Acounting

CV Pro

The posting and reconciliation tools in this section are only applicable to enterprise clients using CV Pro or CV9. If you are looking for information on the CV Online Posting process, refer to the CVO Posting Process Guide.

This document provides a description of the accounting flow in ClearVantage as well as detailed steps for reconciliation.

Please note that each system is configured based on your organization’s requirements and may not use all functionality outlined in this guide.

Accounting Flow Description

In ClearVantage, transactions become available to the accounting process when they are invoiced. Typically, users will open their own payment batches to apply payments against their created invoices.

The accounting process then picks up as follows:

1. Reviewing and approving the batches.

2. Processing for accounting, to create journal entries.

3. Exporting to accounting.

4. Reconciling the accounting system to data in ClearVantage.

Review and Approve Batches

When reviewing and approving payment batches, the following key steps and control activities should be followed. Refer to the Payment Batches section of the Finance for Accounting user guide for more details.

Reconcile cash receipts

Cash receipts should be reconciled to the bank deposit or credit card settlement report.

• ClearVantage activity: utilize report “Cash Summary” to compare totals by payment method.

• Corrective action: review and correct payments if needed.

Verify batch control total

Verify that the batch control total matches the batch actual amount. Note: this is an optional control, not all clients use this configuration.

• ClearVantage activity: review totals in Batch List or Batch Notebook.

• Corrective action: determine if correction is needed to payments or control total.

Enforce batch cutoff time

To facilitate reconciliation against the nightly credit card settlement report, the current day’s batch should be closed at the same time as the payment processor’s settlement cutoff time. This ensures that batch reports in ClearVantage can be easily compared to the settlement report by date.

• ClearVantageactivity: this is preventively enforced via system setting BATCHPAYCUTOFFTIME (Setting Time Zone is UTC). The system will warn users if they are entering a payment into a batch past its cutoff time, and web payments will automatically be redirected to the correct batch.

• Corrective action: if a payment is in the wrong batch, use the Transfer Batch feature to move the payment to the correct batch.

Verify no partially paid intercompany invoices

Posting a partially paid intercompany invoice causes Due From entries to be overstated (as compared to actual cash receipts) because ClearVantage creates the Due To/Due From entries based on the revenue items on the invoice (but actual cash receipts on the invoice are less than the total of the items).

• ClearVantage activity: review report “Intercompany Invoices” under payment batches

• Corrective action: do not post the invoice until fully paid; or use the Split Invoice Items functionality to move unpaid items to a different invoice.

Approve batch

When a batch is approved, it is no longer available for payment entry. If a user kept the batch open overnight, they will receive an error message when trying to save a payment into the batch.

• ClearVantage activity: in the Batch List, right-click on the batch, or in the Batch Notebook, under the Activity menu, select Approve Batch.

• Corrective action: if a user attempts to save a payment to an approved batch, determine whether to reopen the batch or instruct the user to open a new batch.

Process for Accounting

The ClearVantage Accounting Posting Wizard processes invoice item and payment transactions to generate journal entries as an input to the accounting system. To process transactions for accounting, the following key steps and control activities should be performed.

Post frequently (batched and unbatched)

It is a best practice to post frequently and consistently. This ensures posting steps are of manageable size and simplifies analysis, reconciliation, and troubleshooting.

Further, it is a good practice to avoid posting activity from today as these transactions are more likely to receive adjustments or new payment activity.

Batched posting

• ClearVantage activity: post payment batches daily, furthermore post significant batches separately from others. Do not post batches that have today’s date.

• Corrective action: if catching up on multiple days of unposted batches, stick to the practice of smaller, more manageable postings by continuing to post each day’s activity in a separate run and separate out significant batches.

Unbatched posting

• ClearVantage activity: “unbatched” revenue posting is used to capture adjustments to previously paid invoices.[1] These adjustments should be accounted for as they are created, meaning that at any point, there should not be unposted unbatched items from prior months. At an absolute minimum, this should be done as the last ClearVantage accounting activity as part of month-end.

• Corrective action: If unbatched items from prior months exist, review carefully to determine whether to post them to the prior month. In general, ensure an accurate unbatched posting by carefully reviewing the “Summary by Period” and “Revenue.”

