|
User's Guide
The concept of this Executive Dashboard is to give
you—the CEO, president, or owner of a small business—
your own personal summary of the things that matter most to you. While it is based on your company’s accounting, it does not require any accounting knowledge to understand or use. It is a simple yet very powerful and attractive tool to monitor your own business.
Table of Contents
Getting Around the Executive Dashboard
The Executive Dashboard is made up of seven basic sections (the tabs) plus several supporting utilities (the icons). Just click on the desired tab or icon.
THE TABS
THE ICONS
The Lock — gives you the ability to secure the dashboard from unauthorized eyes
The Note Pad — provides a convenient replacement to your paper notes
The Calculator — provides a convenient replacement to your physical calculator
The Calendar — is exactly that, a calendar
The Contacts Page — provides you access to all your different types of contacts
Information Central — gives you the ability to easily and quickly access any information ever entered into your MyBooks system
Help — brings up this help document
Refresh — allows you to instantly recalculate the numbers on the current tab based on the latest information posted in your MyBooks system
The rest of this page provides you with details about the numbers on the different tabs along with instructions on how to use the different utilities.
The Overview Tab
The Numbers
Money Coming In
This is simply the sum of all the monies currently due your company for goods and services invoiced—otherwise known as your 'outstanding receivables'.
Cash in Banks
This is the total of all the monies you currently have in your bank accounts. The balances in your bank accounts are retrieved from your Trial Balance.
Additional Information about Cash in Banks
This method of calculating your 'cash on hand' makes two assumptions. First, it uses the default Total Cash account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (110-99 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 1099-99 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel have changed the cash account to another number or added more cash accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
The next assumption is that the numbers in your Trial Balance reflect the current balances in the actual bank accounts. There are two instances in which this assumption will be misleading:
First, if the 'Integration into the general ledger', and the subsequent 'posting of the resulting Journal Entries' (see the Accountant's Page of MyBooks) have not been performed recently enough. This can easily be remedied at any time by performing these functions to bring the number up to date.
Second, if future postings have been made to this account. This scenario may be highly unlikely, and can be remedied by using the alternative calculation (see following).
An alternative way to calculate the total 'cash on hand' is to sum up the balances in the bank account records of the Banks tab of MyBooks (see Configuring the Dashboard). While this may seem to be the more desirable method—because all postings to these records occur during the transaction postings and no additional steps of integration and posting are required, as in the general ledger—it was decided not to use this as the default method. The two reasons for this are 1) the Banks tab is used mainly for setting up and managing accounts that need monthly reconciliation, so, other cash accounts, (e.g., CDs, Money Market accounts) may not be set up in the Banks tab, and 2) users sometimes set up credit card accounts in the Banks tab for easy reconciliation, but these do not pertain to cash on hand.
Inventory
This is the total value of your in-stock inventory.
Additional Information about Inventory
The default method calculates the total value of your inventory by reading through all the inventory item records and multiplying each qty-on-hand by its weighted average cost and then sums them all up. This works the same way as the Inventory Valuation report and will always have the exact same results.
The alternative method retrieves the inventory stock value from your Trial Balance. It makes two assumptions. First, it uses the default Total Inventory account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (115-99 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 1112-00 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel change the inventory account to another number or add more inventory accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
The next assumption is that the number in your Trial Balance reflects the current value of your inventory. There are two instances in which this assumption will be misleading:
First, if the 'Integration into the general ledger', and the subsequent 'posting of the resulting Journal Entries' (see the Accountant's Page of MyBooks) have not been performed recently enough. This can easily be remedied at any time by performing these functions to bring the number up to date.
Second, if future postings have been made to this account. This scenario may be highly unlikely, and can be remedied by using the default calculation method (see above).
