above if you want.
Click to “auto-create Reversal Entry”, define the period for the reversal. Now save this entry by clicking “Save”.
Click the “clone” button and choose a JE from the past to pull up - double click it. Now you have the clone on screen to edit however you’d like. Click the reverse button, then the Percent button, and enter 200% in order to double it. Save that entry as well.

Task 2 - JE Batches, Clones, and Recurring Entries

Navigate to Daily>Journal Entry Batches; you’ll see all the entries available to be posted. Select one of the entries and click Post. If you are live on SGA, don’t post a sample JE to your live data, but if you’re in training/pre-live phase, then posting is fine. Delete these entries you’ve made if you are already live on SGA.
On the “New” drop-down in the top left of the Batches screen, choose Import. This is the screen where you’ll pull in GL transactions from other systems, such as payroll, membership, fundraising, etc. These imports can/will be set up by SGA staff to allow for simple exporting of GL transactions from the outside systems and pulling those files into the JE screens via CSV, Excel, or text files.
Now navigate to Daily>Recurring Journal Entries, click the New button. Fill in an ID (anything identifiable), description, and click the Transactions button to enter the actual journal entry to be repeated. Continue setting up a recurring entry if you’d like, and click on the Help for exact instructions.

Module 4 - Settings and Entry Options

Task 1 - Entry Options (admins only)

Navigate to Settings > General Ledger > Entry Options
Click the Help and scroll down to the Entry Options explanations.
Review each option, along with the explanation, and have the conversations needed to decide on each option for your organization. These are not set in stone; they can be changed later, but each item is a decision to make what’s best for your organization. Send in any questions you have to support@sgasoftware.com for this or any other issues you have.