CenterPoint Accounting CenterPoint Payroll - Transaction Overview

All transactions can be accessed from the Processes menu at the top of the screen. There are some differences between the various process transaction screens, but some of the features are consistent. Let’s look at the Processes > Purchases > Payments screen:

Company - When entering a transaction you must specify a company. You can have multiple companies in one database, but usually there is one company that is your primary company. To make that the default company on each transaction screen, you should select the company and then right- click to set it as the default.

How to select a company – The Company box is a lookup control. Lookup controls are identified by the magnifying glass icon on the right side of the field. Lookup controls can lookup items already added to your setup lists.

There are several ways to select a company and they will depend on what preference you have set for your lookup controls. The database in this example has one company. If you have set your lookup preference set to auto complete, all you have to do is type in a C and CenterPoint will fill in the name of the database.

If you have your lookup preference set to Multiple Field Query and the abbreviation on CenterPoint Farms is “1,” then to select that companyyou can either type the letter C and then press the Tab key or you can type the number 1 and then press the Tab key. Either way, CenterPoint will fill in the company name.

The third way to lookup and select a company is to click on the magnifying glass icon. CenterPoint will display the following screen:

From this screen, you can either select the item that you want and click OK or you can select to create a New com panyby clicking New. If you select to create a new company, CenterPoint will open a Company Setup screen where you can enter the name and details about the new company. If you create a new company, you will be returned to the Lookup screen where you can then select the new company you just created.

You can also define additional criteria for finding an item in some Lookup lists (Accounts, Names, Employees) by clicking and then selecting the item(s) you want to filter by.

If a filter is not available for a list, in this case, there are not any additional filters for Companies, you can define a custom filter by clicking , clicking ,assigning a name, clicking OK, defining the filter criteria, clicking Save. The filter will automatically display in the list of filters and applied.

Note: When a filter is applied to your list, a yellow highlighted line with a Filter Applied message is displayed under your Lookup list.

Pressing the Tab key to advance to the next field which is the Current Batch box. By adding the transaction to a Batch, you are specifying that you want to post the transaction to the General Ledger at a later time. When a batch is posted, all checks and invoices will be printed at that time. To add a transaction to a batch, you can select an existing batch to add it to from the Lookup icon or you can create a new batch and then add it to the new batch. To create a new batch, you can either right-click on the Current Batch box and select New, or you can click on the magnifying glass icon and click the New button. Batches are optional. If you do not include a transaction in a batch, it is posted to the General Ledger and if you selected to print a document (check or invoice) it will print when you click Save.
Bank Account – You can select a bank account using the lookup options described on the Companybox. Usually, one bank account is the most commonly used bank account for a company. To set a bank account as the default bank account for this company, select the bank account in the Bank Account box, right-click, and then select Set As Default. Each company can have its own default bank account.

The balance for the bank account will show in the Current Balance box. Accounts that display in the Bank Account box are those that are set up on your Chart of Accounts as Assets and have the category of Cash. You may also select Line of Credit accounts in the Bank Account box. Line of Credit accounts are setup on your Chart of Accounts as Liabilities and are in the category of Line of Credit. Line of Credit accounts maintain a liability balance rather than being a bank account with a negative balance. As you can see from the screen, a right-click on any Lookup box gives you several options. We will try to explore all of these options as we work our way through a transaction.

Check Number – Red Wing Software has provided you with a default check number sequence. All you have to do is select your first check number and CenterPoint will advance the check number from there. However, many times you have more than just one type of sequence for your bank account. You may have a manual checkbook or you may want to create a sequence for your electronic funds transfers. To create a new sequence, right-click in the Check Number box, and then select New. The formatting instructions are on the screen.

In the above example, a sequence for Electronic Funds Transfers was created. Each transaction number begins with EFT and then will have an advancing number after it. If the sequence number is defined as EFT#####, CenterPoint will make sure that the sequence number is 5 digits so it will fill in the zeros to display as EFT00001. The example above simply makes the sequence number EFT1.

Once you have more than once sequence to choose from, you can click on the Numbering icon at the end of the Check Number box and select the sequence you wish to use for this transaction by selecting the check box next to the sequence name.

When determining whether or not a sequence is a duplicate in a transaction, CenterPoint checks posted, deleted, and voided transactions only, edited and reversed transactions are ignored. Messages will display when duplicate sequence numbers are found based on the Duplicates and the Check When fields in Setup > General > Numbering Sequence. The messages inform you if a duplicate sequence number was found and how the duplicate sequence number should be replaced with a new sequence number, automatically or manually.