Further Explanation:
The Appgen software includes a comprehensive Perpetual Inventory control in which many adjustments to the general ledger inventory accounts may be taking place during the posting of sales and purchase transactions to most accurately track inventory on a daily basis. This is the opposite of a Periodic Inventory system in which the user makes manual entries to the general ledger inventory accounts to reflect the inventory value. Some perpetual inventory adjustments to the inventory account may be offset to the cost of goods sold and physical discrepancy accounts. In the end, the numbers in the Trial Balance will differ to a degree, but will be more accurate than the total in the Inventory Valuation report.
Sales Orders
This is simply a sum of all the outstanding sales orders that have not yet been posted.
Bills to be Paid
This is the sum of all the vendor balances—the sum of all unpaid bills, regardless of their due date. This is otherwise known as your 'outstanding payables'.
Purchase Orders
This is the total dollar amount of all your open purchase orders minus any bills received against them.
Last Payroll
This number reflects the gross amount of your last payroll, along with your share of Social Security and Medicare.
Additional Information about Payroll
This Last Payroll amount does not include the FUI, SUI, or Workers' Compensation expenses, which should be less than significant in the end.
Next Payroll Date
This is the next date on which you will need funds to produce payroll.
Projected Cash
The numbers here are cumulative rather than divided into the different buckets, such as in aging of a balance. In other words, an amount due in 10 days (from today) will be included in the 15 day number and in the 30 and 45 day numbers as well. These numbers are made up of monies due in from customers, monies due out to vendors, and payroll monies due out—all due in or out during the next 45 days, plus the current cash in banks.
The resulting projections may be skewed by the cash-on-hand calculation (as described under ‘Cash in Banks’), and even possibly by the payroll numbers (as in the case of an unscheduled payroll entry due to an earlier erroneous payroll run that was later corrected, or perhaps in the case of a specially issued payroll run for a special bonus). The cash-on-hand figure can be recalculated or its formula reconfigured as described under ‘Cash in Banks’.
The Reports
Cash Flow Statement
This report is considered a
standard accounting tool in measuring the financial health of your company. This statement
shows the flow of cash into and out of your business over a period of time. It will help answer the question of "where did the money go?" by reporting activities that have a direct effect on cash. The figures reflect year-to-date activities compared to last year.
Aged Receivables
This is the summary version of the Aged Receivables report of MyBooks in which each line shows the customer with its aged open balance, along with the customer's telephone number and sales rep.
Aged Payables
This is the summary version of the Aged Payables report of MyBooks in which each line shows the vendor, the payment terms, the aged balances, and the total open amount.
The Sales & Customers Tab
The Numbers
Sales $$ MTD, YTD, etc.
These 'to-date' sales figures come right off the Customer Buying Profiles (see MyBooks) and reflect gross sales dollars.
Additional Information About Sales
For the MTD figures, the numbers are retrieved from the appropriate month slot in the Buying Profile. The ‘to-date’ part is assumed. This means that if there were any sales posted to any customers for the current month, but with a date later in the month than today, the number will be skewed by those postings. The same is true for the YTD figure. The figures in the second two columns include the total sales for the entire current month in the previous year.
Active Customers
These are the number of customers who were active within the respective periods.
Invoices
These are the number of invoices issued within the respective periods.
Average $$ per Invoice
This is simply the average amount of the invoices within the respective periods (sales divided by number of invoices).
Outstanding Sales Orders
These are the number and total gross amount of all currently outstanding (not yet posted) sales orders.
Total Number of Customers
This is the total number of customers recorded in the customer database.
Most Active Customers
These are your most active customers (this month and this year) in terms of total gross sales dollars to your company.
Most Active Salespeople
These are your most active salespeople (this month and this year) in terms of total gross sales dollars to your company.
The Reports
Open Orders
This is a summary list of all open orders, and includes: order status, order number, order date, customer, ship date, sales rep, ship-to, ship-via, and order total. This list is sorted by status, customer, ship date, and sales order number.
Daily Profit Margins
This report, sorted by date, shows total profits and profit margins for each day. For each date there is one line showing total sales amount, total commissions, total cost, and total profit—in dollars and as a percentage of the sales amount.
