Preparation Checklist

We recommend you consider the following questions as you plan your financial structure. Careful planning helps ensure a consistent financial workflow when you enter transactions, create reports, post transactions, and import data into your general ledger.

Tip: If your accounting system is integrated with Financial Edge NXT then you may want to import the accounting structure and accounts from Financial Edge NXT and use these in your financial structure.

  • What does your financial structure look like?

  • Do you currently have an external general ledger? If so, what is it?

  • Do you plan to change anything in your external general ledger setup?

  • What is the post date of the earliest transaction you plan to enter in the program? This determines the earliest fiscal year you need to set up.

  • What is your account structure? What are your account segments? Your goal is to make your account structure in the program identical to your external general ledger. An account structure example is:

    Fund — Account Code — Department — Location — Designation

  • Think about how general ledger distributions should be assigned to transactions. For example, when you add a donation, how do you know what general ledger distribution should be assigned to that transaction? Are there specific fields, such as designation, that help determine this? As you set up your account segments, think about the characteristics on a transaction that correspond with a particular segment.

  • From your chart of accounts, which accounts should the program use? You only need to add accounts that will be used in transactions.

  • List the transaction types that your organization will use, such as donation. You only need to consider transaction types that will be used to create general ledger distributions on your transactions.

  • List account segments and their values. List each value for the characteristic. You must map the specific characteristics on a transaction to specific account segment values. This will also be used to create distributions on your transactions.

  • When you post your transactions, which post format will you use?