The remaining steps and control activities in this section refer to the steps of the ClearVantage Accounting Posting Wizard. Additional detail can be found in the “ClearVantage Posting” section of the Finance for Accounting user guide.

Verify posting period

The posting period corresponds to the period in which the transaction should pass through the A/R account. In most cases it is the current period. A typical exception would be cleaning up month-end posting at the start of the next month or posting unbatched adjustments to a prior period.

• ClearVantage activity: verify or change the posting period on the Company Selection screen of the posting wizard.

• Corrective action: n/a

Select batches/unbatched for posting

It is a best practice to post either batches, or unbatched (but not at the same time). Payment batches should not be posted on the same day they are created as web batches could receive automated activity after posting which would not be included in posting.

• ClearVantage activity: select batches or unbatched option on the “Select Batches” screen.

• Corrective action: if transactions are erroneously included, unpost the run. If a web batch was included on the same day it was created, check for any unposted payments in that batch and use the Transfer Batch button in the payment to move the payment to a new batch for posting.

Review missing codes

Transactions must be mapped to an accounting code in order to be processed for accounting.

• ClearVantage activity: review “Missing Codes” screen.

• Corrective action: enter mappings as needed.

Review posting validation checks

The posting wizard can be configured to run a series of validation checks.

• ClearVantage activity: available on the “Missing Codes” screen, if configured, review the results of the validation checks. A result of “OK” means the check passed without issue, “Warning” means an issue was found outside the current posting, and “Error” means an issue exists with the current posting.

• Corrective action: the validation checks provide recommended corrective actions. Any checks marked “Error” should be resolved before proceeding.

  • Current baseline validation checks:

    • Invalid invoice items

    • Unmapped items

    • Partially paid intercompany invoices

    • Dues missing deferral account

    • Event missing deferral account

    • Missing tax account

    • Ledger reference code missing company code

    • Batch and payment company code mismatch

    • Batch and payment period mismatch

    • Unbatched adjustments to previously paid invoices

    • Account class configuration

    • Valid linked A/R account

Verify/select periods

The Summary by Period screen provides a summary by bill period of revenue and cash to be posted. Typically, this screen only requires user action when posting unbatched revenue.

• ClearVantage activity: verify that bill periods included in posting are appropriate for the selected post period.

• Corrective action: select or unselect periods as needed.

Verify in balance

The Summary by Period screen also provides an opportunity to verify that cash and revenue are in balance. In most common posting scenarios, the user is posting a payment batch, and if partial payments are not included, the posting totals for cash and revenue should match. In scenarios including partial payments, intercompany transactions, or unbatched adjustments, additional care must be taken to ensure an accurate posting as these scenarios will impact the A/R account.

• ClearVantage activity: verify the balance of Cash compared to Revenue.

• Correction action: select or unselect periods if appropriate, return to the batch/unbatched selection screen, review pre-posting reports for more detail (next section), or cancel the posting.

Review pre-posting reports

The pre-posting reports provide a preview of the posting result and can serve as a control total for the posting process. In particular, net A/R adjustments should match user expectations and match the end result of the posting run.

• ClearVantage activity: on the Reports button, review reports labeled “pre-posting.”

• Corrective action: if posting data are unexpected, review detailed reports to determine any needed corrections.

Review cash in posting

Cash posting is typically straightforward, but details should be reviewed. This screen should be empty if posting unbatched revenue.

• ClearVantage activity: review “Cash Summary” screen for correctness.

• Corrective action: if posting data for cash are unexpected, it is a best practice to exit the posting wizard to resolve issues prior to posting. The most likely issue at this point is that a payment is found to be in the incorrect batch, which can be resolved by exiting posting, opening the affected payment(s), and using the “Transfer Batch” feature to move the payment(s) to the correct batch(es).

Verify unprocessed or declined credit card payments are not in posting

In general, unprocessed, or declined credit cards should not be posted.

• ClearVantage activity: review “Cash Summary” screen for credit card payments with a “Processed” value of “N.”

• Corrective action: if a payment should not be included, one option is to return to batch selection and deselect the batch containing the payment(s) to exclude. The other option is to exit the posting wizard, open the affected payment(s), and use the “Transfer Batch” feature to move the payment(s) to a separate batch to be handled at a later time.