Customers by Sales Volume
This report shows one line for each customer (sorted in descending order of total sales dollars) with the total sales dollars for the last year, the total for this year, the actual difference and the percentage difference. This report can be useful in finding out who your most active customers are (or have been) and any change in their activity between the two years.
The Vendors & Purchases Tab
The Numbers
Expenditures
These 'to-date' expense figures come right off the Vendor Buying Profiles (see MyBooks) and reflect gross dollars of all expenses.
Additional Information About Expenditures
For the MTD figures, the numbers are retrieved from the appropriate month slot in the Purchase Profile. The ‘to-date’ part is assumed. This means that if there were any expenses posted to any vendors for the current month, but with a date later in the month than today, the number will be skewed by those postings. The same is true for the YTD figure. The figures in the second two columns include the total expenditures for the entire current month in the previous year.
Active Vendors
These are the number of vendors with whom your company was active within the respective periods.
Vouchers
These are the number of expense vouchers (including all vendor invoices) effective within the respective periods.
Average $$ per Voucher
This is simply the average amount of the expense vouchers within the respective periods (expenditures divided by number of vouchers).
$$ to Inventory
These are the total expenditures for replenishing inventory stock. These numbers are retrieved from your Trial Balance.
Additional Information about $$ to Inventory
The calculation method for these numbers retrieves the inventory stock expenditures from your Trial Balance. It makes several assumptions. First, it uses the default Total Inventory account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (115-99 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 1112-00 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel change the inventory account to another number or add more inventory accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
The next assumption is that your Trial Balance reflects the most current inventory numbers. There are two instances in which this assumption will be misleading:
First, if the 'Integration into the general ledger', and the subsequent 'posting of the resulting Journal Entries' (see the Accountant's Page of MyBooks) have not been performed recently enough. This can easily be remedied at any time by performing these functions to bring the number up to date.
Second, if future postings have been made to this account. This scenario may be highly unlikely under typical operating conditions.
The last assumption is that all the debits posted to the Inventory account(s) of your Trial Balance reflect the expenditures. In typical operating conditions, only a nominal amount of the debits may be from other types of adjustments to the account.
Important caveat: The calculation method used here relies on the period information in your fiscal calendar. Be sure the current year in your fiscal calendar (see Accountant's Page in MyBooks) is, in fact, your current fiscal year. If it is not, these '$$ to Inventory' numbers will not be accurate.
Outstanding Purchase Orders
This is the number and total dollar amount of all your open purchase orders minus any bills already received against them.
Total Number of Vendors
This is the total number of vendors recorded in the vendor database.
Most Active Vendors
These are the vendors with whom your company was most active (this month and this year) in terms of total gross expense dollars to your company.
The Reports
Open Orders
The Open Order report shows purchase information on those orders that are not flagged as closed. This report is used in general to view what items have been delivered and which items have not yet been received.
Vendor Performance
This report includes information that can allow you to judge the quality of your relationships with individual vendors based on their past performance. This report identifies performance based on quantities delivered (short, exact, excess), final cost (lower, exact, higher), and delivery time (early, on time, late), as compared to the purchase order expectations. This information is derived from both current and historical data.
Expected Receipts
This report lists all items (with purchase order information) that are expected to be received within the one-year period beginning 6 months prior to the current date.
The Payroll Tab
The Numbers
Last Payroll
This number reflects the gross amount of your last payroll, along with your share of Social Security and Medicare.
Last Payroll Date
This is the date of your most recent payroll.
Payrolls Left This Month and Next Month
These are the number of times payroll will need to be issued again this month and next.
Additional Information about Payrolls
The method employed to calculate these numbers analyzes recent payroll dates, employees, and employee pay frequencies, in order to project upcoming payroll dates. Any irregular payroll checks issued in the recent past may skew these numbers.
