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All general ledger accounts tracked by Circulation must be defined in this option, including accounts receivable and revenue accounts. The accounts will be used in GL reporting and interfacing GL transactions to the general ledger. For example, for two general ledger companies, the Tribune and the Star, both of which have general ledger accounts for subscriptions and carrier/dealer accounts, you might set up the following records:
20
100101
Cash Account (Star)
20
201101
Unearned Revenue (Star)
20
401201
CR Mail Revenue (Star)
100
100102
Cash Account (Trib)
100
201102
Unearned Revenue (Trib)
100
401202
CR Mail Revenue (Trib)
Only general ledger accounts that are used by Circulation need be set up. See General Ledger for more information about general ledger accounts.
Select Chart of Accounts from the Accounting | General Ledger menu in Graphical Setup to display the Chart of Accounts screen.
Click the Add icon in the lower part of the screen and complete the following fields.
GL COMPANY
setup
Enter the general ledger company for this account.
GL ACCOUNT
open (40)
Enter the GL account number (in the general ledger, not in Circulation).
ROLL UP ACCOUNT
open (40)
You may, optionally, select a roll up account for this GL account for reporting purposes. The GL Interface Journal can be run to summarize at the roll up account level.
DESCRIPTION
open (30)
Enter a description for this account.
Click OK to add the GL account to the database, or click Add Another to add the account and begin setting up another account.
Depending on your General Ledger software vendor, you may be able to import your chart of accounts from your GL system rather than entering them manually into Circulation. You can then read the file into Circulation through this option. See the User Manual for the file format.
In character Circulation, select Chart of Acct Import from the General Ledger Menu. The Import Chart of Accounts screen will display.
Select Add and complete the following fields.
GL COMPANY
setup
Enter the GL company for which you are importing a chart of accounts. Records in the file that do not have this GL Company will be ignored.
FILE NAME
open (10)
Enter the name of the file that contains the chart of accounts information.
Select Continue to carry out the import. File records that have the GL company ID specified and do not already exist in Circulation will be imported.
The Import Chart of Accounts report will display after processing. This report will list the number of records read from the file and any errors that occurred during processing.
You must set up at least one bank and, in some cases, you will want to set up more than one. For example, you may want to deposit account payments received at the main office in a bank in that area, while payments at a remote office may go to a different bank.
In character Circulation, select Bank from the General Ledger menu to display the Bank Setup screen.
Select Add and complete the following fields.
BANK
open (8)
Enter the bank name, such as “Fidelity”.
DESCRIPTION
open (30)
Enter a description of this bank.
CASH IN BANK GL ACCOUNT
setup
REFUND BANK GL ACCOUNT
setup
HOLDING GL ACCOUNT
setup
COMPANY
setup (4)
Enter the ID for the company that uses this bank.
CLIENT NUMBER
open (10)
Enter this company’s account number with this bank.
ELECTRONIC FILE FORMAT
open (8)
Indicate the format used by the bank for automatic deposits, withdrawals, transfers, etc. The valid options are ACH (Automated Clearing House, used by most US banks), CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce), RBC (Royal Bank of Canada), and BOF (Bank of Finland). If none of these formats are used, enter “ACH”.
AUTOMATED CLEARING HOUSE
open (9)
If Electronic File Format is set to “ACH”, enter the automated clearing house identifier for this bank.
ACH/RBC SFT HEADER DATA
open (40)
If the electronic file format is “ACH” or “RBC”, you may need to send header data in the file. The header information can be entered in this field. If header data is specified, it will be exported as the first record in the ACH or RBC file (before the File Header record); if no header data is entered, this record will not be exported.
ORIGINATING DFI
open (8)
If the electronic file format is “ACH”, enter the originating DFI number for bank draft payments and refunds.
IMMEDIATE ORIGIN
open (10)
If the electronic file format is “ACH”, enter the immediate origin number for bank draft payments and refunds.
BANK NUMBER
open (4)
If the electronic file format is “BACS” or “CIBC”, enter the newspaper’s bank number.
