The following settings are generally set up by the database administrator.
Step 1: Activate your Bank Management and General Ledger (GL)
Go to Settings > Agency Settings and check Bank Management and General Ledger (GL). Note that General Ledger (GL) will not be accessible without Bank Management. Once these settings are saved Bank Management and General Ledger (GL) menu options become visible in your left navigation screen.
Step 2: Setup your GL accounts
Go to Settings > General Leger Setup > General Ledger Accounts. Click 'Add GL Account' from the button on the top right side of the screen.
Select the GL category, enter an Account Name, and select the Status (active or inactive), and any Remarks for reference for each GL account you wish to have. See expanded notes for Setting up the GL below.
General Ledger Categories include Assets Liabilities, Capital, Sales, Cost of Sales, Expenses. Categories dictate the impact of General Ledger accounts on General Ledger reports including the Income Statement and Balance Sheet. GL accounts within the same category can be ordered anytime with drag and drop ability by clicking the Modify GL account Order check box under filters.
Required GL accounts – accounts needed that Tres uses to post reservations and payments journal entries– include:
- GL account for each bank account
- GL Sales account for each Travel Category
- GL Cost of Sales account for each Travel Category
- Four Accounts for Payments
- Undeposited Funds
- Credit Card – Merchant of Record
- Supplier Balances
- Credit Card – Agency Corp Card
While it is correct and true having GL accounts that you do not use do not cause issues and just do not show on GL reports, we still recommend you somewhat limit the number of GL accounts you create. (Virtually every Trams user surveyed wished they had not created and used so many GL accounts.) Unless you anticipate using a GL account repeatedly, we suggest you do not create that GL account and instead use another existing GL account – even if that account is Miscellaneous.
GL accounts do not convert from Trams at this time. Entering a GL account should take only seconds and entering an entire list should take only minutes and give you a chance to clean up and consolidate your GL accounts to only the accounts you wish to use going forward.
Step 3: Setup GL Account Mapping
The GL Account Mapping section tells Tres which GL accounts to use for automated journal entries created by the system for various payments and reservations.
Go to Settings > General Leger Setup > General Ledger Account Mapping.
The following default accounts are included with Tres and recommended for the automated entries.
Undeposited Funds: Checks or cash received will be posted to this Undeposited Funds account. When deposited, journal entries are created to move monies from Undeposited Funds to the bank account where the money is deposited.
Credit Card -Merchant of Record: Payment received by the agency with a payment type of credit card shows that payment as owed to suppliers with an offset of money owed to the agency from their credit card company for merchant of record charges.
Unsettled Reservation Payments: All payments from or to Client and from or to Suppliers are posted to this Supplier Balance account. When reservation is closed, both the supplier and client balances go to zero, the sale and cost of sale offset and are posted with the offset to the Supplier Balance account thus closing out Supplier Balance.
Credit Card – Agency Corp Card: Payments made by the agency to the supplier with a Payment Type of Credit Card are defined as the agency is using their corporate credit card to make this payment. As such, the system posts to the GL that the supplier is no longer owed (Supplier Balance) and now the money is owed to the agency’s corporate credit card. (When paying the corporate credit card reduce the balance owed with the offset to bank account payment is made from.)
Sales and Cost of Sales for each Travel Category: The sales and cost of sales you enter tell Tres where to post closed reservation sales and cost of sales amounts. We recommend you name your GL account the Travel Category name with the word “Sales” or “Cost of Sales” in front. For example, “Sales – Air”, “Sales – Insurance”, “Cost of Sales – Air”, or “Cost of Sales – Insurance.”
Tip: Even if you do not intend to use a particular Travel Category or Payment Type, still create a GL account and enter the GL reference. If you do not use it will not show on reports. But if you try to use a payment type or Travel Category that does not have a GL reference (and have Bank Management and GL enabled) you will get an error as the system will not know where to post that payment or reservation.
Step 4: Setup Other Profiles
Previous Tram Back Office user should recognize the term Other profiles, for all others this is a term used for profiles used in the Payments section for maintaining “other” histories on other individuals and companies with whom the agency does business. A company to which expenses are paid is entered as an Other profile such as utility companies (gas, electric, phone), landlord, etc.
Other profiles are built and managed in the Bank Management menu option in the left menu Option and then select Other Profiles.
Use the Add Other Profile button on the top right side of the screen to enter your Other Profiles. Be sure to enter the default GL account for other profiles as payments generate the journal entries defaulting to the GL account you set up and save having to manually add the account later. Note: If needed journal entries can be modified from the defaults when entering payments.