Payroll as a % of Total Expenses
These numbers show you (as a percentage) how much of your total expenditures go to payroll expenses. All numbers used to compute these figures are retrieved from your Trial Balance.
Additional Information about Payroll vs. Total Expenditures
This method of calculation makes several assumptions. First, it uses the default Total Employee Benefits and Payroll Expenses account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (710-01 plus 720-99 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 7159-99 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel have changed the account to another number or added more payroll expense accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
Second, it uses the default Total General and Administrative Expenses account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (799-99 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 7999-99 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel have changed the account to another number or added more expense accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
The next assumption is that your Trial Balance reflects the most current expense numbers. There are two instances in which this assumption will be misleading:
First, if the 'Integration into the general ledger', and the subsequent 'posting of the resulting Journal Entries' (see the Accountant's Page of MyBooks) have not been performed recently enough. This can easily be remedied at any time by performing these functions to bring the number up to date.
Second, if future postings have been made to this account. This scenario may be highly unlikely under typical operating conditions.
Important caveat: The calculation method used here relies on the period information in your fiscal calendar. Be sure the current year in your fiscal calendar (see Accountant's Page in MyBooks) is, in fact, your current fiscal year. If it is not, these 'Payroll vs. Total Expenditures' numbers will not be accurate.
Total Number of Employees
This is the total number of current (non-terminated) employees.
The Reports
Employee Payroll Recap
This report shows each employee's payroll history (M-T-D, Q-T-D, Y-T-D) of earnings and deductions sorted by employee number. A complete list of each employee's standard earning and deduction codes and their factors is included.
Employee Payroll History
This is a detailed list of all checks with earning and deduction amounts for all employees and pay periods.
Employee Review
This report shows all current employees along with their information relevant to a salary or wage review.
The Inventory Tab
The Numbers
Items Represented vs. Items in Stock
The number of items represented is the sum total of all the different items in your inventory file, regardless of activity (or inactivity). The second number reflects the sum total of all the different items that currently have stock levels greater than zero.
Active Items
These numbers reflect the number of different items that you have sold in this month and year. These numbers are retrieved directly from your inventory files.
Returns
These numbers reflect the number and dollar value of all items returned from customers this month and this year.
Inventory Value
This is the total value of your in-stock inventory.
Additional Information about Inventory Value
The default method calculates the total value of your inventory by reading through all the inventory item records and multiplying each qty-on-hand by its weighted average cost and then sums them all up. This works the same way as the Inventory Valuation report and will always have the exact same results.
The alternative method retrieves the inventory stock value from your Trial Balance. It makes two assumptions. First, it uses the default Total Inventory account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (115-99 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 1112-00 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel change the inventory account to another number or add more inventory accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
The next assumption is that the number in your Trial Balance reflects the current value of your inventory. There are two instances in which this assumption will be misleading:
First, if the 'Integration into the general ledger', and the subsequent 'posting of the resulting Journal Entries' (see the Accountant's Page of MyBooks) have not been performed recently enough. This can easily be remedied at any time by performing these functions to bring the number up to date.
Second, if future postings have been made to this account. This scenario may be highly unlikely, and can be remedied by using the default calculation method (see above).
Further Explanation:
The Appgen software includes a comprehensive Perpetual Inventory control in which many adjustments to the general ledger inventory accounts may be taking place during the posting of sales and purchase transactions to most accurately track inventory on a daily basis. This is the opposite of a Periodic Inventory system in which the user makes manual entries to the general ledger inventory accounts to reflect the inventory value. Some perpetual inventory adjustments to the inventory account may be offset to the cost of goods sold and physical discrepancy accounts. In the end, the numbers in the Trial Balance will differ to a degree, but will be more accurate than the total in the Inventory Valuation report.
Best Selling Items
This shows you which items have been selling the best (in the two categories of 'number' of units sold and 'dollar value' of units sold) in both this month and this year, so far.