BANK BRANCH NUMBER
open (5)
If the electronic file format is “CIBC”, enter the newspaper’s branch number.
BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER
open (12)
If the electronic file format is “BACS” or “CIBC”, enter the newspaper’s account number at the bank.
RECEIVING DATA CENTER
open (5)
If the electronic file format is “CIBC”, enter the ID of the data center that will be receiving the file. For example, 01000 = Vancouver, 01010 = Montreal, 01020 = Toronto, 01070 = Winnipeg and 01090 = Calgary.
REQUESTER ID
open (16)
The requester ID is used for processing Intell-A-Check one-time subscription checks by phone.
Optionally, select Specifics | Bank Validation to establish validation rules for the bank, based on the product and payment type entered. See Specifics, Bank Validation.
Select Accept to enter the bank information into the database.
Set up more banks, or press F4 and select Exit to exit to the Setup menu.
Use this option to establish rules for validating and defaulting a bank based on the product and payment type entered by the user. These validation rules apply to auto-renew billing, subscriber lockbox processing, and the Subscriber Activity Import.
For example, if Bank One is valid only for the product of “DM”, users will not be able to select it for other products (i.e., it will not appear in the F2 lookup and cannot be entered). Additionally, if Bank One is valid only for bank draft payments, both the product of “DM” and the payment type of “bank draft” must be selected before Bank One can be selected as the bank.
Note: If you are going to use this Specifics option for one bank, then you must use it for all banks (or else the banks that do not have this setup will not be accessible in Customer Service). Conversely, if this option is not used for any banks, then all banks will be accessible.
If an invalid bank is encountered while processing lockbox payments or the Subscriber Activity Import, the payment will be rejected and a message sent to the log file. Note that field security can also be placed on the BANK ID field to allow only certain users to enter specific bank IDs. See Field Security for more information.
Select Bank Validation from the Specifics menu. The Bank Validation Setup screen appears.
Select Add and complete the following fields.
BANK
display
The Bank ID is displayed.
PRODUCT
setup
Select a specific product or enter “*” for all products. Defaulting will happen only if one product is selected.
PAYMENT TYPE
predefined
Enter cash, check, credit card, bank draft, or “*” for all payment types.
PRIMARY
setup
Enter “y” if this bank should be defaulted for this product and payment type. For example, if you enter a specific product and payment type (i.e., not “*”) and this field is set to “y”, the Bank will default for the user. If this field is set to “n”, the user will be required to select a valid bank.
Select Accept to enter the bank validation information into the database.
Set up more validation rules, or press F4 and select Exit to return to the Bank Setup screen.
Fiscal periods must be set up for a GL company for each year (see ). Since fiscal periods may not change within a company from year to year, it will save time to simply copy the fiscal periods from one year to another, using this utility.
In character Circulation, select Fiscal Period Util from the General Ledger menu to display the Copy Fiscal Periods screen.
Select Add and complete the following fields.
Select Accept to copy the fiscal periods. The number of periods copied successfully is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Press the space bar to exit to the Setup menu.
See
While some general ledger accounts are linked to Circulation transactions in AR GL Account or Charge/Credit Code, other accounts (for example, accounts used for draw charges and credits and subscriber revenue) are linked using the CR GL Account option. You may set up these accounts based on the company, product, distribution method, AAM zone, district, draw type/class, and delivery schedule.
In order to define these general ledger accounts, you must first set up your delivery schedules (see ). All general ledger account numbers must have been defined in advance (see for details). For more information about general ledger accounts, see .
Select CR GL Account from the Accounting | General Ledger menu in Graphical Setup to display the CR GL Accounts screen.
Click the Add icon in the lower part of the screen and complete the following fields.
Click OK to add the general ledger account information to the database, or click Add Another to add the GL information and begin setting up another record. You must set up a general ledger account for every draw combination. To make sure that every draw type has valid account numbers, you can set up a record and enter asterisks (*) in Distrib Method, AAM Zone, Region, District, Delivery Schedule, and Draw Type/Class.
