Sigma General Ledger is powerful and flexible accounting systems for use on microcomputers. It provides an integrated set of transaction processing, financial control and management reporting facilities for use in virtually any organization.
The system is designed to be easy to install and use, and yet to cater for different management requirements and accounting procedures. You choose the way you want to process each ledger, and design the reports you need, by giving the system a number of different parameters. This enables you to incorporate individual requirements into the system (and change them if you need to) without expensive programming effort.
Accounts, Cost Centres and Account Codes
Each account within the general ledger is identified by a cost centre and an account code. These define the place of the account in the ledger structure, as follows:
-
The cost centre represents the part of the organisation to which the account belongs. For income and expenditure accounts, it defines the reporting unit responsible for the account (the location or department, say) within the structure of the organisation. For asset and liability accounts, the cost centre represents the Balance sheet.
-
The account code represents the type of account. It defines what heading it has in the Profit and Loss statement or Balance sheet (for example, Office Equipment or Cash-at-Bank) and whether it is an asset, liability, expense or income account.
The cost centre and account code together forms the code by which the general ledger identifies the account. The maximum total length of the cost centre and account code combination is eight characters, but you can choose how to divide this between the two elements. You can use both letters and numbers in your codes.
Period Values
For each account within each cost centre, Sigma General Ledger maintains separate figures for each accounting period of the year. There may be 12 or 13 periods, depending on your choice of calendar for the ledger. For each period, Sigma General Ledger can record:
-
The current year balance or actual. This figure is kept up to date by postings to the account. For asset and liability accounts, the figure represents the balance at the end of the period; the current period figure is the current balance. For expenditure and income accounts, the figure represents the nett postings for the period.
-
Last year actual. This is the actual value for the equivalent period in the previous year. Once the system is in operation, this year's actuals automatically become last year's actuals when you move into a new financial year.
-
Original budget. You can specify a budget for each period, either individually or as an annual figure. If you give an annual figure the system divides it evenly over the periods.
-
First revision budget. You can record the first revision of the original budget without overwriting the original figures.
-
Second revision budget. You can record the second revision of the original budget without overwriting either the original figures or the first revision figures.
- Last year budget. You can record a budget for each period of the previous year.
This budget may be specified either individually or as an annual figure. If you
give an annual figure the system divides it evenly over the periods.
-
Next year budget. You can record a budget for each period of the next year in advance of the year end closure. Once again, this budget may be specified either individually or as an annual figure. If you give an annual figure the system divides it evenly over the periods.
Profit and Loss Accounts
Your chart of accounts must include one or more current accounts. These are special liability accounts for the nett profit/loss on the Balance sheet. If you need to use more than one account (as, for example, in a profit-sharing partnership) you can choose what percentage of the nett profit is to be credited to each account. The system also maintains a profit/loss account for each cost centre that needs a Profit and Loss statement. These are created automatically by the system for its own use.
Whenever transactions are posted to income and expenditure accounts, Sigma General Ledger calculates the nett profit/loss and automatically post details to current accounts and cost centre profit/loss accounts. The Balance sheet and Profit and Loss statements are thus up-to-date whenever they are produced in a year or period.
Transactions and Journals
Balancing transactions are input to the system in journals. You specify what form these journals will take by defining up to 14 different document types (such as Sales Journals or Payroll Costs) to suit your own transaction posting procedures. For each document type, you can choose:
-
The journal class. This defines how the system treats the transactions entered in the journal. The class may refer to general, cheque, diarised, recurring or accrual journals.
-
The information to be included in each transaction. This can include the account code, cost centre, document number, value and certain reference or descriptive items.
-
The order in which the information is to be entered.
-
The number and name of the ledger.
-
The current ledger date.
The Nominal Ledger Interfaces with Sigma Sales, Sigma Purchase, Sigma Cash Book, Sigma Payroll and Sigma Asset Register.