The Reports
Sales Analysis by Item
This report shows how individual items have been selling. Specifically shown are the quantity sold, the dollar value, the cost, the profit, and the profit margin, all summarized by period.
Enhanced ABC Analysis
This report is similar to ABC Analysis reports found in other inventory systems, but rather than being limited to 4 classifications (as in the case of ABC Analysis), this version breaks down your inventory items into 13 different classes providing more information to those responsible for replenishing stock levels.
Specifically, these classifications reflect how inventory items actually sell. The top 7.5% movers are designated Class 1. The second 7.5% are Class 2. The next 10% are Class 3 and the next 10% are Class 4. The remaining classes each represent 8% successively down the ranking. The last class can be viewed as ‘dog’ or ‘dead’ items-inventory that just doesn’t sell. In terms of an ABC Analysis, Class 1 and 2 are a breakdown of A, Class 3 and 4 a breakdown of B, and Class 5 through 12 are a breakdown of C. Class 13 is the same as D.
This classification system is the one preferred by the wholesale distribution ‘expert’, Gordon Graham, over the ABC Analysis and the EOQ (Economical Order Quantity) method of determining how to replenish stock levels.
The report itself is based on the results of the last run of the posting process ‘Update ABC Classifications' (see MyBooks). This program recomputes the ranking of all your items based on the most current information available.
Inventory Valuation
This report shows your current quantities on hand, average cost, list price, and extended costs and prices, for each item in each warehouse. The ending totals reflect the total value of your stock in terms of potential sales as well as cost.
The Profit & Loss Tab
The Numbers
Sales
This is the total of all your sales revenues since the beginning of your fiscal year. This number is retrieved from your Trial Balance.
Additional Information about Sales
This method of calculating your sales makes two assumptions. First, it uses the default Total Net Revenue account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (499-99 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 4999-99 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel have changed the account to another number or added more sales accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
The next assumption is that your Trial Balance reflects the most current sales activities. There are two instances in which this assumption will be misleading:
First, if the 'Integration into the general ledger', and the subsequent 'posting of the resulting Journal Entries' (see the Accountant's Page of MyBooks) have not been performed recently enough. This can easily be remedied at any time by performing these functions to bring the number up to date.
Second, if future postings have been made to this account. This scenario may be highly unlikely.
Important caveat: The calculation method used here relies on the period information in your fiscal calendar. Be sure the current year in your fiscal calendar (see Accountant's Page in MyBooks) is, in fact, your current fiscal year. If it is not, the 'Sales' number will not be accurate.
Cost of Goods Sold
This is the total cost of your sales since the beginning of your fiscal year. This number is retrieved from your Trial Balance.
Additional Information about Cost of Goods Sold
This method of calculating your sales makes two assumptions. First, it uses the default Total Cost of Goods Sold account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (599-99 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 5999-99 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel have changed the account to another number or added more cost accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
The next assumption is that your Trial Balance reflects the most current sales activities. There are two instances in which this assumption will be misleading:
First, if the 'Integration into the general ledger', and the subsequent 'posting of the resulting Journal Entries' (see the Accountant's Page of MyBooks) have not been performed recently enough. This can easily be remedied at any time by performing these functions to bring the number up to date.
Second, if future postings have been made to this account. This scenario may be highly unlikely.
Important caveat: The calculation method used here relies on the period information in your fiscal calendar. Be sure the current year in your fiscal calendar (see Accountant's Page in MyBooks) is, in fact, your current fiscal year. If it is not, the 'Cost of Goods Sold' number will not be accurate.
Gross Profit on Sales
This is the result of a simple subtraction of Total Cost of Goods Sold from Total Sales Revenues.
General and Administrative Expenses
This is the total of all your general and administrative expenses since the beginning of your fiscal year. This number is retrieved from your Trial Balance.
