Product: Integrated Financials

Bostonpost Financials is a suite of web-based applications for the management of GL (General Ledger), AP (Accounts Payable), AR (Accounts Receivable), Cash Management, Budgeting, and Financial Reporting. Financial transactions from all properties flow into the GL, providing accurate, real-time data with full drill-down capabilities and complete audit trails.

Financial Dashboard Pages

The starting point for all users in Bostonpost Financials is an easy-to-use dashboard. You can customize your dashboard to monitor the aspects of the business that concern you. The dashboard can include a variety of components, such as calendars, lists of records, shortcuts, reports, graphs, smart links, and even news feeds from a variety of sources. Components that you want to monitor on an infrequent basis can be collapsed and later expanded.

General Ledger & Budgeting

The General Ledger application is completely integrated with all aspects of the financial software, providing effortless drilldown to all source transactions. Reporting capabilities are extensive, and all standard financial reports allow drilldown from financial statement line items to individual transactions. The built-in report wizard allows you to create variations of reports, including income statements, balance sheets, budget variance reports, statement of cash flows, and so on. Budgeting tools enable rapid entry and easy monitoring of performance versus budget calculations in financial reports.

General Ledger features include:

  • Real-time posting of data from any user or location;
  • Automatic journal entries during nightly processing;
  • Unlimited transactions and history;
  • Templates for nonaccounting users to safely post to GL;
  • File attachment to transactions;
  • Sophisticated budget capability by GL account, department, and location;
  • The option to keep books open indefinitely or closed at the end of each period;
  • A quick and easy method to create a standard or custom chart of accounts;
  • Statistical accounts that can be tracked and customized;
  • User-defined journals, recurring journal entries, and nonstandard reporting periods;
  • Thirteen, 4-week accounting periods;
  • Cash- and accrual-based accounting;
  • 32-character account numbers with full dynamic masking capabilities;
  • Fund accounting capability.


The General Ledger drill-down inquiry capability shows period and cumulative balances for every account, period, and year. You can reveal all debits and credits posted for each transaction with the
drill-down feature.
Pictured above is a GL linked to the batch payment of 1,651.00 to Inter-Entity Payables, linked to the line items in the batch payment.

General Ledger Reports

  • Reports include custom financials, trial balance, comparative trial balance, account balances, general ledger, journals, chart of accounts, and account groups hierarchy.
  • Built-in financial report wizard allows for the easy creation of custom financial reports and statements.
  • Side-by-side reported data allows for comparisons by departments and locations.
  • Report columns may contain periods, or side-by-side comparisons of any level of department or location hierarchy detail, including budget vs. actual.
  • Statistical accounts enable computations in financial reports such as average rent per square foot.


Month-end and year-end closing processes are not necessary. Posting to retained earnings for future years occurs automatically on a transaction-by-transaction basis. However, periods can be “soft closed” to prevent any further postings.

You can print out any historical ledger or journal for any prior period at any time, so you do not have to print out all of your audit trail reports at month-end or year-end.

The creation of comprehensive financial statements has never been so easy. Users design their own financial statements through an OLE link to Microsoft Excel. The number of financial statements that can be designed and produced is unlimited. The financial statement generator allows comparisons to previous years and quarters with graphs, bar charts, and pie charts.

The General Ledger drill-down inquiry capability shows period and cumulative balances for every account, period, and year. You can reveal all debits and credits posted for each transaction with the drill-down feature.

The financial statement generator accommodates different account masks for different companies that consolidate into a single financial statement. Account masks can be defined with up to 15 segments.


Reports can be customized and saved to your specifications and then displayed in a number of ways, including HTML, PDF, and Excel or CSV. Choose "Process Offline" if you want the system to process your reports in the background and then make them available. This is particularly useful for large reports that take a long time to process.

GL Template Transaction Feature

The template transaction feature makes it easy for non-accounting users to post transactions to the GL. More importantly, the end user of the template needs no knowledge of the intricacies of account numbers, departments or locations.

Implementing transaction templates involves two types of activities. First, accounting personnel create the transaction template and give the appropriate users permission to use them. In so doing, the template design always includes a preassigned account number. Pictured below is an example of a template being set up for monthly depreciation of Oak Manor.


Secondly, anyone who works with the properties can now enter in the monthly depreciation by using the template pictured below; the operator does not need any knowledge of accounting. All they need to do is enter the depreciation amounts for the land, building, and building improvements in the spaced provided. When saved, the system posts the amounts to the GL in the correct accounts, department and location.