Date – The default will always display as the system date on your computer unless you have not caught up with data entry yet and your last opened period is a previous period. If that is the case, the date will display as the last day of that period. You may select a date several ways. You can click on the Calendar icon at the end of the Date box and select a new date from the calendar. You can also type the date into the Date box using several different methods. You can type 02/06/2009, or you can type 02.06.2009, or several other methods. The biggest time saver here is that if you don’t need to change the month and the year and all you need to change is the day of the month, then just type in the day, and then Tab to the next box.
Pay to the Order of or Name – This field is also a Lookup box. If you enter a name into the Pay to the Order of box and it does not exist, the Lookup screen automatically displays, from this screen you can either Create a New Name or Create a One-Time Use Name:

Create a New Name - If you enter a name into the Pay to the Order of (Vendor, Customer, Received From, etc.) box and it does not exist, the Lookup screen automatically displays. Click New . The Names Setup screen displays with the name that you entered automatically displaying in the Company box. Complete the additional details to create the name and then click Save, and then click OK. When creating a new name through the Name Setup screen, you can identify a name as a customer, vendor, employee, or salesperson. Doing so determines which data entry screen that name will be visible on. If a name is not marked as a vendor, it will not appear on the Payments screen. Likewise, if a name is not marked as a customer, it will not appear on the Receipts screen. The Names box uses the same Lookup options as described in the Company box. Selecting a name in the box will display the default business address on the Payments screen.

Create a One-Time Use Name - If you enter a name into the Pay to the Order of (Vendor, Customer, Received From, etc.) box and it does not exist, the Lookup screen automatically displays. Click New One Time Use. The New One Time Use screen displays with the name that you entered automatically displaying in the Name box. Complete the additional details to create the one time use name and then click Save (the one time use name will be automatically marked as a vendor and customer). When creating a new name through the New One Time Use screen, the name is automatically saved as an inactive name in all companies so it does not appear in Name lookups (unless you chose to lookup inactive names).

If your File > Preferences > General > Lookup Settings > Lookup Field Settings are set to Use Auto-Complete, and you change a name after detail is entered on the lines of a transaction, the transaction is cleared and any transaction action (leave the transaction empty, recall the last transaction, or load the default recurring transaction) for the new name will occur.

If your File > Preferences > General > Lookup Settings > Lookup Field Settings are set to Allow To Query for Items On Multiple Fields, and If you change a name after detail is entered on the lines of a transaction, you will be asked if you would like to clear the information for the current transaction. If you select Yes, the transaction will be cleared and any transaction action (leave the transaction empty, recall the last transaction, or load the default recurring transaction) for the new name will occur. If you select No, the detail lines from the transaction will remain and if the new name was assigned a transaction action (leave the transaction empty, recall the last transaction, or load the default recurring transaction), the transaction action will not occur.

To review transactions in a Transaction Search screen for a selected name, entry screen, and current year, right-click in the Pay to the Order Of, Received From, Vendor or Customer field on the Payments, Receipts, Customer Invoices, or General Journal Entries screens, and select Review Transactions.

Select the Recurring icon . The Recurring button will display with a yellow background if a name has an applicable recurring transaction. The button also allows to determine the action that will be taken when this name is used on any one of the four main transaction screens; Payments, Receipts, Customer Invoices, and Vendor Invoices and to view recurring transactions assigned to this name.This icon can be included in the tab stop order by clicking the Options button, selecting Set Tab Stops, and selecting Pay To the Order Of Recurring Button. You can also right-click on the Pay To the Order Of box and select Transaction Actions to set the transaction actions.

The actions that can be set for the selected name are:

Leave Transaction Empty – Basically, when this is set on a name and the name is selected in a transaction, no special action will take place. The user simply enters in the details of the transaction.

Recall the Last Transaction for this Name – When this option is set and the name is selected in a transaction, the details of the last previously entered transaction for this name will be filled into the screen. This allows you to use the same setup for this new transaction without having to re-enter all of the details.

Load the Default Recurring Transaction for this Name – When a transaction is entered for a name, it can be saved as a recurring transaction. This means that there might be future transactions to the same name that are likely to have the same details filled in each time. Multiple recurring transactions can be setup for one name, but only one can be loaded by default and that is the one marked as the default recurring transaction. If there is only one recurring transaction for a name, it is the default.

Assigned recurring transactions for this name for this transaction entry type will display. To display all recurring transactions for this transaction entry type, click More. Unassigned recurring transactions can be assigned to this name by selecting the Assigned check box.

The Default column allows one recurring transaction to be marked as the default.

