Pastel Partner Accounting: Company Cleanup

[michellepace]

Hi there,

Just looking for some thoughts on the best way forward here.

After many years of using v14 our company in Pastel has become very messy. Next week we are upgrading to v19. As part of the process I want to completely clean up our company for the new financial year.

AIM: Cleanup our Messy Pastel Company

• Our GL accounts are very messy
• We have 520 suppliers/customers we haven't used for 2 years
• Our suppliers/customers' Acc No. Codes are inconsistently named
• We have inventory Items we don't use and want to delete
• We have redundant cashbooks

My planned method

• Create an entireyly new company in v.19
• Create my new GL accounts (design driven by owner - ie what is useful for him to see) in the new company
• Create relevant cashbooks in the new company
• Export a list of current suppliers / customers, fix their Acc No. Codes, import into new company
• Export a list of the Inventory Item Codes I want to keep, import into new company

What I'm worried about

• What about the invocies we have issued in March already, how do I bring them over into the new company?
• What about outstanding balances of customers or supplieres, how do I bring them over into the new company?
• What about current goods received notes and purchases orders...

My Question
Can anyone suggest how I address the points that I'm worried about? I'm not fixed to the method I've planned to do my cleanup, so if there's a better way to cleanup things as well as address my worry points - - I'm all ears ??

Thanks very much in advance,
Michelle

[Neville Bailey]

Hi Michelle,

I am sure I can assist you with the above, although you seem to have already covered most of the issues quite well.

Drop me an email and we can discuss the process (and a few other options) off the forum.

[Neville Bailey]

Hi Michelle,

Let's rather discuss these issues on the forum, as the ideas might be useful to others...

What about the invocies we have issued in March already, how do I bring them over into the new company?

Provided you have not yet updated the March invoices, and they are all in one sequential batch, you can export the batch and then import them into the new company. The new company will automatically assign new document numbers to the imported batch so, in order to retain the original document numbers, go to Setup...Company Parameters...Settings tab and change the next document number for customer invoices to line up with the first document number in the batch. You might also need to edit some of the line items in the batch before importing it, to tie up to any GL and/or stock codes that you might have changed in the new company.

What about outstanding balances of customers or supplieres, how do I bring them over into the new company?

You will been to process a customer and supplier journal, per account, to debit the customer accounts and credit the supplier accounts with the take-on balances in the new company, and use a Suspense account as the Contra. The same principle will apply to the GL accounts, in which case you will use a general journal. In the case of your cashbooks, use either the cashbook payments journal or the cashbook receipts journal (depending on whether the balance is an overdraft or a favourable balance). After the take-on balances have been processed, the suspense account should have a zero balance.

What about current goods received notes and purchases orders...

In the case of purchase orders, follow the same process as the invoices above. For current GRNs, you will need to capture them again, as there will be no open batch of GRNs available to export from the old company.

[michellepace]

Thanks very much Neville, that is a very helpful reply. Is there anything else I need to be aware of off the top of your head?

I read through this article which I also found useful, here it is in case it's useful for anyone else: http://www.basicbookkeepers.com.au/b...unting-systems

[Kevin Smith]

Hi Michelle

It is possible to clean up your existing data - which might be easier than a fresh take-on.

After you upgrade and run the year end, there is an option to "Delete History/Clear Files". This can delete all transactions "3+ years" and older. After year end, you will only have 1 years history if this is run. Customers, Suppliers and Inventory /Items that do not have balances and have not been used in the last year can then be deleted. Match off their open items before you run the Delete History to ensure old customers/suppliers won't be retained. Report can be found under View Cust/Suppl Monthly Open Item History. Under the "Change" Menu, you have the option to renumber codes. You can number inconsistent Customers, Supplier and Inventory Items, and it will change the "last years history" you have on file to the new codes. You can delete unused cashbooks (Setup Entrytypes - set cashbook account to nil) then delete the entry type and delete the GL account (Edit GL Accounts).

As for the GL - you will need a support consultants assistance here. We can map the GL accounts you have to a new structure, merge sub account data into main accounts, merge main accounts, etc - all whilst keeping the last years history. Depending on the size of your Chart of Accounts, and the number of changes you need, this generally shouldn't take more than a couple of hours.

[michellepace]

Hi Michelle

It is possible to clean up your existing data - which might be easier than a fresh take-on.

• After you upgrade and run the year end, there is an option to "Delete History/Clear Files". This can delete all transactions "3+ years" and older. After year end, you will only have 1 years history if this is run.
• Customers, Suppliers and Inventory /Items that do not have balances and have not been used in the last year can then be deleted. Match off their open items before you run the Delete History to ensure old customers/suppliers won't be retained. Report can be found under View Cust/Suppl Monthly Open Item History.
• Under the "Change" Menu, you have the option to renumber codes. You can number inconsistent Customers, Supplier and Inventory Items, and it will change the "last years history" you have on file to the new codes.
• You can delete unused cashbooks (Setup Entrytypes - set cashbook account to nil) then delete the entry type and delete the GL account (Edit GL Accounts).

As for the GL - you will need a support consultants assistance here. We can map the GL accounts you have to a new structure, merge sub account data into main accounts, merge main accounts, etc - all whilst keeping the last years history. Depending on the size of your Chart of Accounts, and the number of changes you need, this generally shouldn't take more than a couple of hours.

Hi Kevin, yes indeed - I said to our accountant that I'm going to create new companies and she almost had heart failure (understandably). Hahah. So yes, I have simply imported the companies into version 19 (which I installed yesterday). I'll head into the office today and step through the steps you have detailed in your thread directly above. Thanks once again a very useful reply, thank you. As for the GL accounts, my accountant says she knows how to do that. But I'll see how we go and possibly post back here requesting assistance.

In summary, I'll follow your steps and post my progress here in case it will be of use to anyone else. I may need help with the GL accounts when I get there and will be in touch. Thanks again!

Michelle