Payment adjustments are credits or debits made to a account’s balance (see the User Manual). For example, an adjustment might be needed to cover papers purchased by a carrier because of a shortage. These adjustments will affect a carrier’s account balance immediately and be applied to the “oldest” balance. The adjustments are displayed in the payments section of the bill.
Select Account Payment Adj from the General Ledger menu to display the Account Payment Adjustment screen.
Click the Add icon and complete the following fields.
Click OK to add the account payment adjustment code to the database, or click Add Another to save the existing record and add another code.
Subscription payment adjustment codes are used for non-subscription related money. An example of an adjustment is a payment from a subscriber which includes money for a “frequent reader card” (providing discounts at local merchants). The payment for the “frequent reader card” does not relate to the subscription or adjust the subscription term, so it is entered with an adjustment code.
Adjustment codes may also be used with non-payment adjustments to subscriptions. For example, if a customer complains that the paper was not delivered all week, you could extend the expire date by a week. This would not involve a payment but would affect the subscription, so you would use an adjust code.
More examples of how different subscriber payment adjustment codes should be set up are given on . See the User Manual for more information about how adjustments are entered.
In character Circulation, select Sub Payment Adjust from the General Ledger menu to display the Sub Adjust Code Setup screen.
Select Add and complete the following fields.
If the Print on Renewal settings for this subscription adjustment code differ among publications, select Specifics | Sub Payment Adjust Info and enter Print on Renewal settings and descriptions for specific publications. Note: If you are going to add this specific, then you must add it for each product for which the subscription adjust code is valid. If no Specifics records are added, then the subscription adjustment code is automatically valid for all products.
Select Accept to enter the code into the database.
Set up more subscriber adjustment codes, or press F4 and select Exit to return to the Setup menu.
Below are the most common scenarios in which subscriber payment adjustment that are used.
Money is accepted as a donation or to buy a merchandise item from the newspaper.
Update Expire = n, since it is not purchasing days on the subscription
Cash Adjustment = y, since it is actual cash in hand.
Refundable = y, because it is money you could potentially give back to the customer for a return or if they demanded it back for poor service.
Debit GL is left blank here. Because it is cash, the GL that will be debited will be the one used in Bank setup, based on the bank used when entering the subscriber payment adjustment.
Credit GL should be the account used to track the merchandise or donations.
There is a need to change the balance/expire date on an account (increase or decrease) due to some incorrect activity or non-standard complaint.
Update Expire = y, as the subscription expire date is being adjusted.
Cash Adjustment = n, as there has been no cash received.
Refundable = y, because you are adjusting the subscriber’s balance.
Debit GL should be a payment adjustment reversal account.
Credit GL should always be the unearned revenue GL account, because you are impacting liability.
Note: If you enter the subscriber payment adjustment as a negative dollar amount, the system will automatically reverse the flow of the GL to debit unearned revenue and credit the reversal account.
There are circumstances when you may want to adjust the subscriber's expire date, but have not received a payment and therefore would not want to impact unearned revenue (liability).
Update Expire = y, as the subscription expire date is being adjusted.
Cash Adjustment = n, as there has been no cash received for the adjustment.
Refundable = n, as a payment has not been received for the subscription.
Credit GL should be the earned revenue GL account.
Debit GL is once again a reversal account. When an adjustment is entered, the money is directly shifted between earned revenue GL and the reversal account (or vice-versa when doing a negative adjustment).
Note: Payment adjustments that are non-refundable cannot have unallocated amounts. Therefore if this type of adjustment extends the subscriber’s expire date and there is a certain amount left over that is not enough to buy another day, that amount is not added to the subscriber’s unallocated and does not show up in the subscriber’s balance.
See
Enter the “Cash in Bank“ GL account number to which deposits should be made. The GL account you enter must have been previously defined in Chart of Accounts. See for details.
Enter the “Refund Bank“ GL account number from which bank draft refunds should be made. The GL account you enter must have been previously defined in Chart of Accounts. See for details.
