The PBS™ General Ledger Software Module
Hello again,
This post is for small to mid-sized companies that are vetting new accounting software. We hope you find it useful.
Every small business owner spends their day with many balls in the air. Some of this important data will inevitably be stored “in your head.”
However, much of this information does not have to be kept only in your mind. Having it there can be a problem not only in terms of mistakes and misunderstandings about what the actual facts are, but also because a business runs better if the senior functions are shared and communicated.
General Ledger
Passport Software’s General Ledger software can be a both a repository for past financial periods (providing support for bank and government reporting) as well as classifying and sharing objective data about the trends happening within the business.
This makes it not only a useful tool to unload the “in your head” stuff and share with others but makes it a predictive tool to spot changes happening in the recent past that point to further changes in the future.
An automated General Ledger system provides various features to assist with important functions needed for a small to medium sized business.
Creating Ratios
PBS General Ledger software provides the ability to take any group of account number lines in a Financial Statement and ratio the individual line values against a another number or a total.
So for example you could ratio the printed value of each of your revenue streams against the total to see the proportion of business each is bringing.
Or you could ratio all your cost of sales and overhead expenses against Gross Revenue to see which of these costs stand out as being the most significant and therefore warranting ongoing scrutiny.
Comparatives
Watching a business grow means also watching that both revenue and revenue over costs increase year on year.
The Comparatives function allows you to compare your current (PTD, YTD) numbers against the equivalent numbers from one, two or even three years back.
Combining these provides insights into growth or retreat using percentage points as a common metric comparing multiple years.
Customized Data Extraction
A third feature allows for a few key strokes to create a customized extract of data from the GL that will be summarized to your requirements.
For example, a custom spreadsheet-based period-on-period summary of Gross Sales enumerating individual revenue streams going to a total revenue, followed by Cost of Sale lines going to a total, followed by a Gross Profit number for each of the last thirty-six account periods (three years) takes about two dozen key strokes – all of it exported to an Excel spreadsheet.
Apart from these, and in addition for users willing to spend a little investment in study, the SAF type Financial Statement reports (Source and Application of Funds) can give further insights into the (the flow of financing, asset and liability information) from month to month.
The month to month movement here can identify trends offering growth opportunities or problems needing resolution.
All this in one general ledger software package lightens the load to carry around in your head.
To learn more about Passport Software’s general ledger accounting module call 800-969-7900. Or contact us – we are here to help.