Address - The main (default) address location and address for the name will display. You may have multiple address locations for any one name. If you wish to choose another address that you have setup for this name, for example Home Address, Shipping Address, click the Lookup icon. A Lookup control will appear that displays all available address locations for this name. Choose the alternate address, and then click OK to display the address. To create a new address, right-click in the Address box and select New, enter the additional details on the Add New Location screen, and then click Save. To edit an existing address, right-click in the Address box and select Edit. Enter your changes on the Add New Location screen and then click Save.
Amount – You can enter in the total amount of the check here, or the check can be entered using multiple divisions on the grid and then click Adjust Amount later, whichever you prefer.
Memo Line 1 & Line 2 – You are given two memo boxes in CenterPoint. You can either type both of them in on this screen, or you can use the default memo feature from Names. When you create a name, you can enter in a default memo for that name. When a default memo is set up for a name, it will display in the transaction screen automatically on Memo Line 2. You can override the default for the name during transaction entry.
Apply to Open Invoices button – If there are open accounts payable invoices for this vendor, a balance will appear to the right of this button (if an invoice is on hold, it will not be added to the balance). To pay those open invoices, click the Apply To Open Invoices button, and then complete the Pay Invoices Due screen. Note: Outstanding invoices that are on hold will not display. If you edit a payment that has partially paid invoices that have been placed on hold, a yellow message bar will be displayed at the top of the edit screen indicating that the payment cannot be edited.

Pressing the Tab key - will move your cursor to the Data Entry Grid on the bottom of the Payments transaction screen.

Account – The first field on the grid is the Account field. The Account field is a Lookup control and will use the lookup options that are described on the Company field. If you have selected Auto Complete as your Lookup preference, then that will be your only option on this screen to lookup an account. You can determine which field you want the system to lookup the account on by right-clicking on the Account field and then selecting Options. The following screen displays:

On the above example, Account Number has been selected to change the setting for just the Accounts field to lookup on Account Number instead of Name which is the default. When the account is selected, the account number will display in the field instead of the account name.

More often than not, many people will want to be able to lookup accounts based on multiple options. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to lookup an account on Abbreviation OR Account Number OR Account Name? You can select those lookups with CenterPoint, on the same Lookup Options screen as described above. The Lookup Options are only available if your Lookup Preference is set to Allow to Query from Items On Multiple Fields which will allow you to select multiple fields to lookup the account on:

No matter what you lookup the account on, you can set what the Account field displays. For example, if you want to search for the account by name, abbreviation, or account number, but display the Account Name or Account Number and Name in the Account field. The Return Text Column allows you to determine what to display in the Account field. It determines what the Account field on the transaction screen will be filled with.

You can also adjust the columns that display on the Lookup screen, right-click and select Add/Remove columns, and then select the column names to display. For example, you may want to display the Account Type, Name, and Account Name All Levels (all account levels joined together with a period as shown in the example below):

After setting the Lookup screen, you can now type in the account number, abbreviation or part of the name for that account and press the Tab key, and display the account name in the Account field.

Create a New Account - If you enter an account into the Account box and it does not exist, the Lookup screen automatically displays. Click New. The Add New Account screen displays. Complete the additional details to create the account and then click Save.

or

Create a New Fixed Asset - If you want to create a new fixed asset, enter the fixed asset name into the Account box and if it does not exist, the Lookup screen automatically displays. Click New Fixed Asset. The Add New Account screen displays. Complete the fixed asset's additional details to create the fixed asset and then click Save.

or

Edit an Account - If you need to change an account, enter the account in the Account box and then select the account name, right-click and then select Edit. The Edit Account screen displays. Complete your changes and then click Save.

You can continue to press the Tab key through each field on the transaction screen or enter any of the other fields that you need to record until you get to the Amount field. If the amount is what you want it to be, then you can just leave it. If this transaction is split into multiple accounts or the same account with multiple details, you will enter the amount that goes to this split. The remainder will drop to the line below.

Invoice/Ref # column - If you choose to have this column display in your data entry grid and you want to repeat the previous line's Invoice/Ref# entry, right-click in the Invoice/Ref # column and select Repeat Previous Value.

Distribution column - If an account is entered with an amount that did not have a distribution previously set up, the Distribution column displays None in the transaction entry grid in the color Gray. If an account is entered with an amount that had a distribution previously set up, the Distribution button displays the name of the distribution in the transaction entry grid in the color Orange. If you want to display the details of a distribution click the Orange Distribution column. If you decide that this entry should not be distributed, you can remove the check mark in the Use Distribution check box on the Account Distributions screen or select another distribution.

