TEA Internal Accounting

TEA 10 contains a complete internal accounting system that allows you to manage all your accounting from within TEA without having to use an external accounting software package. This internal accounting feature contains a complete accounts payable, accounts receivable and general ledger. It will track everything regarding vendors, customers and inventory. The internal accounting system will also create cheques, invoices and all the reports you would expect from an accounting software package.

In TEA 9, organizations would use TEA in conjunction with an external accounting software package. Monthly, loan transactions would be exported from TEA into the external accounting software. This structure of exporting transactions is still available in TEA 10, however, you now have the option to use TEA for all your accounting requirements.

TEA General Ledger
The TEA internal accounting feature contains a complete general ledger. Every one of your organization’s accounts is listed here and each account can be set up with up to three levels of sub-accounts to help you manage the different divisions and programs easily throughout your organization. General journal entries can be entered for any of your accounts and sub-accounts and a detailed budget can be created at the start of your fiscal year to help you manage the balance of each account. The history and totals of each of your general ledger accounts can be viewed quickly at a glance at any time.

General Ledger Accounts
In addition to listing your main account types, such as cash, accounts receivable, and interest revenue, the general ledger accounts list allows the user to specify up to three levels of sub-accounts. For example, you may want to use the first sub-account level to track the different branch locations of your organization. The second level of sub-accounts may be used to track different programs offered by your organization such as various loans and grant programs. The third level of sub-accounts may track individual loan and grant funds.

GL account numbers comprise the main account and 3 optional sub-accounts, which can be used for branch, division, department, project and product group, for example. These don't have to be built into the main GL account number. So, for data entry, when selecting the main account you don't have to scroll past all the various sub-accounts. Nor do you have to set up every combination of main and sub accounts that will occur. Financial statements can be run for selected sub-accounts without having to set up separate statement formats. For example, an income statement (profit and loss) for product group "Training", and/or division "Prescott", etc. Or, select no sub-accounts to print a summary consolidated report.

GL Accounts Window

A sub-account can apply to any GL account, not just one. So, for example, an organization that sells training could have a sub-account for training type: business plans, marketing, bookkeeping. Revenues and expenses could then be tracked by training type and this would facilitate financial statements by type (business plans only, marketing only) or summarized (all training types) using the same financial statement and selecting training type when the report is selected. So the profitability of the business plan training side of the organization, or marketing training, etc. The same could apply to department, branch, division, project, etc.

For example, the following account structure may be created:

Main Accounts:
4000 Training Sales
4050 Consulting Revenue
5126 Advertising Expense

Sub-Account 1 (Location):
01 Prescott
02 Brockville


Sub-Account 2 (Program):
400 CD Program
500 SB Program


Sub-Account 2 (Product):
10 Business Plan Training
20 Marketing Training
30 Bookkeeping Training

Based on this account structure, the following GL accounts would be possible:

4000-01-500-10 Training Sales-Prescott-SB Program-Business Plan Training
4000-01-500-20 Training Sales-Prescott-SB Program-Marketing Training
4000-02-500-10 Training Sales-Brockville-SB Program-Business Plan Training
4000-02-500-20 Training Sales-Brockville-SB Program-Marketing Training

General Ledger Budgets
The budgets area of the TEA general ledger allows you to create an annual budget for every account at the beginning of a new fiscal year. For each account, the budget is entered so that it can be easily compared to the actual account balance. In addition to specifying the budget for each main account, you also have the option to create a budget for every level of sub-accounts.

Each year, new budgets can be created without over-writing the budgets from previous years. Since, over time, this list will become extensive, a filter is available to allow you to filter the list by year or account to make it easy to find a specific budget record.

Budget Window

General Journal Entries
The Journal Voucher (JVs) section of the General Ledger is where general journal entries are entered.

When a list of journal entries is created, you have the option to save the entries and then post them at later time. This gives you a chance to double-check the list before posting to ensure the accuracy of the list. Journal vouchers are also automatically created by posting AP invoices, AP cheques, AR invoices, and AR payments. Data is passed to the GL system from the AP and AR automatically via Journal Vouchers with expenses and revenues converted from foreign currency to domestic currency.

General Journal Entry

Bank Reconciliation
The Bank Reconciliation feature is a useful tool that helps you verify that the GL bank account balance matches your bank statement closing balance at month end. For each bank account, every transaction posted to that bank is listed here to allow you to easily compare each one to your bank statement. After adjusting for outstanding AR deposits and AP cheques, this list should match your bank statement exactly.

During this reconciliation process, if you find any bank and interest charges that have not yet been posted to the bank, you can enter them using a general journal entry and then refresh the bank reconciliation list to reflect the changes.

