The Master Chart of Accounts Setup section contains three tabbed areas: Master Enterprises, Master Chart of Accounts, and Master Designated Accounts. The data entered in this section is a master list for the overall database and is not farm specific.
Master Enterprises
You will set up all enterprise possibilities for your farms database on this tab. (You will assign enterprises to specific farms in the edit farms section). The enterprise codes and descriptions are user defined. To add a new enterprise, click on the green plus “Add” button; this will add a row to the bottom of the grid. Start by entering the desired unique enterprise code and a meaningful description. Next are the marketing units and production units describing how the enterprise is measured. For example, if describing cattle, its marketing units would be pounds and its production units would be in head of cattle. The last field is type and it is a drop down field. Simply choose crops, livestock, production, or none for your enterprise. Once you have an enterprise completely entered be sure to click the save button. Complete this process for each possible enterprise for your database.
Master Chart of Accounts
On this tab, you will set up the accounts that belong to each enterprise account. Similar to the master enterprise tab, you’ll click on the green plus “Add” button to add a new account. Fill in the Enterprise (Ent), Account (Acct), Sub Account (Sub), and the description. The enterprise, account, and subaccount combination must be unique. The normal balance field is a drop down and only has two options debit and credit. Most asset, receivables, and expense accounts have a debit normal balance while liabilities and capital have a credit normal balance. Next is the statement type which is also a drop down containing two options Income and Balance. Income accounts are those that are closed at the end of the fiscal year, and balance accounts are those accounts that either the income accounts are closed to or the balance should carry over into the next fiscal year.
Management Fee % is the percent of the account amounts the management company will receive. Trust Disb/Rcpt Code is informational only and is not used within the system. Class codes allow grouping of GL Accounts, and an alternative reporting structure. By choosing a class code from the drop down, you are associating that GL account on all farms with that code.
The green rows in the grid indicate that the account has a debit normal balance, while the red rows indicate a credit normal balance. The bold rows are balance statement accounts and the non-bold rows are income statement accounts.
The delete button on the Master account window deletes the selected GL Account from the Master chart of accounts. MGR will not allow the deletion from the master chart of accounts if a beginning balance and/or transactions are posted to the GL account on any farm. If no activity is found on any of the farms which have this GL Account, the delete function will remove the GL account from all farms and from the Master GL Account.
A GL Account must exist in the Master Chart of Accounts before it can be added to a farm’s chart of accounts. You can use the “Attach Account to Farms” toolbar button to attach a GL account to multiple farms at a time. Simply click the toolbar button, check the desired farms, and click OK. You can only attach one GL account to farms at a time.
The copy changes to farms button allows users to make a change in the master chart of account description, normal balance, statement type, or management fee percentage, and span that change to all farms that contain the selected GL account. This window looks very similar to the “Attach Account to Farms” window; select the farms you want to span the changes to, check the desired changes to span, and hit OK. You can only span changes from one GL account at a time.
Master Designated Accounts
On the master designated accounts tab, you can configure defaults for each designated account. By configuring designated accounts on this tab, when you create a new farm its designated accounts will automatically populate based on these defaults. This setup step is not required, however AgWare does recommend setting up the master designated accounts as it is a time saver when adding new farms.
- Cash Offset Account: the GL account for offset transactions created in the transaction section.
- Interest Allocation Account: the GL account used to determine average daily balance when calculating interest allocation.
- Interest Earned Account: the GL account receiving the calculated interest allocated.
- Trust Account: the GL account of the pooled interest-bearing checking account used in interest allocation.
- Advanced Funds Account: the GL account identified for firm advances (loans) to a farm. Loan payments will be applied to this GL account. The balance is displayed on the Daily Net Cash Change report.
- Auxiliary Funds Account: the GL account used in security deposits.
- Interfarm A/R Account: the GL account used in primary/secondary transactions to affect balances on a different farm.
- Interfarm A/P Account: the GL account used in primary/secondary transactions to affect balances on a different farm.