Additional Information about G&A Expenses
This method of calculating your expenses makes two assumptions. First, it uses the default Total General and Administrative Expenses account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (799-99 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 7999-99 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel have changed the account to another number or added more expense accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
The next assumption is that your Trial Balance reflects the most current expense activities. There are two instances in which this assumption will be misleading:
First, if the 'Integration into the general ledger', and the subsequent 'posting of the resulting Journal Entries' (see the Accountant's Page of MyBooks) have not been performed recently enough. This can easily be remedied at any time by performing these functions to bring the number up to date.
Second, if future postings have been made to this account. This scenario may be highly unlikely.
Important caveat: The calculation method used here relies on the period information in your fiscal calendar. Be sure the current year in your fiscal calendar (see Accountant's Page in MyBooks) is, in fact, your current fiscal year. If it is not, the 'G&A Expenses' number will not be accurate.
Corporate Income Taxes
This is the total of your corporate income taxes since the beginning of your fiscal year. This number is retrieved from your Trial Balance.
Additional Information about Corporate Income Taxes
This method of calculating your taxes makes two assumptions. First, it uses the default Total Corporate Taxes account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (810-01 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 8199-99 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel have changed the account to another number or added more tax accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
The next assumption is that your Trial Balance reflects the most current tax activities. There are two instances in which this assumption will be misleading:
First, if the 'Integration into the general ledger', and the subsequent 'posting of the resulting Journal Entries' (see the Accountant's Page of MyBooks) have not been performed recently enough. This can easily be remedied at any time by performing these functions to bring the number up to date.
Second, if future postings have been made to this account. This scenario may be highly unlikely.
Important caveat: The calculation method used here relies on the period information in your fiscal calendar. Be sure the current year in your fiscal calendar (see Accountant's Page in MyBooks) is, in fact, your current fiscal year. If it is not, the 'Corporate Income Taxes' number will not be accurate.
Net Income or Loss
This is the bottom line of the profitability of your sales activities since the beginning of the year. Simply put (and calculated) it is your total sales revenues minus your total expenses minus your corporate taxes.
The Reports
Profit & Loss Statement
This report is considered a standard accounting tool in measuring the financial health of your company. This statement shows the results of your company's activities in terms of revenues, expenses, and net income for the month-to-date time period.
Balance Sheet
This report is considered a standard accounting tool in measuring the financial health of your company. This statement reflects the company's financial position in terms of assets, liabilities, and owners' equity for the year-to-date time period.
Cash Flow Statement
This report is considered a standard accounting tool in measuring the financial health of your company. This statement shows the flow of cash into and out of a business for a period of time. It will help answer the question of "where did the money go?" by reporting activities that have a direct effect on cash. The figures reflect year-to-date activities compared to last year.
The Budgets Tab
The Numbers
Actual Revenues
These are your total month-to-date and year-to-date sales revenues. These numbers are retrieved from your Trial Balance.
Additional Information about Actual Revenues
This method of calculating your sales revenues makes two assumptions. First, it uses the default Total Net Revenue account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (499-99 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 4999-99 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel have changed the account to another number or added more sales accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
The next assumption is that your Trial Balance reflects the most current sales activities. There are two instances in which this assumption will be misleading:
First, if the 'Integration into the general ledger', and the subsequent 'posting of the resulting Journal Entries' (see the Accountant's Page of MyBooks) have not been performed recently enough. This can easily be remedied at any time by performing these functions to bring the number up to date.
Second, if future postings have been made to this account. This scenario may be highly unlikely.
Important caveat: The calculation method used here relies on the period information in your fiscal calendar. Be sure the current year in your fiscal calendar (see Accountant's Page in MyBooks) is, in fact, your current fiscal year. If it is not, the 'Actual Revenues' will not be accurate.
Actual Expenses
These are your total month-to-date and year-to-date general and administrative expenses. These numbers are retrieved from your Trial Balance.
