You are here: Help Topics > Engagement Management > File Preparation > Advanced Specifications (Chart of Accounts and GLB)

Advanced Specifications - Chart of Accounts & General Ledger Balances Import

When you are importing an ASCII text file or Excel file with the Chart of Accounts and General Ledger Balances selected as the import component, the Advanced Specifications screen opens with the following options:

Account Options

Field	Description
Default Account Type	The default selection is Income Statement. If you want to assign accounts to the Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, or Performance Measures Statement, change the selection.
Accumulate Balances	Select this option to have Working Papers combine the totals of any accounts that appear on multiple lines in the ASCII or Excel file. If there is an existing balance in the account prior to the import, those existing balances are overridden - not appended - to the import amount. This option works for prior, budget, and forecast balances as well as current balances. Note: You cannot combine this option with the "Balances being imported are year-to-date" option. If you attempt to select both options, you will receive a warning message prompting you to change one of the settings.
Clear Balances of Period(s) Being Imported	Select to clear the period balances of all existing financial accounts for the period being imported prior to the import. By default, this option only clears balances for entities included in current import, and other entities will not be affected. If you want to apply this option to a certain entity, the imported data should contain at least one account for the specific entity so the import will include the entity selected. Notes If this option is selected along with the Balances being imported are year-to-date option, only the balances of the period being imported will be cleared (e.g. Prior period balances will be ignored). If you select this option along with the Balances being imported are year-to-date option and the YTD balance does not appear to be correct in the Working Trial Balance, make sure you have specified the opening and continuous period balances in the Field Details dialog. If you want to apply this option to a specific entity, the imported data should contain at least one account from that specific entity.
Round Balances	Select this option to round the trial balance upon import. Click Settings to specify the rounding type and the accounts you would like to apply rounding to.
Import	Select the radio button describing the properties of the accounts to be imported. All Accounts - If selected, all accounts including those with zero balances are imported. Accounts with Non-Zero Total Balance - Working Papers checks the total balance for the account. If it is zero, the account is not imported. If the balance is not zero, it is imported. Accounts with Opening Balance/Period Movement - If selected, only accounts that have a non-zero opening balance or transactions during the specified period are imported into Working Papers. Specify the period by selecting the check box for Current year, Prior Year 1, Prior Year 2, Prior Year 3, or Prior Year 4. This option applies only when importing single period balances (opening balance, specific period, or current period).

Regional Settings

Use this area to customize the currency format for data imported from ASCII or Excel files. If no selection is made, Working Papers uses the Regional Settings in the control panel for decimal symbols and digit grouping symbols. This is most useful when you are preparing reports about foreign companies and organizations. If all your clients are domestic, then using the regional settings is recommended.

Field	Description
Use currency format in Regional settings	To override the regional settings, deselect this box and then select formats for the Decimal symbol and the Digit grouping symbol. To tell Working Papers to return to using the regional settings, select this check box. When using regional settings and working in any region that uses a (,) to separate units of currency, the (.) on the numeric keyboard is translated to a (,) on the screen.
Decimal symbol	Select either the period (.) or the comma (,) to separate units of currency.
Digit group symbol	Select either the comma (,) or the period (.) to group the digits in large currency values.

Field

Description

Use currency format in Regional settings

To override the regional settings, deselect this box and then select formats for the Decimal symbol and the Digit grouping symbol. To tell Working Papers to return to using the regional settings, select this check box.

When using regional settings and working in any region that uses a (,) to separate units of currency, the (.) on the numeric keyboard is translated to a (,) on the screen.

Decimal symbol

Select either the period (.) or the comma (,) to separate units of currency.

Digit group symbol

Select either the comma (,) or the period (.) to group the digits in large currency values.

Translate from DOS to Windows file

Select this option only if the ASCII or Excel file to be imported was originally exported from a DOS based application. This option allows translation between DOS and Windows special characters, such as special non-English characters. Selected text will be translated and show up correctly after import.

Balance Settings

Field	Description
Balance Type	Select the type of balances being imported.
Positive Value Descriptor	If a special symbol is used to denote positive values, enter it in this field.
Negative Value Descriptor	If a special symbol is used to denote negative values, enter it in this field.
Balances being imported are year-to-date	Select if the balances to be imported are year-to-date numbers only.Note: You cannot combine this option with the "Accumulate Balances" option. If you attempt to select both options, you will receive a warning message prompting you to change one of the settings.
Balances include adjustments	Select when importing year-to-date amounts to ensure that any existing adjusting entries in the file are taken into account when calculating the period movement amounts during the import. We advise there should be no adjustments to the period being imported to.
Import YTD balances for subsequent periods	Select this option if you are importing YTD balances to a range of periods within the current period date sequence and you do not want reversing transactions to be added to subsequent periods' YTD balance. If you select this option and you are importing into a blank file, all subsequent periods will have the same YTD balance as the last period imported.
Only Balance sheet accounts have year-to-date balances	Select if only the Balance sheet account numbers are YTD and all other accounts should be imported as per the preferences set above. This option is only enabled if Balances being imported are Year-to-date balances is selected.
Reverse Period closing to Retained Earnings account	Select this check box in the following situations: With any unconsolidated client. With a consolidated client when using the abbreviated entity option in the Advanced \| Entity tab to generate the entity. In this case, Working Papers assumes the Retained Earnings account resides in the top entity. With a consolidated client when using the divisional profile option in the Advanced \| Entity tab to assign the entity. Working Papers assumes the Retained Earnings account is in the head entity of the sub branch selected for import. When importing periods where the income statements accounts have already been closed to the Retained Earnings account, this option can be used to reverse the prior period's net income out of the Retained Earnings account, so that the period movement amount for the income statement accounts import for each period while the balance sheet account's amounts are imported as year-to-date. Working Papers calculates the amount and manually adjusts for this amount in the Retained Earnings account. Notes If not importing a full year's data, using the option to reverse the Retained Earnings causes the subsequent period's trial balance year-to-date amounts to be out of balance by the sum of net income for all the previously imported periods. For example, when importing January to March balances using this option, when February's income statement balances have already been closed to the Retained Earnings account, Working Papers adjusts the Retained Earnings for the income statement balances in March. In April, however, since all the year-to-date balances for periods occurring subsequent to the periods being imported are zero, the year-to-date balances will be out of balance by the sum of the retained earnings amount. To correct this problem, you should manually delete the year-to-date balances for the income statement accounts in the next period. For the example above, you would manually delete the year-to-date income statement account balances for April to rebalance the trial balance.
R/E Account Number	Enter the number for the retained earnings account that should be used to reverse the above entries. If blank, Working Papers will search by description.