Just as in general accounting, analytic entries should be related to an account and an analytic journal.
Analytic records can be distinguished from general records by the following characteristics:
- they are not necessarily legal accounting documents
- they do not necessarily belong to an existing accounting period
- they are managed according to their date and not an accounting period
- they do not generate both a debit and a credit entry, but a positive amount (income) or a negative amount (cost).
Even though most analytic entries are produced automatically by the @/Arpro program, it is sometimes necessary to record manual entries. It is usually needed for certain analytic operations which have no counterpart in the general accounts.
Analytic accounting is totally integrated with the general ledger, so you never have to re-enter the records. They are automatically generated by the following operations:
- confirmation of an invoice generates analytic entries for sales or purchases connected to the account shown in the invoice line
- the entry of a service generates an analytic entry for the cost of this service to the given project
- the manufacturing of a product generates an entry for the manufacturing cost of each operation in the product range
Other documents linked to one of these three operations produce analytic records indirectly. For example, when you are entering a customer sales order, you can link it to the customer’s analytic account. When you are managing by case or project, mark the project with that order. This order will then generate a customer invoice, which will be linked to the analytic account. When the invoice is confirmed, it will automatically create general and analytic accounting records for the corresponding project.
Expense receipts from an employee can be linked to an analytic account for reimbursement. When a receipt is approved by the company, a purchase invoice is created. This invoice represents a debit on the company in favor of the employee. Each line of the purchase invoice is then linked to an analytic account which automatically allocates the costs for that receipt to the corresponding project.
Using the analytic model concept, you can distribute your income or expenses to one or several analytic accounts at the same time. Thanks to this model, you can have one amount distributed amongst several analytic accounts that involve different cost/revenue centers.
Just as in general accounting, analytic entries are organized year by year, corresponding to individual accounting records or to manually created movements.