Distributions allow you to assign transaction amounts to several profit centers, production centers, projects, production years, or production series combinations by percentage. Distributions are assigned to one or many accounts. For example, electricity expense has a distribution that assigns 35% to profit center 1, 25% to profit center 2, and 40% to profit center 3. The same distribution could be assigned to all your different utility expenses.

The distribution can be recorded with two different timings:

At the time of transaction will record a journal to utility expense for each production combination when the transaction is saved. The above example would record three journals to utility expense.

Later will record the utility expense with NO production detail at the time the transaction is entered. At a later time such as monthly, the distributions are assigned by running Processes > Periodic > Apply Distributions. The screen stores transactions waiting to be distributed. Posting the distribution later will gather like-type production details to the various accounts resulting in fewer journals posted in your database.

NOTE: The Later option must be assigned before entering transactions to this account.

To enter in details about this split, such as tagging it to a specific field that the rent is for, you can click the Detail button in a row on the grid. If the Detail button is Green, the transaction screen does not need any additional information to post this entry. However, the Details screen can be used to recall a notation, view the expense distribution details (if a distribution is in place, the other way to view the amount and where the amounts were distributed is by clicking the (+) sign to expand the journal entry - you can also choose to add/remove columns to this screen to view more information, for example the Company/Fund), assign production details, and enter any additional information not on the transaction screen. If the Detail button is Red, the transaction screen needs additional information to post this entry. The detail screen contains additional optional information about this transaction. Tracking these details can lead to producing more meaningful management information. For example, if you tag all of your revenue and expenditure transactions to the profit center that generated that financial activity, you can produce Income Statements by that profit center so that you can see the profitability of the different areas of your business. These fields are optional though and if you don’t feel you are ready to begin tracking that kind of information, you can always add these details later. Click the Detail button to see the Detail screen for this line (row) on the grid:

The Detail screen contains all the detail about the transaction including information that may have already been entered on the grid

Optional details include: up to two quantities, profit centert, tracking number 1, location, tracking number 2, storage center (inventory location), associated account, and notation.

An associated account is used for tagging a transaction such as a machinery repair to a specific piece of equipment. The Notation field is a free form field allowing you to enter in a description of the transaction. Clicking Ok will take you back to the Data Entry Grid. You can then add the details for the remaining splits.

There are two additional buttons on the Account lookup, the button allows you to assign an account distribution to the account.

The transaction is now ready to save. If you want to check the detail as to which accounts are getting credited and which accounts are getting debited on a transaction, you can click on the + sign next to the Account field. This will reveal further detail about the split:

You can also display an Account Balances screen by clicking in the Account box. This screen will display the latest period balances for the account entered on the grid. If the account is not a balance sheet account, a balance will not display.

You can change having to enter all of the detail on the Detail screen by customizing the Data Entry grid to best suit your needs. Notice there are several fields of information on the grid that were not filled in, and most likely will not fill in for most of the transactions. Additionally, there are fields of information on the Detail screen that could be added to this screen so that you do not have to go to the Detail screen. To change which fields display on your Data Entry Grid, right-click on the Data Entry Grid and select Add/Remove Columns.

This will give you the option to add/remove columns from the grid:

A list of available details will display in the Adjust Displayed Columns screen. You can simply select the details you want to display on the grid and remove those that you do not want to display. You can also order the columns from left to right by moving them up or down on the list with the and buttons. Top to bottom represents left to right on the data entry grid. You can move a selection underneath the last selected item by clicking this icon , which eliminates the need to click the icon over and over again to move an item to the top of a lengthy list of columns. Once you have selected your columns, click OK. Your selection will be displayed in the Data Entry Grid. If there are more details than will display on one screen, a scroll bar will display at the bottom of the Data Entry Grid. You can either tab to those additional fields or use the scroll bar to move to those fields.

If you want to reorder the lines you entered on the transaction in a particular order, include the Line Sequence column in your data entry grid. Each line will automatically be assigned a line sequence number. The first line is assigned 10, the second 20, and so on. To reorder the lines, change the sequence number to the order in which you want the lines to print or display. For example, if you want the second line to print before the first line, change the line sequence to be 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9. To view the reordered lines, click Options, and then select Refresh. Note: It is not necessary to view the lines, if you click Save after the transaction is complete your lines will be reordered. When you assign a line sequence number, it will automatically be renumbered after the lines are reordered back to 10, 20, and so on to make it easy for future reordering.

This simple modification of the Data Entry Grid can save you a lot of time in data entry, making it easy to avoid having to go to the Detail screen each time. The transaction is now ready to save. Click Save, at the bottom of the screen or press Alt + S to save the transaction.