The following items address the “Revenue” tab of the posting wizard. This is a critical step and additional technical details may be found in the “Revenue Tab” of the Finance for Accounting user guide.

Verify revenue included in posting

When posting payment batches, revenue is typically straightforward as it is picked up based on its payment batch. “Unbatched” revenue is more likely to require careful review and adjustment of items included in posting.

• ClearVantage activity: review the “All Revenue” subtab. This tab is a list of all revenue items included in the current posting. The “Post?” column indicates if an item is included in posting because it is in a selected batch or unbatched (“Post”) or has been intentionally marked to post by a user or by custom system rules (“Force”). This column also has an option to allow the user to exclude an item from the current posting (“Hold”).

• Corrective action: if revenue items are incorrectly included or require further investigation, it is a best practice to cancel posting and resolve any issues prior to posting. Within the posting wizard, the “Hold” option allows the user to exclude a specific transaction from posting, but this should be done carefully, rarely, and on a case-by-case basis. An item marked “Hold” can cause posting reports to have unexpected results and will need to be posted later as unbatched revenue.

Review invoices impacting accounts receivable

When posting payment batches, there is typically no net change to accounts receivable unless a partial payment or overpayment is included. By contrast, unbatched revenue is used to create receivables or post adjustments and should therefore have a net impact to accounts receivable.

• ClearVantage activity: Review “Accounts Receivable” subtab for invoices impacting A/R. It has the same columns as the “All Revenue” tab.

• Corrective action: this subtab has the same options as the “All Revenue” tab.

Review partial payments

It is a best practice to avoid posting partial payments or partially paid invoices, and in particular to avoid posting partially paid intercompany invoices.

• ClearVantage activity: Review “Partial Payments” subtab. This tab contains key information about the invoice and its payments, including amount of payments applied to the invoice (“Applied Amt”), percentage of the invoice total being paid (“Payment Percentage”), number of payments (“Count”), and whether this is an intercompany transaction (“Payee Company,” “Invoiced Company,” and “Match Company”?).

• Corrective action: no actions are available on this subtab. The user can return to “All Revenue” to use the “Hold” option, however, as described above, it is a best practice to resolve issues prior to posting. For a partially paid invoice, this would mean cancelling posting and waiting to post the entire batch until all included invoices are fully paid, returning to the invoice to write-off or adjust the balance, or moving the partial payment(s) to a separate batch so that the current batch can be posted in balance.

At this point in the posting wizard, the user will have the option to review the posting in summary and will then post transactions to accounting.

After Posting - Review trial balance

After posting, the trial balance provides a summary of debits and credits by period, company, and account. Reviewing the trial balance is a critical step in the posting process.

Balance

• ClearVantage activity: verify that accounts, periods, and companies are in balance.

• Corrective action: Unpost the run, make corrections in the system, and re-post.

Missing or blank accounts

• ClearVantage activity: verify no entries have blank account codes. This could occur due to misconfigured accounting setup.

• Corrective action: it will be necessary to unpost the run. First, note all available information about the blank such as company, period, debits/credits, and review the trial balance to identify the other half of the transaction. Review the accounts setup in Company Info as well as Ledger Reference Codes for correctness.

Accounts receivable

• ClearVantage activity: review net A/R that it matches expectation; compare A/R debits and credits to totals for revenue and cash posting; compare to control total from pre-posting report.

• Corrective action: Unpost the run, make corrections in the system, and re-post.

Intercompany (if applicable)

• ClearVantage activity: verify that intercompany balances correspond.

• Corrective action: review the Detailed Posting Schedule report on individual intercompany invoices. Unpost the run if needed, make adjustments, then re-post.

Deferrals

• ClearVantage activity: verify that future period recognition is reasonable for items included in posting (e.g., event revenue associated with a November meeting should appear as recognition activity in November).

• Corrective action: If deferrals are incorrect, it will be necessary to unpost the run. The most likely issues are with the income account not being linked to a proper deferral account, incorrect bill period or period quantity on the invoice item, or the deferred revenue configuration may need to be adjusted.