Additional Information about G&A Expenses
This method of calculating your expenses makes two assumptions. First, it uses the default Total General and Administrative Expenses account as defined by the Easy Company Setup (799-99 for company 0 - as per the demo data, and 7999-99 for all other companies - as per the Easy Company Setup). If you or your personnel have changed the account to another number or added more expense accounts, you must reconfigure this to work correctly (see Configuring the Dashboard).
The next assumption is that your Trial Balance reflects the most current expense activities. There are two instances in which this assumption will be misleading:
First, if the 'Integration into the general ledger', and the subsequent 'posting of the resulting Journal Entries' (see the Accountant's Page of MyBooks) have not been performed recently enough. This can easily be remedied at any time by performing these functions to bring the number up to date.
Second, if future postings have been made to this account. This scenario may be highly unlikely.
Important caveat: The calculation method used here relies on the period information in your fiscal calendar. Be sure the current year in your fiscal calendar (see Accountant's Page in MyBooks) is, in fact, your current fiscal year. If it is not, the 'Actual Expenses' will not be accurate.
Budgeted Revenues
Budgets are a great tool for measuring against expectations in sales revenues. Actually, rather than being budgets they are projections, expectations, goals, etc.—when set up for revenue accounts. Using the budget programs (see below), you can set up goals for any of your revenue accounts on a period-by-period basis. It is from these recorded goals that the revenue projections are retrieved for this tab.
Important caveat: The calculation method used here relies on the period information in your fiscal calendar. Be sure the current year in your fiscal calendar (see Accountant's Page in MyBooks) is, in fact, your current fiscal year. If it is not, the 'Budgeted Revenues' will not be accurate.
Budgeted Expenses
Budgets are a great tool for keeping your expenses in check. Using the budget programs (see below), you can set up budgets for any of your expense accounts on a period-by-period basis. That is where the budgets on this tab are retrieved.
Important caveat: The calculation method used here relies on the period information in your fiscal calendar. Be sure the current year in your fiscal calendar (see Accountant's Page in MyBooks) is, in fact, your current fiscal year. If it is not, the 'Budgeted Expenses' will not be accurate.
The Reports
Budget List
This is a simple list of all budgets that are currently maintained.
Budget Variance
This report shows budget and actual amounts per period for all accounts. This report also shows the difference
between the actual and budget as an amount and a percentage.
Setting Up Budgets
Each account in the Trial Balance may optionally have an assigned budget amount allocated by fiscal period.
Budgets can be extremely useful in helping to keep expenses in check. Conversely, budgets may be set up to be projections or goals in revenue type accounts.
Each year, new budgets may be entered as needed into the Budget file. This information may be viewed in the Budget
Variance report, and may also be included on financial statements for actual vs. budget comparisons. The budget
amounts for each period may be entered individually or automatically. You may also enter the annual budget for an account manually or calculate the annual amount based on a prior year.
You may use any combination of the methods by specifying the range of accounts to be budgeted.
Auto Budget by Year
If you use this Auto Create by Year option, the entire year's budget for an account is then either allocated to each period equally or allocated based on the number of days in each period.
Auto Budget by Prior Year
If you want the budget to be automatically calculated based on the prior year's balances, you must specify the percentage of change and one of two methods of allocation: 1) based on the prior year's period balances, or 2) based on the prior year's annual balance. If the annual balance method is chosen, you must further specify whether the new budget is to be allocated equally by period or based on the number of days in each period.
Set Up / Maintain Individual Budgets
Use this program to manually enter the budget numbers for any individual account.
Printing the Numbers
To produce a printout of all the numbers in the Executive Dashboard, simply click on the "Printable Version" button in the bottom lefthand corner of the Executive Dashboard screen.
The Icons
The icons along the top of the Executive Dashboard provide access to other features that can help keep you organized in monitoring your company's activities and general health.
The Lock
Walking away from your screen for a few minutes? Click on this icon, and the Executive Dashboard will be covered to prevent unauthorized eyes from inappropriate viewing of the sensitive information. Only your secret password will unlock the Dashboard for your continued viewing. (See Managing Your Security).