Accounts Receivable
The accounts receivable section will track all the customers of your organization, the invoices due and the payments made from these customers. Loans and grant clients are set up in the TEA accounts list and, based on this information, they are included in the financial statements and reports. The only customers that need to be listed as a customer in accounts receivable are those who are purchasing a service or product from your organization other than your regular loans and grants programs.

A list of all services and products your organization sells will be added to the accounts receivable section which allows you to record an invoice when a customer has purchased an item from your organization. Then, once the customer has paid the invoice, it is recorded in the payments area of accounts receivable to identify the invoice as being paid and no longer outstanding.

Customer Invoice

Inventory
The inventory section allows you to track all the products sold by your organization. Each inventory item is listed here and the quantities of each in stock item at each of your organization’s warehouses or locations is tracked. At any point, the total quantity of each inventory item at each of your organizations locations can be viewed easily. If your organization has multiple locations where inventory is stored, you may record each location as a warehouse. Creating these warehouse records allows you to track the total of each inventory item in stock at each warehouse.

Accounts Payable
The accounts payable section of the TEA Internal Accounting feature will track all the vendors from which your organization has purchased a service or product . Accounts payable tracks the invoices received from these vendors and the payments your organization has made to each vendor.

Accounts Payable Invoice

Summary
In summary, the TEA 10 internal accounting system may be a valuable alternative to an external accounting system. Even though TEA 10 will still have the capacity to export transactions to an external accounting system in the same manner as TEA 9, you can now make the choice to switch to TEA.

With all the features you expect from an accounting software package including a complete accounts payable, receivable and general journal, you will have all the tools required to manage everything regarding vendors, customers and inventory.

Join us for a Webinar on February 26

TEA 10 Overview

Due to the overwhelming response to this webinar on December 17, 2007, CommonGoals Software is pleased to announce that we are offering this free* TEA 10 webinar again on Tuesday, February 26, 2008. This webinar is a one-hour overview of the new application and some of the key new features you can expect. The purpose of the webinar is so organizations can understand some of the new features and the new capacity they will provide for your organization. We are very excited about the new product and we are confident you will really appreciate the changes we have made. During the webinar we will highlight new features such as:

• Enhanced Activity Management (Scheduler, Activities)


• Account-Centric Structure (Individuals, Business)


• Integrated General Ledger/Accounting


• Credit Report Integration


• Integrated Loan Application module


• New User-Interface and Grid structure


• Enhanced Reporting module (drill-down capabilities)


• Several major changes in Loan and Project modules

Please take the time to join us for a preview of the many great new things to come in TEA 10!!

Title: TEA 10 Overview

Date: Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST

Space is limited.
Reserve you Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/956245291

* Long distance charges may apply

Join us for a Webinar on December 17

TEA 10 Overview

CommonGoals Software is pleased to announce that we are conducting free TEA 10 webinars to provide a one-hour overview of the new application and some of the key new features you can expect. The purpose of the webinar is so organizations can understand some of the new features and the new capacity they will provide for your organization. We are very excited about the new product and we are confident you will really appreciate the changes we have made. During the webinar we will highlight new features such as:

• Enhanced Activity Management (Scheduler, Activities)
• Account-Centric Structure (Individuals, Business)
• Integrated General Ledger/Accounting
• Credit Report Integration
• Integrated Loan Application module
• New User-Interface and Grid structure
• Enhanced Reporting module (drill-down capabilities)
• Several major changes in Loan and Project modules

Please take the time to join us for a preview of the many great new things to come in TEA 10!!

Title: TEA 10 Overview

Date: Monday, December 17, 2007

Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST

Space is limited.
Reserve you Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/411822329

Commitment Transaction

TEA 10 now allows you to create transaction-level Commitment transactions. We have added a new transaction type to facilitate the recording and management of committed or approved funds. By recording the Commitments in the transactions, general ledger integration is possible. This significantly enhances fund management as all the reporting and transactional information is contained in one table. Additionally, by recording Committments in the transactions, you will have the ability to deallocate committed funds and assign them to the approriate funding pool or source. As well, undisbursed amount are tracked at a transaction level and can easily be reported on by date.

Commitment transactions will be added to loan transactions during the conversion process. For each Term record with a New amount, a Commitment transaction will be inserted in the appropriate location based on the date of the Term.

Financing Projects

TEA 10 now provides the ability to create and manage Financing Projects. A Financing Project allows organizations to create single or multiple financing instruments (loans, grants) under a single entity. This method provides a new tier in the process for managing loans or grants and the purpose is to provide a central point to manage Financing Projects and core metrics related to the project.

