Among the various features of Advantage that use these classifications of posting codes to determine what actions to take with journal and ledger records are Annual Close and the Trial Balance report. Reports such as those in the Annual Consolidated Financial Reports (ACFR) can use these classifications to enable the selection of multiple posting codes with the specification of one or more classifications. This is a recommended approach when feasible because the introduction of new posting codes would not require a change to the report logic.
A set of values are delivered and others can be added. When adding new classifications, the code used should be one that begins with 80 or higher so that later releases do not provide a new baseline closing classification code with the same ID. Deleting codes is not recommended. If one is not to be used, then all of the posting codes should be disassociated. Changing settings on existing codes is also permitted. Keeping a record of any changes is a very good idea in case the baseline posting closing classifications have to be restored.
Fields on the Posting Code Closing Classification (PSCDCL) page are as follows, with common ones omitted:
Field Name |
Field Description |
Closing Classification Code |
A unique identifier for each closing classification code. Delivered codes contain one or two numbers. |
Real Posting Code |
When the closing of a real account (a posting code with an account type restriction and an associated balance sheet account) occurs, the balance in that account is closed to this posting code. The posting code is a clearing code that is only used in closing and not used for recording normal business activity. The Real Posting Code should have the same Account Type, Cash Account, and Memo Account settings as all posting codes that belong to the closing classification that uses the Real Posting Code. |
Fund Balance Posting Code |
When the Close Fund Into Account field is set to Fund Balance for a fund on the Fund reference page all activity for posting codes with a closing classification that has a Closing Action of Close Out Nominal will close to the Fund Balance Posting Code of that closing classification. |
Retained Earnings Posting Code |
When the Close Fund Into Account field is set to Retained Earnings for a fund on the Fund reference page, all activity for posting codes with a closing classification that has a Closing Action of Close Out Nominal will close to the Fund Balance Posting Code of that closing classification. |
Agency Due To Posting Code |
When the Close Fund Into Account field is set to Agency Due for a fund on the Fund reference page, all activity for posting codes with a closing classification that has a Closing Action of Close Out Nominal will close to the Fund Balance Posting Code of that closing classification. |
Offset Posting Code |
When activity is closed out for a nominal account or to the Net Asset account, there has to be an offsetting entry to balance out the closing in the old fiscal year. When rolling forward into a new year under a new account, there has to be a posting code for use in the new year. The Offset Posting Code value serves all of these purposes. |
Closing Action |
There are four different closing actions that serve four very distinct annual close results.
When such activity is found in the input ledger for Annual Close, the program will ignore those records. Such accounts often are just for reporting purposes in the year recorded and have no accounting impact in any financial statements. When this action is true, none of the posting code fields should be completed.
When such activity is found in the input ledger for Annual Close, the program will close the balance out to the Real Posting Code in accounting period 99 of the old year and record the original balance to the original account in accounting period 0 of the new year. All of the Chart-of-Account information is the same between both lines.
When such activity is found in the input ledger for Annual Close, the program will close the balance out to the Real Posting Code in accounting period 99 of the old year and record the original balance to Offset Posting Code in accounting period 0 of the new year. Chart-of-Account information on both lines is at the level of detail available in the ledger used for Annual Close, which will be greatly reduced from what level was recorded on the original liability.
When such activity is found in the input ledger for Annual Close, the program will close out the balance to the Real Posting Code and offset it with an entry to the Offset Posting Code. The Real Posting code will infer a new balance sheet account (according to the default account setup for that posting code) to be used with the other COA of the selected record in the old year. The Offset Posting code will not infer any new COA and just use that of the selected account in the old year. All of this activity occurs in accounting period 99 of the old year. The Real Posting Code will fall into a classification that has a roll action of Roll Forward. Thus an account with the Close To Net Assets action will result in 4 annual closing entries.
Expenditures and Collected Earned Revenues - When such activity is found in the input ledger for Annual Close, the program will close out the balance to the proper posting code (Fund Balance or Retained Earnings or Agency Due To) and offset it with an entry to the Offset Posting Code. Both entries will use the original COA of the input records and be recorded in accounting period 99 of the old year. The Fund Balance, Retained Earnings, or Agency Due To Posting Code will fall into a classification that has a roll action of Roll Forward. Thus an account with the Close Out Nominal action will result in 4 annual closing entries. |