Chart of Accounts Setup

Adding your GL Chart of Accounts

The first time your business uses FundWriter, it must create a new chart of accounts from scratch. For subsequent fiscal years, your organization will be able to copy an existing chart of accounts forward into a new fiscal year, if desired, and make any necessary adjustments for the new chart.

To set up your chart of accounts, you will do the following:

• From the DDI-Connect main menu, double-click FundWriter

• Double-click FundWriter Setup

• Double-click Chart of Accounts Entry. You will see this screen:

Please note that what you see on this screen will depend entirely on what your organization has already entered for the Chart of Accounts

Layout Tab

All Chart of Account screens will begin with four basic groups: Assets, Liabilities, Income and Expense. To add a new general ledger account, click the + next to the area you are adding to, and then click the Add button on the toolbar. You will see this prompt:

You will note that there are multiple tabs on this screen. Some of the tabs are only available at certain levels of data entry.

• Choose the type of account you are adding. Your choices are:
  • Account Class: This is essentially a "sub grouping" if you are putting it under one of the primary account classes. If you are at the top level, it will add a primary account class, such as Fund Balances

• • G/L Account: If you select this, the system will add a new GL account below the Account Class you selected

• If you selected G/L Account, you will now see this screen:

Account Details tab

Please note that what you see on this screen will entirely depend on your organization's FundWriter setup. For example, if your organization only utilizes three segments in your GL accounts, you will only see those 3 segments. In addition, the labels on the segments will match your organization's settings in the FundWriter Setup. For information on configuring your FundWriter settings, please reference this page: FundWriter Setup

• Enter the first segment. If you have already entered another GL account that had this segment in it, the system will remember the description. For example, assume you have added an account number of 01-001-0001, where 01 is the Fund. 01's description is General. When you add another GL number starting with 01 - for example, 01-001-0002, the system will automatically populate the description based on what was entered before.
  • If you have NOT already entered a segment that matches the one you are entering, you will want to enter a unique description.

• Enter the remaining segments, adding descriptions where necessary

• When you have finished entering the segments, you will proceed to enter the details. The system will automatically populate the Description, but it can be overridden if needed.

You also have these additional fields:

Field	Description
Balances normally	If you click the drop down arrow, you will see that you have two choices - debit or credit. The system will default according to accounting best practices, but can be overridden
Active account	If this is selected, the account will allow transactions to be posted
Beginning balance	If this account has a beginning balance, enter that amount here
Allowed sources	If your organization has restrictions as to what modules can generate transactions for this account, you would select them here. For example, if you are a CEF and you want only loan transactions to post to this account, you would click the list icon to the right of the field and select Loans EOM or Loans Daily. If you are setting up an account for donations and want only the FundRaising system to be able to post to this account, you would select FundRaiser from the list. If you are not restricting the source, you can leave this field blank
Closing account	If your organization utilizes closing accounts for certain GL accounts, you can set the closing account here. If specified here, the closing account applies only for this individual general ledger account. If your organization has established rules for Closing Account Specifications, you will not want to set the closing account here. For more information on closing accounts, please reference this page: Closing Accounts

When you have finished entering the necessary information, click Save.

Account Memo tab

Once you have added a GL account and saved, the Account Memo tab is activated and available. When you click the Account Memo tab, you will see this screen:

To add a memo to this specific account, click the Edit button on the toolbar. The screen now activates for editing. Add your memo text. When you have finished, click Save to retain your changes.

Budget tab

If your organization utilizes DDI's budget functionality, the Budget tab lets you manually modify budget numbers for each period of the current fiscal year. You will see the following screen when you click the tab:

The columns that appear on this screen are able to be modified by clicking the Add/Remove Columns button. This menu will then appear:

Select the columns that you wish to include on the screen. Your screen will update based on the columns selected/deselected.

To edit a figure, click the Edit button on the toolbar. Your screen will look like this:

When you click the drop down arrow to the right of the Budget Recalculation Options field, you have the following selections available to you:

Option	Description
Clear budget amounts	Deletes all current entered budget information but leaves percentages intact (NOTE: it will delete the Working Budget information; but will also delete Fixed Budget information if the Fixed Budget is not locked)
Clear budget amounts and percentages	Deletes all current entered budget information and percentages
Distribute amount evenly	If an annual amount is entered in the Amount field, selecting this option and Apply Change will divide the annual amount over the number of periods in the fiscal year evenly. For example, an amount of $12,000 in a 12-period example would show up as $1,000 in each numbered period
Distribute amount based on percentages	Some periods may see heavier or lighter volume based on a variety of factors. Inputting percentages in the Pct column next to the Working Budget column will enable the organization to forecast expenses or revenue based on these fluctuations based on percentages
% change from prior year Working Budget budget	Select this option if you know that your revenue or expenses will rise or drop below a certain percent of the prior year Working Budget. For instance, if the prior year Working budget for an expense was $1,000 and costs were projected to rise by 2%, place a 2 in the % Change Field, then selecting Apply Change will cause the Budget to rise by $20 for the fiscal year. The budget amounts will also be spread in the same manner as it was in the prior fiscal year unless you change the percentage amounts in the Pct column next to the Working Budget column for particular periods
% change from prior year Fixed Budget budget	Select this option if you know that your revenue or expenses will rise or drop below a certain percent of the prior year Approved or Fixed Budget
% change from prior year actuals	Select this option if you know that your revenue or expenses will rise or drop below a certain percent of the prior year actual amount spent

To modify budget amounts on the screen, click the Edit key. Select the option you wish to use from the Budget Recalculation Options drop down, and then input an amount or a percent into the Amount or % field that displays, based on the option you selected:

Click Apply Change. The fields will now update accordingly:

Note: It is critical that you click Save at this point to save your changes, or your budget modifications will not be retained.

Distribution tab

The distribution tab is only available if your organization utilizes allocation accounts, and the account you are viewing as been configured to utilize allocations. For example, your organization hosts a number of a certain type of event, and the income is shared across multiple GLs. You might wish to set up a single GL account to receive the posted income, and then distribute that income across the multiple GLs.

NOTE: If you have multiple sub-accounts beneath a particular account, ALL sub accounts will appear on the distribution tab. You cannot add or remove accounts from this screen.

When you click the Distribution tab, you will see a screen similar to this one:

To configure the percentage that a GL account should receive, click the Edit button. Your screen will now look like this:

You can manually edit each line, or you can click the Auto button on the toolbar to have the system automatically divide 100% by the number of accounts to calculate the percentage that each account will receive.

When you have finished modifying the screen, click Save to retain your changes.

Repeat as often as needed to add the necessary accounts to your general ledger.

Changes button

To view changes made to your chart of accounts, click the Changes button. This popup will appear:

This screen will list new, changed and deleted accounts. When you have finished viewing, click OK.