Tres General Ledger aka Beauty in Consistency
One of the great strengths of the General Ledger is its consistency. Unlike many other areas of business (and life), General Ledger input (Journal entries) and output (financial reports) are governed by clearly defined rules and structures—they don’t change, and they don’t vary.
In Tres, all financial activity is recorded through journal entries—a consistent and structured method of input. (Why they’re called “Journal Entries” instead of “General Ledger Entries” remains one of accounting’s little mysteries.) These entries are created in one of three ways:
Fully Automated Entries
These require no user intervention. Tres automatically creates the Journal Entry based on the activity and the General Ledger account mapping configured by the user. For example, reservations with a Travel Category of “Cruise” may be mapped to a general ledger income account labeled “Sales – Cruise.”
Each automated journal entry includes hot links—click from the activity (like a settled reservation) directly to the Journal Entry, or from the Journal Entry to the originating transaction, giving users complete traceability.
Prompted for confirmation or completeness
In cases where full automation isn’t possible, Tres prompts users to confirm or complete the journal entry.
For instance, when a “other” profile has a default GL account, Tres can propose an entry and ask for confirmation. Or, if a payment type is categorized as “Other,” the system will post the part it understands and prompt the user to supply the offsetting entry.
Manual
Manual Journal entries are just that, manual. Typically, they are only used for adjustments. We do not often see manual journal entries with Tres but they are available just in case your accountant has an adjustment or some non-related to the travel business entry such as deprecation.
Financial Reports: Structured Output
Just as journal entries serve as structured inputs, reports are the structured output of the General Ledger. Tres supports several essential report types:
Income Statement Report:
The Income Statement prompts for a from and to date, GL Branch, and shows the summary of all Journal Entries during the date range and GL Branch defined into each General Ledger account that is within three different classifications: Sales, Cost of Sales and Expenses. Sales, less cost of sales and expenses shows as Net Income.
- Date range-based (“from” and “to”)
- GL Branch with multi select options of all active GL Branches or "Blank"
- Not checking any options in the filter will fetch results from all GL Branches. Checking the box for Blank will fetch results where the GL Branch field was not selected in the Journal Entry.
- Summarizes all journal entries by GL account, categorized into:
- Sales
- Cost of Sales
- Expenses
- Sales minus cost of sales and expenses = Net Income
Balance Sheet Report:
Rather then journal entries entered over a period of time as in the Income Statement, the Balance Sheet is at a moment in time and hence only prompts for the “as of” date. Balance Sheet shows the summary of all Journal Entries from the start of time to the as of date for each General Ledger account that is within three different classifications: Assets, Liabilities, Capital. Assets, less Liabilities and Capital is Net Income.
- Shows a company’s financial position as of a single date
- Includes all entries from inception to the “as of” date
- Categorized into:
- Assets
- Liabilities
- Capital
- Assets minus liabilities and capital = Net Income
Account History Report:
The Account History reports prompts for from and to dates, GL Branch, and shows each individual journal entry line item posted to each General Ledger account over the period defined. The Account History report also show beginning balances and ending balances for each General Ledger account. The General Ledger account is used to reconcile starting value, what was entered over the defined period, and ending balance. The Account History report is a very valuable report and used for reconciling items such as Bank Statements/Check Registers and Supplier Balances.
- Details all journal entry line items by GL account within a defined period
- Includes beginning and ending balances
- Extremely useful for bank reconciliations, supplier balances, and other account-specific reviews
- Source Remarks = Payment Remark
- JE Remarks = JE Remark
- JE Line Remark = Remark within each GL JE row
Trial Balance Report:
A bit of a dated report, the Trial Balance is a listing of all General Ledger accounts with their balance as of a certain date. Used to be more important when a General Ledger could mistakenly be out of balance, but Tres would catch that at the point of entry. Some accountant like to see all General Ledger accounts with their balances in this format.
- A listing of all general ledger accounts with their balances as of a specific date
- While less critical in modern systems (Tres prevents imbalance at the point of entry), some accountants still prefer this traditional view
- Especially helpful for audits and pre-closing reviews