Subscriber Payment Processing will post all unresolved payments where the subscriber is not known (those with a subscription ID of zero) to this GL account, when the payment date is equal to or older than the processing date. If no holding GL account is defined, a warning will be generated, and the payment will be posted to a blank GL account. If the subscription ID is known, the holding account defined in Payment Holding Acct (see ) will be used instead. Once a payment is resolved, a reverse GL entry will be posted to the holding account.
This section guides the user through the menu options that are available under the General Ledger menu.
GL COMPANY
setup
Enter the GL company whose fiscal periods you want to carry forward.
FROM YEAR
integer (4)
Enter the year you want to copy fiscal periods from (you must enter all 4 digits of the year; i.e., 2005).
TO YEAR
integer (4)
Enter the year to which you want to copy fiscal periods.
COMPANY
setup
Select the company for these GL accounts (select “*” for all).
PRODUCT
setup
Select the product for these GL accounts (select “*” for all).
DISTRIB METHOD
predefined
Select the distribution method (mail, day pass, a route type, a single copy type, or select “*” for all) for these GL accounts.
Note: “Day Pass” will only be a valid option for publications set up to allow day pass subscriptions. When the distribution method is “Day Pass”, the delivery schedule will be set to “*” and the Draw Type/Class to “Office Pay”.
AAM ZONE
setup
Select the AAM Zone for these GL accounts (select “*” for all).
DELIVERY SCHEDULE
setup
Select the delivery schedule for these GL accounts (select “*” for all).
DRAW TYPE/CLASS
predefined
Select the draw type for these GL accounts (Carrier Collect, Office Pay, Paid Complimentary, etc.) or a valid draw class, or select “*” for all.
You must set up general ledger account numbers for all draw types, including “Samples” and “Service”, even though their rate may be zero.
AREA REGION DISTRIB ZONE DISTRICT
setup
Enter the area, region, distrib zone, and district for these GL accounts (enter “*” in a field to indicate all).
ACCOUNT TYPE
predefined
If you are defining CR GL accounts for a specific account type, such as “agent” or “sub”, select the account type here.
Otherwise, choose “*” to include all accounts, or leave blank to define CR GL accounts for delivery carriers.
G/L ACCOUNT
setup
For each day of the week, enter the general ledger account, if any, for Delivery Expense, Returns, Account Revenue, Advance Bill, Subscriber Coupons, and Subscriber Revenue. Click the Find icon to the right of a field to select from a list of valid GL accounts.
For example, for a draw type of “office pay”, you might enter G/L account numbers for Delivery Expense, Returns, Account Revenue, Subscriber Coupons, and Subscriber Revenue. For a distribution method of “rack” and a draw class of “standing”, you might enter GL account numbers for Returns and Account Revenue.
This coupon account is used for coupons received with subscriber payments. Coupons entered with account payments go to the G/L account in the coupon account number set up in AR/GL Account (see AR GL Account). Do not enter an account number in Advance Bill if you do not advance bill accounts.
ADJUSTMENT
open (8)
Enter a name for the adjustment code.
DESCRIPTION
open (30)
Enter a description of the adjustment code.
DEBIT CREDIT AR
predefined
Indicate whether this is a debit or credit to Accounts Receivable (debit if charging the account, credit if crediting).
GL ACCOUNT
setup
Enter the General Ledger account number to which the adjustment will be applied. This is the “offsetting” general ledger account number; in the screen above, Accounts Receivable will be credited for this amount, and Account 101.1070 will be debited for this amount.
SUBSCRIPTION ADJUST CODE
open (8)
Enter a subscription adjustment code, such as “cup”.
DESCRIPTION
open (30)
Enter a description of this adjustment code.
UPDATE WALLET
yes/no
Indicate if this adjustment code is used to update the subscriber’s premium day wallet. Note that adjustment codes that update the wallet can only be used for importing adjustments for premium days via Subscriber Lockbox Processing, and cannot be selected when entering manual payment adjustments. See the User Manual for more information.