For example, an organization may approach you to develop a facility or housing project that requires multiple phases of financing and different financing instruments for project completion. Typically, each financial instrument would have a separate record (loan, grant, etc.) and they would be associated to the borrower. Though each loan is directly associated to the borrower, this method does not allow for a project entity or for the centralization of project information. Each loan provided captures specific metrics and data regarding the impact of that loan but no cumulative data is rolled up at a project level. In some cases this can cause duplication in recording social metrics and outcomes. For example, if you provided a term loan and a line of credit for an individual project, which investment is responsible for creating jobs or leveraging funds? You could potentially split between the two investments but that becomes confusing and creates data integrity issues. Financing Projects solve this problem by allowing you to record those metrics in one place regardless of how many financing instruments exist for the project.

With the addition of this module or view in TEA 10, you can create a financing instrument and then associate it to a specific project. Financing Projects are not mandatory, so based on the nature of your organization and lending activities, you can use this feature optionally. If your organization requires the tracking of outcomes and outputs you will need to implement Financing Projects into your process.

As outlined above, the Financing Projects module boasts most features that all the core modules have in TEA 10. This includes the ability to create Activities (Tasks/Appointments), Activity Logs (Time Allocation/Activity Outcomes), Notes, Attachments, Groups, User Defined Fields (240) in addition to tracking multiple addresses, Jobs (Created/Retained), Leveraged Funds, Incurred Expenses and Use of Funds.

Grouping in TEA 10

Many analysts currently using TEA categorize records into groups that are unique to their organization. This grouping feature aids in the management of records throughout the various modules within TEA. For example, in the Persons module, an analyst may create a group named ‘Volunteers’. As new Volunteers are added to the database, they can be associated to the volunteers group.

The main advantage of grouping is the ability to break down the list of records within a module into smaller, more manageable lists. In addition, TEA reports, merge letters, labels and bulk e-mail may be generated for a specific group. For example, if your board requires a report on total volunteers, you may create a group for these records, allowing you to easily print any report for only those records within that group.

TEA 10 has enhanced this already valuable feature:

Sub-Grouping
Not only can you create a list of groups within each module, but in TEA 10, you now have the ability to create sub-groups within a group or even sub-groups within a sub-group. The value of this enhancement is the ability to further organize records. For example, in the Persons module, you may have a main group named ‘Volunteers’ that includes every volunteer member of the organization. Within that group, you may create a sub-group for each specific committee or project the volunteer is assisting with. By creating the specific sub-groups, you can easy drill-down to the desired list of persons or objects in any module.

Organizing Groups
The grouping feature has become more flexible and allows users to easily modify the layout in which the groups are organized. By simply using the mouse, you are able to drag and drop groups and sub-groups into the desired position on the group navigation tree. This gives you complete control over the location of each group.

In addition to drag and drop capabilities for the positioning of groups, you also have the capacity to drag and drop selected records directly into groups. The drag and drop feature gives you the option to place the records into an existing group, or easily create a new group for the records.

As well, changing the name of an existing group is now simply a matter of selecting that group and assigning a new name to it. All the records associated to the original group will remain associated after the name has been modified.

Referral Management

One of the mandates of your nonprofit or microlending organization is to provide a comprehensive system of information and referrals to your clients. To do that, you must first be aware of all agencies and resources available in the community, then find out what services are offered and what their limitations are. Referrals are an effective way to combine and leverage resources in your community.

In order to make and receive optimal referrals, it is vital to evaluate a referral service to ensure that it can serve your clients competently, but it is equally important that you make your own services known to other agencies and organizations that can refer clients to you.

Tracking Referrals

Once a referral network has been established, referrals must be tracked and monitored to maintain adequate documentation and to evaluate both the effectiveness of the assistance provided and the ongoing needs of the clients. Each referral should be recorded so that your organization can track the frequency of referral from each source and ensure timely follow up. The tracking is especially important in identifying the value generated or received from referrals. As well, it can show if preferred referrals are occurring between partners and in what proportions.

In TEA 10, you can manage both incoming and outgoing referrals by:

• Populating the referral data (Date, Source, Person being referred, Direction of referral, i.e., incoming or outgoing, and Channel) into the database;
  
  
• Updating the data as it changes;
  
  
• Retrieving the data quickly and accurately; and
  
  
• Tracking the referral results.

Referral Services

Another important piece of information to track about referrals is the list of services offered and received. The services list within a referral record is a high-level or marketing list of services that your organization and your partner organizations provide to clients. This list is not a detailed or comprehensive list of the actual activities and services used for tracking purposes, but rather a high level generalization of these services.

During the process of creating a client referral record in TEA 10, you can select the referral services tab and select all the services of interest to the client.

TEA 10 makes referral tracking and management easy, and it will also allow you to quantify the effectiveness of your referral programs and report on those results to your funders and partners.