Export to Accounting

The journal entries created in the accounting wizard are moved to the accounting system by exporting. The following activities and controls make up the exporting process. Refer to the “Exporting to Accounting” section of the Finance for Accounting user guide for more detail.

Export Frequently & Consistently

More frequent posting and exporting makes each smaller and easier to troubleshoot if issues arise. Daily exporting facilitates daily rollover in which the accounting system and ClearVantage are kept in sync and fully reconciled.

• ClearVantage activity: daily or near daily, use the “Export To Accounting” button to export transactions from the current or prior periods as appropriate. Do not export more than once per day (the export file is named by date, so exporting multiple times per day can result in the original file being overwritten).

• Corrective action: n/a

Mark transactions as exported

Transactions should be marked as exported. This prevents the same transaction from being exported again, which prevents the possibility of a duplicate transaction in the accounting system.

• ClearVantage activity: The export process will prompt the user to mark exported transactions as exported.

• Corrective action: if the user forgot to mark transactions as exported, move the exported file to a new location and then export again before doing any further posting. Use the new file for importing to the accounting system and save the old file in a separate folder so that it can be reviewed if needed.

Export deferral recognition entries separately

Deferral recognition entries can be exported separate from other transactions. This separation-of-issues can make importing to the accounting system simpler and easier to troubleshoot any issue that arise.

• ClearVantage activity: on the 1st of the month, export transactions for the month prior to doing any posting. This will pick up deferral recognition entries for the month.

• Corrective action: n/a

Posting Analysis & Reconciliation

The process for reconciliation centers on the ClearVantage Posting Analysis and Reconciliation tool. This tool analyzes only exported transactions so provides a useful source of comparison to the accounting system. Refer to the “ClearVantage Posting Analysis” section of the Finance for Accounting user guide for more details on this tool.

To analyze by export date,

• In the Posting Analysis tool, under Analyze By, select the Export Date option.

• Enter Start and End dates to correspond with the period being reconciled.

• Select the fiscal year option appropriate to data being reconciled (current vs previous).

Review total debits and credits

Period debits and credits should net to zero in total.

• ClearVantage activity: review totals at bottom of screen

• Corrective action: investigate account-level detail if totals do not match. Review GL detailed data or original export file for missing accounts or other bad data points.

Analyze by account class

Custom groupings can be analyzed by setting the Account Class in the Ledger Reference Codes reference table.

• ClearVantage activity: by default, the posting analysis is organized by company then account class. To analyze by account class, click-and-drag the Company CD header and place it next to the Ledger CD header. See screenshot on next page.

• Corrective action: if any accounts warrant further analysis, right-click on the account to access a detailed invoice-level report for further review.

Review AR detail

The “AR Detail” tab provides invoices with net impact to accounts receivable based on the invoice having a transaction exported in the specified date range (and subject to the fiscal year option).

• ClearVantage activity: review list for reasonableness. Note that the list contains all invoices which impacted A/R during the specified timeframe, as opposed to just the individual items impacting A/R. As such, the balance information is not expected to match the A/R total on the trial balance tab.

• Corrective action: to review further detail, open the invoice in question and review its Detailed Posting Schedule report.

Additional Analysis & Reconciliation

In addition to the Posting Analysis tool, the system contains numerous other ways to analyze and reconcile accounting and posting information, including the following:

• Invoice query tool: users can query a list of invoices based on many criteria, including posting-related information like post status, run number, and posting date.

• Payments query tool: similar to the invoice query tool, users can query a list of payments on many criteria such as date, payment type, payment batch, credit card processing info, posting status, run number, and posting date.

• Invoice-level reports: the baseline report “Detailed Posting Schedule” can be run from the invoice notebook to show the detailed journal entries generated for each line item. Users can add reports as well.

• System-level reports: the system contains numerous baseline reports to support posting analysis and reconciliation including the following highlighted reports. Users can create additional reports or download more reports from the ClearVantage Market Place.

  • “Aging Detail by Company”

  • “Deferred Account Transfers”

  • “GL Posting Schedule – Exported”

  • “Payment Batch Detail for Run Number”

  • “Posting Schedule with Invoice Detail for Run Number”

Note

“Unbatched” revenue posting is also used to create receivables. The applicability and proper frequency of creating receivables is dependent on the organization’s accounting practice.