SPACE MANAGER
Help/FAQ Document Number: 060652
Space Manager Reports;
What is the best way to print my month-end Reports ?
Space Manager's report can basically be divided into two types. First there are those that analyze current information (i.e. report on the status of the data stored by Space Manager as at the moment the report is printed) and those that report on a specific period or date range. Some reports, such as the Full Summary Report, even report on elements of both types.
In order to make best use of the reports it is often desirable to be able to compare current status reports with the information reported by period. For this to be possible, the period based reports must include all transactions and statuses up to and including the same date as the current status reports are printed. In other words, the user must always choose to print the 'Current Period (So Far )' for period reporting.
However, what often happens is a user runs Space Manage on the 1st of a month and immediately it is running they generate the Accounting Reports by selecting the 'Last Period' (being that they have just started a new period). Also they print current status reports such as the Debtors and Creditor Report. When comparing these reports, the user looks at the Report Check Number (see
What is the number in brackets at the end of a report ?) at the bottom of the reports, notes that they are the same and thus assumes that they can compare the information on the reports.Unfortunately, this is NOT the case.
Whilst the period based report (such as the Full Transaction List) was printed at the same time as the Current Status report, the Current Status report INCLUDES the effects of transactions generated AFTER the period was closed. In other words it includes Automatic Invoices and Late Charges generated that morning on the 1st of the Month (and any others done manually by the user), whilst the Period Based report does not (only up to the end of the pervious month).
The solution to this would seem to be to simply print ALL the reports (selecting 'This Period' for Accounting Reports) at the end of the reporting period before going home for the evening, in advance of the start of the new period the following day. This would be a suitable option, except for the fact that if someone should inadvertently ADD transactions to Space Manager (e.g. make a Miscellaneous Charge) AFTER the reports were printed, but BEFORE the start of the next period, then these transactions would not appear on any account reports and all sorts of problems would arise.
The actual solution is equally simple.
Space Manager has a parameter that tells the program to warn the user when it is about to close the accounting period down when it is run for the first time in a new accounting period. In order to proceed, the user cannot simply press the <ENTER> key but mush select the <Y> key on the keyboard.
Once this warning has been displayed, the user knows that the first thing they must do is to print off all the reports. By back dating the date on the Time and Date screen to the same date as the system was last run, the program can be made to think it is still the last day of the previous period.
Once in Space Manager, the user simply has to print off all the required reports, and once done, EXIT SPACE MANAGER immediately by closing it down, in the usual way.
They then re-run Space Manager, enter the correct system date, check it again to make sure they have entered it correctly, press <Y> on the keyboard and the system will close off the accounting period and allow them to enter the program in the normal way.
So first confirm that the required Parameter Setting is set correctly: Configurations Settings Menu, Parameters, Screen 1, 4th Question, 'Warn Users Before Running End-of-Account Period Routines?' should be set to Y.
Then a summary of the reporting procedure at the start of each new accounting period would be:
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