UPDATE EXPIRE
yes/no
Indicate if this adjustment code should update the subscriber’s expiration date.
CASH ADJUSTMENT
yes/no
Indicate if this adjustment code is a cash adjustment (such as a check for an umbrella).
REFUNDABLE
yes/no
Non-cash adjustments may or may not be refundable. For example, if a subscriber receives a 1.00 non-cash adjustment because of poor service, then stops and asks for a refund, the newspaper may not want to include the 1.00 in the refund. If Cash Adjustment is set to “n”, indicate whether this subscription adjust code is refundable.
INCLUDE TAX ON REFUND
yes/no
When a subscription payment adjustment is made with an adjustment code for which this field is set to “yes,” the tax amount for the adjustment will be included in the Balance fields in Customer Service. When the subscription is perm stopped, the tax amount will be included in the refund amount.
DEBIT GL ACCOUNT
setup
Enter the general ledger account to which the adjustment should be debited.
CREDIT GL ACCOUNT
setup
Enter the general ledger account to which the adjustment should be credited. The general ledger account numbers must have been previously defined. See Chart of Accounts for details.
PRINT ON RENEWAL
yes/no
Indicate if this adjustment should be printed with the expire change detail on the subscriber renewal notice. This is applicable only if your renewal notice format is “export” (as defined in Business Rules).
RENEWAL DESCRIPTION
open (30)
If the adjustment will be printed on the renewal notice, enter a description that should appear with it on the notice.
IS TAXABLE?
yes/no
Indicate whether the adjustment code is to be taxed. The default value is set to n(o).
ENTER ON WEB, WEB DESCRIPTION, WEB DETAILS URL
yes/no open (30) unlimited
If Enter on Web is “y”, Web Description and Web Details URL open for entry. These fields are currently not used, but will be utilized in iServices in a future release.
Unearned revenue includes subscriber payments which have been received and posted but for which products have not yet been delivered. Select this option to specify unearned revenue GL account numbers for each combination of product and delivery type (mail and the user-defined route types).
Unearned revenue may be posted to one general ledger account, regardless of delivery type. Or you might want different accounts to reflect motor-delivered, foot-delivered, and mail-delivered, revenue (you have two route types, “foot” and “motor”).
For example, suppose you have two products (the Tribune and the Star) that are both delivered via all three delivery methods. You could define unearned revenue accounts for each combination as shown below:
Tribune
Foot
1001
Tribune
Motor
1001
Tribune
1001
Star
Foot
2100
Star
Motor
2200
Star
2300
Select Unearned Revenue from the General Ledger menu to display the Unearned Revenue screen.
Click the Add icon and complete the following fields.
PRODUCT
setup (8)
Enter a product that posts to this unearned revenue account.
DELIVERY TYPE
setup or predefined
Indicate the delivery type (a user defined route type, mail or *) that posts to this unearned revenue account. The “*” delivery type is used only in the case where the subscription is delivered by multiple routes of a different delivery type—for example a foot and a motor route.
GL ACCOUNT
setup
Click OK to add the unearned revenue account to the database, or click Add Another to save the existing record and add another unearned revenue account.
Payments that do not process (due, for example, to rating errors) will have GL entries, but instead of Unearned Revenue, a holding account will be credited. When the payment does process, the holding account will be debited and Unearned Revenue credited.
Note: If the subscriber is not known (for example, a lockbox payment has an invalid subscriber ID), the GL Holding Account defined in Bank setup is used instead. See Bank for more information.
Select Payment Holding Acct from the General Ledger menu to display the Subscriber Payment Holding Account screen.
Click the Add icon and select a publication and the holding account for the publication. As with other GL accounts, the account number must be set up in advance (in Chart of Accounts).
Click OK to add the payment holding account to the database, or click Add Another to save the existing record and add another payment holding account.
This option allows you to set up credit card types that can be used for each publication, and specify the general ledger accounts to which subscriber credit card payments and refunds should be posted. Surcharge percentages can also be defined here (see the User Manual).
The general ledger account numbers must have been defined previously. See Chart of Accounts for details.
