General Ledger (GL) Batches are used to summarize data in Aptify and export the summaries for use in the General Ledger. After records have been batched to the general ledger, Aptify does not allow changes to the records included in the batch. This ensures an audit trail between the data in the accounting system and Aptify. Each order, payment, or scheduled transaction record indicates that it has been batched and that it cannot be modified in any way that affects the financial transactions in the batch.

• Common Batching Scenarios
• Recommended Batching Methods
• Expanding Scheduled Transaction Groups
• Scheduling Batches
• Regenerating GL Entries

Common Batching Scenarios

There are several reasons to batch frequently:

• To cause the General Ledger to reflect transactions promptly.
• To discover errors as soon as possible.
• To expedite the batch creation process.
• To use fewer system resources while batching.

Batching weekly or even daily lets organizations benefit from these advantages. The frequency of the batching cycle depends upon a number of factors that are organization-specific. These factors include the number of transactions processed per day, the need for the frequency of recognizing revenue, and the resources available for processing the batches.

Recommended Batching Methods

Batches should be created as frequently as is suitable for the organization's business practices and resources; weekly batching is recommended. More importantly, establishing a batching schedule that consists of standard periods creates a routine and provides a consistent way to provide information for financial statements. It is a good practice to use a batching schedule that matches the organization's financial statement schedule. Frequent batching causes the General Ledger to reflect transaction activity in a timely manner and promotes early discovery of potential errors.

Recommended batching methods also apply in three areas, described below: expanding scheduled transaction groups, scheduling batches, and regenerating GL entries.

Expanding Scheduled Transaction Groups

It is best to expand Scheduled Transaction Groups often instead of letting them accumulate. Expanding the groups can be resource intensive. All Scheduled Transaction Groups must be expanded before a Scheduled Transaction Batch can be created. If the Scheduled Transaction Groups are not expanded, the Scheduled Transaction batch will expand all remaining groups. This process is performed to ensure that all scheduled transactions falling within the batch criteria are included in the batch.

Scheduling Batches

It is a common practice to batch Orders, Scheduled Transactions, and Payments once per week. The schedule should be tailored to each organization's needs, resources, and schedule for generating financial statements. If necessary, the schedule can be less frequent depending on the financial reporting needs of the organization. A less frequent batch schedule works best if the volume of transactions is low and if the batches are generated when the machine where batching occurs is not needed for other tasks.

Whenever possible, schedule batches that match a financial statement schedule. Batch totals are easiest to understand if they match up with totals for related transactions. For example, in a given company a financial statement is produced weekly. In this case, Scheduled Transactions should be batched weekly instead of less often. This method should generate batch totals that match the totals on the financial statements, which allows accurate financial statements to be generated and audited.

Payments require different batching scheduled based on various factors:

• Credit Card payments should be batched once each day that an ePayment capture is performed. This schedule allows nightly settling of the credit card account. If the account is settled less frequently, the batch schedule should be adjusted accordingly.
• Check and Cash payments are batched differently depending on whether a lock box is used. Without a lock box, the check and cash payments should be batched once per deposit. With a lock box, the check and cash payments should be batched once per cash control batch. This schedule allows payment batches to match deposits.

Regenerating GL Entries

The batch wizard provides an opportunity to regenerate Order or Payment GL entries, if necessary, before the batch is processed, as described below.

Order Batches

General Ledger entries are automatically created by the system when orders are shipped. However, the GL entries may be regenerated at the time of the batch. For example, regenerating GL entries may be necessary if product GL accounts changed during the month and the organization wishes to regenerate detail records based on the new account information. Otherwise, the entries should not be regenerated. Batches can be created with greater speed if entries are not regenerated.
For example, in the middle of an accounting period, an organization updates the GL Account assignment for a product that was sold during that accounting period. When orders for the affected product are batched, the GL entries can be regenerated to automatically update and correct the GL entries for those orders.

Payment Batches

As with Orders, users of the systems have the option of regenerating the GL entries for each payment qualifying for the batch. GL entries are automatically created by the system when payments are saved. However, the GL entries may be regenerated at the time of the batch if changes to the GL Account setup have taken place during the accounting period. Regenerating GL entries is necessary for Payments records if the GL account configuration was altered after saving any of the payments to be included in the batch. Otherwise, the entries should not be regenerated. Batches can be created with greater speed if entries are not regenerated.

For example, in the middle of an accounting period, an organization reconfigures its Visa Payment Type so that customer payments made with Visa cards now are deposited in Account B rather than Account A. When it is time to run the Payments batch for that period, GL entries should be regenerated so that GL entries for Visa payments in that batch are updated and allocated properly to Account B.