You can also require, not require, or require by company certain fields on the transaction entry screen by changing the template that controls the transaction entry screen, for example you may want to require a profit center to be entered by company. See the About Data Entry Templates and Create a Data Entry Template topic for more information.

Print this check? – If you will normally be printing checks, you will want this box to be selected by default. Select the Print this Check? check box, right-click on the check box, and then choose Set As Default. Select the Print this check? check box to immediately print a check (the check prints when the payment transaction is saved) if this payment is a real-time transaction or to print this check at a later time (when the batch is posted) if this payment is a batch transaction.

If you have 13 or more detail lines in a payment transaction, the About to begin printing overflow sheets, click OK to continue message displays. Click OK. All of the detail lines will print on an overflow sheet and the check stub will print "The information to be printed exceeded the available space. Please see attached detail sheet." Click here to see an example of an overflow stub. Check Stub detail lines will be in the same order as they were entered in the transaction grid. For more information, see the Check Printing Settings topic.

Note: If you have a different sequence number for computer generated checks than you do for handwritten checks, you can right-click on the Print this check? check box and select Set as Default. CenterPoint will select the Print this check? box based on the company, bank account, and sequence number selection. This is important when you have a sequence that you do not want checks to be printed for, but you do not want to change the Print this check? check box each time the sequence changes.

Click the Printer icon to select the printer you want to print the checks to (the preference set for Check Printing Settings will display by default, but can be changed) and the number of copies of the check and overflow statements to print when the transaction is saved (for real-time transactions) or the batch is posted (for batch transactions). Note: this icon is not available for transactions entered in a batch. The printer will be determined at the time you Post a Batch.

Buttons

Save – Saves the transaction, and if it has not been added to a batch and the Print this check? check box is selected, it will print the check.

If you have 13 or more detail lines in a payment transaction, the About to begin printing overflow sheets, click OK to continue message displays. Click OK. All of the detail lines will print on an overflow sheet and the check stub will print "The information to be printed exceeded the available space. Please see attached detail sheet." Click here to see an example of an overflow stub. Check Stub detail lines will be in the same order as they were entered in the transaction grid. For more information, see the Check Printing Settings topic.

Clear – Clears the screen and does not save the transaction.

Recall– Once you select a vendor or customer name in a transaction, the Recall button will become enabled. Recall will bring back the details of the last transaction to that same name. If you keep clicking Recall, CenterPoint will go back one transaction at a time and bring back the details from previous transactions. This is helpful so that you don’t have to enter in the details each time you enter a transaction to the same name. You usually can just change the amounts if needed, and then click Save to save the transaction. You can also set up a name to automatically recall the last transaction each time you select that name by clicking the Recurring Transaction icon. Note: If a Recalled transaction is used and the transaction has inactive accounts included, a warning will display that includes a list of the inactive accounts. You can choose whether to display the warning in the future in File > Preferences > Accounts > Inactive Accounts.

Select the Recall the Last Transaction for this Name to recall the last entered transaction for that name each time you select the name in the Pay To The Order Of box.

When entering in a transaction, you can also select the vendor or customer name and right-click on the name. This will give you the option to set the name to automatically recall the last transaction.

Recurring(Alt + E) – This button allows you to define a transaction as recurring so that the transaction can be selected to recur during transaction entry. The Add/Edit Recurring Transaction screen allows you to determine the way the transaction is calculated (the default calculation type is Percent), the value of each line in the transaction, sets the recurring transaction as the default for the name, and can set the recurring transaction to be automatically loaded when the name is entered. Note: If a Recurring transaction is used and the transaction has inactive accounts included, a warning will display that includes a list of the inactive accounts. You can choose whether to display the warning in the future in File > Preferences > Accounts > Inactive Accounts.

Selecting the recurring transaction will fill in the details that you specify:

The above recurring transaction was saved with 0.00 in the detail because the amount changes each time. You can save an amount in the recurring transaction as well. The recurring transaction does bring back all of the details just as they were previously entered. You may describe as many recurring transactions as you want for a name and you can specify different recurring transactions for different data entry screens.

Options – When you click this button, you can choose to:

Set Tab Stops - You can tell CenterPoint which fields on a data entry screen that you want to input and which ones that you want to skip by selecting Set Tab Stops. The settings you choose will be saved, and will act as the default for this screen.
Review Transactions - To review the last ten transactions entered on a transaction screen, click Options, and then click Review Transactions. Transactions can be modified from this screen by selecting the transaction and then clicking Edit.

Close – Closes the data entry screen. If you are in the middle of a transaction, CenterPoint will prompt you to save your transaction before exiting.