Tracking Imported Hard Costs

Cash Basis Accounting

 Upon import, uncleared bank transactions come in as a separate item from the expense card. Users have the option to manually link the two items after import. Once linked, the system uses the firm’s accounting settings to automatically assign the proper GL account to the bank transaction and to the expense (when collected).  

Often, however, there are too many transactions to link manually, and there are cleared hard cost bank transactions from the old system that weren’t imported. When a user is unable to link the imported bank transactions and expense cards, the expense cards remain as soft cost expenses. There is no GL account assigned to them upon import, but when the expense is repaid, the system records the collected amount in the 4250 Reimbursable Client Costs (Indirect) GL. 

The problem is that the 4250 GL account is not the GL account into which users need the hard cost expense reimbursement to go. So, users must create a journal entry to move those reimbursements to the proper GL. The challenge lies in assessing what portion of the amount recorded to the 4250 GL is attributable to the reimbursed, imported hard cost expenses. Cosmolex doesn’t have a report that calculates the reimbursement amounts for imported hard costs. If you only bill for hard costs, all you have to do is run the GL report for the 4250 GL monthly and it will serve as the basis for your journal entry every month. 

If you normally bill soft costs, you will have to manually calculate the repaid imported hard costs by doing the following: 

• Immediately After Import, Generate an Initial Report

To generate the initial report:

1. 1. 1. From the navigation panel, click Activities.
      2. From atop the activities left navigation, click Time/Expense.
      3. Click the magnifying glass search icon and and enter the following filters :  
         • Status: All 
         • Card Type: Soft Cost 
         • Creation Date: Select the <= symbol and in the date box, enter your import date, per our migration team.   
         • Notes: hard 
      4. From the toolbar, click on the orange Export button. 
      5. In the Export Grid that opens, select Custom Export.
      6. In the From Page drop-down select 1 and in the To Page drop-down select the maximum page number.
      7. In the Export Format field, select Excel. 
         Excel’s built-in features will help you to find the total.  

• Periodically, Generate a Report Showing Billed Imported Hard Costs 

To generate a report showing all billed imported hard costs: 

1. 1. 1. From the navigation panel, click Activities. 
      2. From atop the activities left navigation, click Time/Expense. 
      3. Click the magnifying glass search icon and enter the following filters : 
         • • Status: Billed 
           • Card Type: Soft Cost
           • Billed Date: Select Range from the drop-down, and in the first From date box, enter the day after the ending date of the last time you ran the report, and then in the To date box, enter any date of your choosing.  
           • Notes: hard  
      4. From the toolbar, click on the orange Export button.  
      5. In the Export Grid that opens, select Custom Export. 
      6. In the From Page drop-down select 1 and in the To Page drop-down select the maximum page number. 
      7. In the Export Format field, select Excel.  
         Excel’s built-in features will help you to find the total.   

Accrual Accounting

 Upon import, however, uncleared bank transactions come in as a separate item from the expense card. Users have the option to manually link the two items after import. Once linked, the system uses the firm’s accounting settings to automatically assign the proper GL account to the bank transaction and to the expense (when collected).  

Often, there are too many transaction to link manually, and there are cleared hard cost bank transactions from the old system that weren’t imported. When a user is unable to link the imported bank transactions and expense cards, the expense cards remain as soft cost expenses. There is no GL account assigned to them upon import, but when the expense is billed, the system records the billed amount in the 4250 Reimbursable Client Costs (Indirect) GL. 

The problem is that the 4250 GL account is not the GL account into which users need the hard cost expense to go. So, users will have do a journal entry to move those reimbursements to the proper GL. The challenge lies in assessing what portion of the amount recorded to the 4250 GL is attributable to the billed imported hard cost expenses. Cosmolex doesn’t have a report that shows this information. 

To ascertain how much of the imported hard costs were billed the prior month, you will have to do the following:

• Immediately after Import Generate an Initial Report

 To generate the initial report:

1. 1. 1. From the navigation panel, click Activities.
      2. From atop the activities left navigation, click Time/Expense.
      3. Click the magnifying glass search icon and and enter the following filters :  
         • Status: All 
         • Card Type: Soft Cost 
         • Creation Date: Select the <= symbol to enter whatever your import date is, per our migration team.
         • Notes: hard 
      4. From the toolbar, click on the orange Export button. 
      5. In the Export Grid that opens, select Custom Export.
      6. In the From Page drop-down select 1 and in the To Page drop-down select the maximum page number.
      7. In the Export Format field, select Excel. 
         Excel’s built-in features will help you to find the total.  

• Periodically, Generate a Report Showing Billed Imported Hard Costs 

To generate the report:

1. 1. 1. From the navigation panel, click Activities.
      2. From atop the activities left navigation, click Time/Expense.
      3. Click the magnifying glass search icon and enter the following filters :  
         • Status: Billed
         • Card Type: Soft Cost 
         • Billed Date: Select Range from the drop-down    
         • Notes: hard 
      4. From the toolbar, click on the orange Export button. 
      5. In the Export Grid that opens, select Custom Export.
      6. In the From Page drop-down select 1 and in the To Page drop-down select the maximum page number.
      7. In the Export Format field, select Excel. 
         Excel’s built-in features will help you to find the total.  

You can now use this to create the journal entry moving the billed amounts of imported hard costs out of the 4250 GL and into a GL of your choosing.  

When you have completed billing all of the imported hard costs and making all of the associated journal entries, if you are consistent in using the correct date range when printing the periodic report, the total amount of all of your journal entries should add up to the total amount of imported hard cost expenses that showed on the initial report.