My Notes
Don't bother with post-it notes. Use your favorite notepad program for all those little reminders (see Properties).
The Calculator
Don't add those numbers up in your head. Use your favorite calculator program here whenever you need it (see Properties).
The Calendar
Use your favorite calendar program here to track those important dates (see Properties).
Contacts
Need to keep in contact with a lot of people? Here is a great place to get contact information and keep your own notes relevant to your contacts. Pull up customers, vendors, banks, and employees. You can even enter your own contacts that don't fall into one of those categories. Organize your contacts into short lists and use the Call Back facility to keep a structured and efficient approach to your communications with all your contacts.
Whether you are using Appgen's MyBooks Professional or Appgen Custom Suite, there probably is an abundance of contact information in your accounting system that you would want available to you here. That's what this 'Load Contacts' option is about:
With just a click of the 'Load Now' button on this screen you will instantly bring all your customer, vendor, employee, and bank contacts into your own contacts database.
Using the 'Set Up Contacts' function, you may add new contacts, delete unneeded ones, and may any changes to existing contacts as you need to.
Use the 'Short List' function to group together otherwise unrelated contacts. You can use this feature when working on projects in which several to many diverse contacts are involved. Your short lists will come in handy when you use the Call Back Screen (below). You may add, change, and delete short lists at will.
Use the 'Call Back Screen' to keep your daily (weekly, monthly, etc.) contact calling organized and efficient. You can organize your call backs by short list, call back dates, contact types (customer, vendor, etc.) or by category. Keep notes as detailed as you need and have instant access to all available data pertaining to your contact via the Info Central button in the Call Screen.
Information Central
Information Central is the main information center of your MyBooks software providing you and your personnel quick and easy access to all the information in your system. This same Information Central from MyBooks is available to you here for your further convenience. Just click on this Info Central icon, and you're there.
When speaking with Customers, you have all their information available to you at your fingertips. Just click on Customers. You'll see their name, address, balance, aging, deposit balance, open items, credit info, and on and on—everything you and your people ever entered, and more! You can even view all their transactions (e.g., invoices, payments, etc.) in their complete detail, regardless how old they are. Just click! That's it! The same for your vendors, inventory items, employees, and banks. Today, information equals power. Here is your power.
Help
Clicking on the Help icon will bring you to this document. 'Nuff said.
Refresh
When you first start up the Executive Dashboard, all the numbers are instantly calculated and displayed for your viewing. Also, every 30 minutes all the numbers are recalculated again to provide you with the latest stats on your business (this default refresh rate may be changed—see below). To instantly recalculate the numbers on any individual tab, just click on this Refresh icon. The date and time of the last refresh, whether triggered automatically or manually, is displayed on the bottom right of the Dashboard.
Properties
Use the Properties tabs to specify which notepad, calculator, and calendar programs you wish to access via the icons. The Auto Refresh Rate, screen font, and report page margins may also be set up in the Properties.
Configuring the Dashboard
Because of the versatility of the MyBooks accounting system, users may choose to customize some of its aspects to better suit their needs. Oftentimes, users alter the Chart of Accounts, which controls the Trial Balance from which many of the numbers on the Executive Dashboard are derived. To coordinate with these types of changes, a configuration utility is provided under Preferences (on the File menu).
Just follow the simple on-screen instructions.
Managing Your Security
The Executive Dashboard provides you powerful information about the health of your business. This information may not be suitable for other people in your proximity. To avoid disclosing any sensitive information to unauthorized people, you must set up a password that will be required before someone can unlock the Dashboard for viewing. Just click on Security Administration on your File menu:
and follow the simple on-screen instructions to set or change your password.
Registering Your Software
Once your Executive Dashboard software is installed on your computer you may use it unfettered for 30 days. During that time you will need to register it in order to continue using it past the first 30 days. Just click on your File menu, click on Register:
and follow the on-screen instructions.
End of Document
|
|
|