 

 

Accounts Payable

The Accounts Payable module provides a comprehensive solution for managing the full AP cycle, including an optional payment approval cycle you can customize to the way your company does business.

Levels of authorization for approval can be configured to match your existing process. For example, checks less than $500 may not require approval, but those over $5,000 may need additional approval by authorized staff. You may require two check signatures that can be signed or digital, where the second is required at a preset amount. Additionally, the system can apply uploaded, digital signatures from staff with approval authorization to those checks that they choose. You may also attach digital files or supporting documents to transactions, providing permanent and secure access to underlying documentation.

The system supports numerous payment types and methods. Payment types include full or partial payments against vendor bills, recurring and future payments, advances, and quick checks. Payment methods include manual checks, printed checks, online check delivery, cash, credit cards, and funds transfer. Overpayments and other amounts that vendors owe you can be applied to the next bill you pay.

Accounting controls are assured with user permission controls that define segregation of duties. For example, the tasks of entering vendor bills, requesting payments, approving payments, and printing checks can be separated on a per-user basis to ensure accountability and security. In addition, bills may not be deleted or edited once they are paid.

To aid in cash management, the application generates a wide variety of easily customizable aging and payables reports and graphs. Reports include the vendor list, AP ledger, vendor aging, bills register, and 1099 forms and reports, and provide you with convenient drilldown to vendor and bill detail.

Check Register
Searching for the status of a check is very easy with the Check Register. Reports show the reconciliation status of each check. Reports may be grouped by the banks on which the checks were drawn, the vendors who were paid, or the date on which the checks were written. You may filter the report by checking account, employee, or check number. You may add a second line that also includes line-item detail.

Accounts Payable features include:

  • Real-time posting of AP transactions, no matter where entered;
  • Full AP cycle with optional, custom. check approval limits with online approvals and approval history;
  • Support for the following payment methods: printed online checks, cash, credit cards, and funds transfers;
  • Full support for vendor payments, debit memos, and credit memos;
  • Support for recurring bills and scheduled payments;
  • Scheduling of check payment dates to improve cash management;
  • Unlimited number of vendors with multiple contact names and addresses per vendor;
  • Cash or accrual basis accounting with open item and balance forward accounts;
  • Multiple payment methods including check, cash, credit card, and funds transfer;
  • Split payments over multiple line-items, each with their own 1099 designation.

Reports

  • Reports include vendor list, AP ledger, aging, bills register, 1099 forms, and drilldown to bill detail;
  • Comprehensive aging reports with multiple, user-definable, aging periods.

Entering bills is quick and easy
The Bostonpost Financial suite is an easy-to-use, intuitive program. Online references with context-sensitive help topics and tutorials are available every step of the way. In addition to being user-friendly, the program is built to facilitate automation of repetitive tasks.

 

Pictured above is a screen capture of the entry of multiple bills to A1 Plumbing and Drain. All entry screens allow the user to easily tab from one entry area to the next to avoid using the mouse to enter information. Drop down menus are available throughout the program to access information. All you need to do is click and scroll or use the keyboard to enter the first number or letter to quickly select the entry you need.

If vendor information is already in the system, this information will automatically populate the appropriate fields as needed. For instance, if the program is configured to "populate from last bill," information from a previous bill for that vendor will fill the entry fields. The information for the new bill can then be edited as needed.

You can choose to use a number of features to enhance your work flow: auto-batching, enforcement of credit limits, and the ability to be warned if duplicate bill numbers are entered.

Any notes that are added for reference stay with the history of the entry and can easily be viewed at the various stages of accounting.

When you first create a record, the "Pay To/Return To" Contacts are automatically populated from the corresponding information entered in Vendor Information. If you return to this screen to edit a transaction—and the information for that contact has changed in the intervening time since you originally selected it—the system displays a "Get Latest Information" checkbox. At this point you can choose to use the new contact information or the old, depending on what task you need to complete.

The Payment process

Payments can be managed via the following methods: printed online checks, cash, credit cards, and funds transfers.

To manage payments, use the "Select Bills To Pay" filter. Numerous controls are available to fine tune a subset of your bills that you want to process. You may also make format choices, so the system presents the list to you as you wish. Filter and sort by vendor, bill payment priority, due date, recommended payment date, and the discount available as of date.

Use the "Select to Pay" screen, pictured below, to determine the total amount you wish to pay to a vendor on a specific bill, or use it to record payments made outside the system, which would include credit cards and funds transfers. You can also see any discounts that are available, calculate discounts based on different payment dates, apply credit (or debit) memos, and choose the dates of payments. You can also pay multiple bills with one check if they are going to one vendor, or you can choose to make split payments.