Note: If you store credit cards in an off-site environment, including the Hosted Payment Page, you should set up a Credit Card Account record with a blank credit card type and an associated GL account. This GL account will be used if a credit card vendor does not pass back a credit card type and there are not enough digits in the masked credit card number to determine the credit card type.
Select Credit Card Account from the General Ledger menu to display the Credit Card Account screen.
Click the Add icon and complete the following fields.
PRODUCT
setup
Enter a product for which this credit card type is valid.
CREDIT CARD TYPE
predefined
Enter the credit card type, such as “VISA”, or leave blank to define a “catch all” record. Press F2 to display valid options.
SURCHARGE PERCENT
decimal (6)
If a surcharge applies to credit card payments with this product and credit card type, enter the surcharge percentage here. Percentages can be up to four decimal places. For example, a 1.5% surcharge should be entered as 1.5000.
SURCHARGE TAXABLE
yes/no
This field opens only if a surcharge percentage is entered in the field above and the publication is not flagged as tax exempt in Publication setup. If Surcharge Taxable opens, it will be checked by default. If checked, the surcharge amount will include the tax on the surcharge.
GL ACCOUNT
setup
Enter the general ledger account number to which subscriber payments with this credit card should be posted.
REFUND GL ACCOUNT
setup
Enter the general ledger account number to which refunds to this credit card should be posted.
Click OK to add the credit card type to the database, or click Add Another to save the existing record and add another credit card type.
Enter the general ledger account number for unearned revenue. The general ledger account numbers must have been defined previously. See for details.
Circulation needs to know the numbers of certain accounts in your general ledger. These accounts are defined in CHART OF ACCOUNTS and then linked to transactions (such as draw charges) elsewhere on the Setup menu (see General Ledger for more information). The GL accounts that are involved in Accounts Receivable are linked using this option.
Circulation uses the AR Account, Cash Account, Coupon Account and Credit Card Account during Account Payment Processing. The AR Account, Cash Discount Account, and Finance Charge Account are used during Account Billing Processing. You must set up the AR/GL accounts here, or errors will occur during Account Billing.
Select AR GL Account from the General Ledger menu to display the AR GL Accounts Setup screen.
Click the Add icon and complete the following fields.
COMPANY
setup
Enter the company for which you are defining AR accounts.
BILL SOURCE
setup
Enter the bill source for which you are defining AR accounts.
AR ACCOUNT
DETAIL *
setup
yes/no
Enter the Accounts Receivable general ledger account for this company and bill source, and indicate whether transaction detail should be kept for transactions with this AR Account. Business Rules determine the level of detail at which transactions should be created for the general ledger. Since retention of all detail can take up a great deal of disk space, retain only the necessary detail. You may decide to keep the detail initially for troubleshooting and then change the flags to “no” at a later date.
CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT
DETAIL
setup
yes/no
Enter the Credit Card general ledger account (used for account credit card payments) for this company and bill source, and indicate whether transaction detail should be kept for transactions with this credit card account. Business Rules determine if payment by credit card is allowed for accounts.
COUPON ACCOUNT
DETAIL
setup
yes/no
Enter the Account Coupon general ledger account for this company and bill source, and indicate whether transaction detail should be kept for transactions with this account. The Coupon Account is used for coupons entered with account payments.
CASH DISCOUNT ACCOUNT
DETAIL
setup
yes/no
Enter the Cash Discount general ledger account for this company and bill source, and indicate whether transaction detail should be kept for transactions with this Cash Discount Account. The Cash Discount is used for cash discounts earned by an account.
FINANCE CHARGE ACCOUNT
setup
yes/no
Enter the Finance Charge general ledger account for this company and bill source. The Finance Charge Account is used if charging a late fee for past due balances. You must set up an AR GL Account for finance charges if you are finance charging past due balances for carriers/dealers.
*
Enter “yes” in DETAIL fields only if you want to store every individual transaction
Click OK to add the AR GL account to the database, or click Add Another to add the account and begin setting up another account.
