Summarize Prior Periods

Use Summarize Prior Periods to process large files quickly by reducing the account detail to account balances in periods prior to a selected period. All adjustments to prior periods will remain intact, retaining the necessary audit trail for all periods. Any uncleared cash or checking transactions within the summarized periods will be recorded as Prior Outstanding Checks or Deposits in the Bank Reconciliation window.

1. Open the client file that you want to summarize.
   • It is recommended that you make a backup of the company file before you continue.
   • You may also wish to print a current Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Reconciliation Reports for comparison after the summary has been completed.
2. Select Utilities>Maintenance>Summarize Prior Periods.

Summarize prior period by:

You have a choice of how you want to summarize transactions in prior periods.

• All detail—This selection will summarize all detail in all accounts (except for prior period adjustments or outstanding checking account items for selected accounts) into one transaction per period with balances only for each account. When All Detail is selected, use only the left section of the window. See more instructions in the Summarize prior period by: All Detail section below.
• Defined—Use this selection to define transactions that you want summarized into one transaction per period. Only transactions that fit within a defined transaction will be summarized. Use both the left and right sides of this window with this selection. See more instructions in the Summarize prior period by: Defined section below.

Summarize prior period by: All Detail

1.  Select the first Period and Year for which you want to retain detail. All previous periods will be reduced to account balances.
2. Select the Cash and Checking accounts for which you want to Preserve uncleared items. Any Cash or Checking account that you do not do reconciliations for should not be selected.
3. Click OK to start the summary.

Note: Leave the program running until a dialog box opens informing you that the process has been completed. If you get a message that says that the program is not responding, ignore it, as it is still working. Depending upon the size of the file, the process could take a few hours to complete. For large files, it is recommended that you start the process at the end of your day and it will be completed when you return the next day.

Summarize prior period by: Defined

1. Use the From Period/Year and the To Period/Year fields to define the periods for which you want the transactions summarized.
2. If you are currently importing data from QuickBooks or some other third party software and have Summarize Transactions defined, you can copy them into this grid by selecting Import in the Copy Defined From drop-down list.
3. Use the grid on the right side of the window to define transactions that you want summarized into one transaction as follows:
   • Number⁠—Identify all parts of a summarized transaction with the same Number. For multiple transaction definitions, use a unique number for each part of the transactions. The example, the screenshot above shows one transaction to summarize a sales invoice items (106 is the Accounts Receivable account and the 3xx accounts are the Sales accounts). Record all accounts that are likely to be involved. In the example above, the Sales Tax account and perhaps some Freight or Postage accounts may be applicable as Credits as well. If a second transaction were to be defined in the example above, the Number for each row would be 2. The page number of the summarized transaction will be S1, S2, etc.
   • Debit⁠—Enter the debit accounts that are part of the summarized transaction in the Debit column.
   • Credit⁠—Enter the credit accounts that are part of the summarized transaction in the Credit column.
   • Description⁠—Enter a description for the General Ledger report for each part of the transaction, if desired. This is not required.
   • Find Accounts⁠—After you have entered a unique Number and one account in the Debit or Credit column, click on the entered Account and click Find Accounts. You can have only one row with this summarized transaction Number to use the Find Accounts button. (If you want the same description on all accounts found, enter it on the first row.) You will need to delete the new row that is created, then click on the account number, and then Find Accounts. The program will find all accounts associated with the entered account for the defined period and populate the Debit and Credit columns, as well as any description entered. Delete any rows for cash or checking accounts by clicking in the row and pressing the Delete key. Delete all rows containing accounts you don’t wish to summarize.
     

     Note: The Preserve uncleared items for the following accounts selections in the left grid apply only to All Detail summaries and do not apply to the defined method. Therefore, be sure to not include Checking accounts where it might affect bank reconciliations.

4. Click OK to start the summary.
   

   Note: Leave the program running until a dialog box opens informing you that the process has been completed. If you get a message that says that the program is not responding, ignore it, as it is still working. Depending upon the size of the file, the process could take a few hours to complete. For large files, it is recommended that you start the process at the end of your day and it will be completed when you return the next day.