If your company has enabled an approval process, the items are submitted for approval. After the approval process is complete, checks may be printed.

Print checks directly from Bostonpost Financials to laser check paper. You can customize the checks to print the check panel, vendor and remittance panel, and your company’s remittance panel to your specifications.

Before checks are printed to paper, the system will launch Adobe Acrobat and display the image of the first check, so you can visually verify the check on your computer monitor before you print it.

 

 

Cash Management

Cash Management is integrated with GL, AP, and AR and allows convenient management of all cash accounts, with features to receive payments, make deposits, print checks, record manual checks, record funds transfers and card charges, pay off charges, and reconcile your cash accounts.

The application smoothly handles the transfer of funds from one cash account to another. You can examine the cash balance report to verify the balances of your accounts to determine if you need to make a transfer or if there are sufficient funds that can be transferred.

Reconciliation facilities are provided for all checking, savings, and charge card accounts. Simply enter open items, the statement ending balance, and bank charges, and then select all the items that have cleared.

Reports include bank, check, deposits, and charge card registers along with a cash balances report. The registers allow you to drill down to the details quickly and conveniently.

Cash Management features allows you to:

  • Receive payments, make deposits, print checks, record manual checks, and record funds
    transfers;
  • Receive payments such as counter receipts without entering invoices in AR;
  • Accumulate receipts in an un-deposited funds account for later deposit or record deposited funds;
  • Record funds transfers for any cash account;
  • Print quick checks to vendors and record manually written checks;
  • Manage credit card transactions easily by transaction or by statement;
  • Voided checks; transactions are reversible;
  • Pay off credit card charges via locally printed or online check, cash, or funds transfer;
  • Reconcile cash accounts with the easy-to-use reconciliation function.

Reports

  • Reports include bank, check, deposit registers and cash balances.
  • Registers allow drilldown to details about vendors, customers and transactions.

 

Use Bostonpost Financials to reconcile all checking, savings, and charge card accounts. In the application, sort the columns of reconciliation by transaction list, date, document number, payee, amount, or any combination of these fields.

Pictured above is a bank reconciliation.

To reconcile an account, select the clear checkboxes for all items on the statement. The reconciled balance and difference will update to show the current financial status.

If items are missing in the current cash management screen, quickly adjust balance differences by using the quick transactions buttons. This allows you to create additional transactions during the reconcile process to balance the account. Easily add items like interest and charges, add journal entries, do quick checks, apply payments, make deposits, or transfer funds. For instance, this feature is very useful if someone has written a manual check that was not recorded in the system. To update the account, select the "Create Manual Check" button and enter the details. Use the "Quick Transactions" buttons to quickly add interest or finance charges that you were not aware of earlier.

Break up a lengthy reconciliation session by selecting the save button. When you return to the program, the selections you made earlier will remain.

When the reconcile process is complete, access the reconciliation history to view reports from prior reconciliations. View all cleared and outstanding transactions and the dates they were entered.

 

 

Accounts Receivable


The Accounts Receivable application allows users to easily create and send invoices, receive and apply regular and advance payments, apply penalties and adjust accounts, make deposits and deliver statements, and get up-to-the minute reports in real-time.

Invoice input screens offer fast data-entry options that prepopulate the next invoice with the appropriate data from the previous one. A fast batch-entry mode enables easy, after-the-fact, bulk invoice entry where customers can be created on the fly.

Payments accumulated for later deposit can be placed into an undeposited funds account until you make the deposit. A quick deposit can be attributed to a customer account but not to a specific invoice. Invoices may not be deleted or edited once they are paid, which results in a high degree of accounting control. Transaction detail is retained forever for quick access to customer history.

Accounts Receivable is fully integrated with other financial applications for real-time posting of all transactions.

Accounts Receivable features include:

  • The option to apply receipts via full AR cycle or quick receipts in Cash Management;
  • Fast, batch data-entry mode for efficient entry of manually written invoices;
  • Automated generation and batch processing of recurring invoices;
  • Support for customer advance payments that can be applied later to invoices;
  • User-defined finance charges that can be applied automatically;
  • Transactions that can be applied to departments and locations;
  • Cash or accrual basis accounting, with open-item and balance-forward accounts;
  • Printed or emailed invoices and statements;
  • Customizable access controls for determining who has access to specific tasks and data.