Readysell Financials Engagement Meeting for Full Financials

Overview

Early in the project, we need to have a meeting over the phone or on site in order to help us all understand and plan for the financial work that might need to be done around the following.

• Chart of Accounts - Reviewing the standard chart of accounts.
  This involves setting up the main and extra bank accounts. Readysell leaves you with with the chart of accounts to review/modify/add accounts etc  Creating/ Modifying a general ledger account.
  Please have available all Bank Account details
• Tenders - once the mandatory general ledger bank accounts are set up in the chart of accounts, the tenders table is reviewed and linked to the appropriate bank accounts. Extra tenders may also need to be created if you have more than one bank account. Creating a type of Bank Account and linking a Tender Getting started with tenders
• Bank Reconciliations - A discussion is had to determine what is required and how the starting position is inserted into Readysell for the closing of each bank account reconciled in your old system. Setting up for Bank Reconciliations Go Live Performing your first bank reconciliation just to bring in the opening balances for bank reconciliations
  Also, if you wish to use the Importing of the Bank Statement lines, we will need to ensure that you can export a bank statement and import into readysell in the right format.
• Supplier Payment Runs and ABA - A system reference needs to be set up if you wish to use the ABA file extract when doing a supplier payment run. There will also be a very brief training session on what is needed to get a supplier payment run going.
  Not available Lite Stores unless you go with Pro
  Please have available your ABA settings. Setting up automatic generation of ABA files for supplier payments
• GST -  Accrual or Cash Basis. - Set up of the system reference to define if you are Accrual or Cash Basis. Brief review of the GST items and Batch run.  
  Please find out if you are Accrual or Cash Basis
  GST Batch run not available for Lite Stores unless you go Pro
• The Process of Implementation of Financials Data - Readysell does not import any financial data. Starting positions are entered into Readysell to stand for closing positions in your old system in certain financial area. See link to document Setting up of General Ledger Financials Go Live 
• Customer Payment processes -  Readysell will touch on customer payments briefly if no training has been conducted in this area. If you have had no training you may wish to schedule in some. Customer Payments Training Guide
• End of month procedures - There will be no training on the end of month process just a brief discussion. When you get close to the End of Month you can read the document and/or book a time for Readysell help by submitting a ticket . See link to document Customers End Of Month Procedure Suppliers End Of Month Procedure 
• Financial Reports - Readysell will touch briefly on the Financial Reports available. Key Form Reports Overview
• Cash Counts/End Shifts/workstation sets- The requirements and set up will be actioned in this session if not already done so.  Normally training on cash counts and end of shifts would have been completed. Readysell will touch on Cash Counts/End Shift briefly in this session. Readysell will set up workstation sets if need be. Shifts
• Product Categories - Explanation on how product category works in respect to breaking up your postings to the general ledger focusing more on Non Stock Products. You are then left to tidy up the Product categories to suit your companies needs. Product Categories
• Payroll - Brief discussion and left with the link to the document so that you can start your set up. Payroll
• You are shown two Statement of Accounts layouts. One of them is to be set up as the mandatory one.

The financials engagement meeting can require between one and two phone conversations. This should be completed at least two weeks before go live date.

The notes below identify some of the material that needs to be covered in the financials engagement meeting.

Please view the Readysell Financials Engagement Meeting Video below before your financials engagement meeting (see How To Play Videos ):

Aims

The aim of the financials conversion is to ensure both Readysell and the site understand the financial structure of your business and the steps involved in converting financials to Readysell.

The aims of the financials engagement meeting are to:

• Define what success looks like by recording all the current financial processes, reports and reconciliations used by your business, your "financial requirements"
• Demonstrate that Readysell 8 can satisfy all of the "financial requirements" via collecting examples, demonstration or other means
• Agree on a financial conversion plan that will meet all of the "financial requirements" requirements. While causing a minimum of disruption to the business and to your customers
• Agree on how we will kick start the setup process to ensure the chart, tenders etc. are resonable before we commence finacials training. The financials setup work is complete before conversion
• Plan how we will start the training effort, including how much on site, remote and post implementation training will be required. Financials training can commence before the go live date, but a substancial part of financial training is normally conducted after conversion to Readysell 8 
• Eliminate all manual spreadsheets used to calculate financials. We want to build all your financial lists into Readysell to remove the need for seperate processes needed to make the system work
• So that there are no surprises in future, achive broad agreement as to the budget for financial implementation assistance. This is normally something between ten and fourty hours

Deliverables

By the end of the project engagement meeting we will agree on:

• A spreadsheet contacting both your existing and Readysell's chart of accounts. To be used in determining which additiional accounts may need to be added to the Readysell chart of accounts
• A financials training strategy that uses a mix of Readysell training materials, remote phone to screen training and on site training
• A timeline including a set of milestones for delivering the financials conversion. The timeline will include the main steps such as:
  • agreeing the chart of accounts, defining bank accounts etc. 
  • agree the financial features to be used immediately after go live
  • the financial features to be implemented some time after go live, such as Bank Reconciliations
• Financials as usual requirements, what has to work for the project to be a success
• An email is sent to you within a day of the meeting providing a summary of the suggested project plan and listing financial details that have been identified on the meeting

You should have:

• Seen all the Readysell features you are going to use on go live date and have a general feel for how they will work in your business
• A good understanding of how the financials conversion will progress
• Understand how training is going to proceed 
• Understand training and implementation assistance can vary hugely depending on the approach taken to the project. There is a need to consider your financials implementation budget
• Understand that additional implementation assistance will be required after conversion 
• Understand how different training and implementation approaches might effect your budget for financials conversion
• Understand how potential financials costs will be tracked using tickets

Attendees

• Your financials project leader, normally the bookkeeper for your business
• Some involvement by the business owner
• Brief discussion with your accountant once we have agreed on a suggested financials conversion plan

Duration

• About two phone calls of a hour or two each. This session is chargeable.

Process

• Agree on the date of the first supplier payment run after go live
• Setup your bank accounts
  
  • Obtain a list of your bank accounts and set them up.
    In particular bank accounts that we reconcile.
    We normally do this quite early in the project. You may wish to reconcile your petty cash bank account and credit card accounts
  • Setup your bank accounts in your live Readysell system.
    We must ensure the bank accounts are setup as assets for deposit accounts and liabilities for things like long term business accounts. 
  • Ensure the names on the bank accounts agree to the names on the bank statements
  • Examples of bank accounts that you may have include a customer deposits account, a cheque/payments account and account/s for any business credit cards
    • Setup your ABA user and six digit APCA file number . See also Setting up automatic generation of ABA files for supplier payments
  • Decide which bank accounts need a reference check. Smaller bank accounts might just be reconciled without automatic matching
  • See also Bank Accounts and Setting up for Bank Reconciliations Go Live
• Setup your chart of accounts
  • Review and modify chart of accounts
  • Decide if any tenders need to be hidden for must transactions, for example DD for supplier payments
  • Decide if any new tenders need to be created such as Eway, Paypal, Gift Vouchers, additional bank accounts etc.
  • Check to see if you need to setup any accounts for:
    • Depreciating assets
    • Accounts for owners drawings 
    • Accounts for loans
  • Decide which expenses need to be broken up for tracking purposes, for example:
    • Fuel expenses on Motor Vehicle Expenses
  • Decide on the level of involvement required from your accountant. Normally your accountant may need to:
    • Be involved in assisting with questions about reviewing the chart of accounts
    • Reviewing and approving the final suggested chart of accounts
    • Reviewing the brought forward values on certain chart of accounts
  • Produce a chart of accounts report to include any outstanding questions. This is to be a shared document so your accountant and Readysell can all see all questions on work related to reviewing the chart of accounts 
  • When creating new chart of accounts entries, we always copy an account next to the new account to be created. That way all of the required checkboxes are filled in correctly on the account. There are may settings, it is hard and error prone to setup new accounts from scratch, best practice is to use the copy button.
  • Never change the account code on any of Readysell's chart of accounts and never change any descriptions of any account code for mandatory accounts eg Sales Revenue
  • See also Accounts
• Tidy up Tenders
  • Review the standard tenders
  • Review the general ledger accounts linked to each tender
  • Decide how cash and other tenders appear on your bank statement.
    We may set some tenders such as cash to compress on bank reconciliations. In order to match bank statements
  • Decide if any customer pays from the web by eway or paypal
  • Decide if you use printed cheques, for example for customer refunds if you don't have access to refund the money to the customers account
  • For tenders that do not need to be used by your organisation, remove the available transaction types from that tender.
    Never Delete a tender. Set the Description to read 'do no use'
  • Determine if you ever do once off payments for suppliers. If so you don't pay by an ABA file.
  • Determine if any tenders need to be limited to particular transaction types. Some tenders might for example be disabled for sale transactions and only available for supplier payments
  • See also Tenders
• Gst 
  • Determine if you are Accrual or Cash Basis for GST.
    Readysell will setup the system reference to set this option appropriately on your Readysell system
  • Define your current GST procedure that is monthly or quarterly
  • Discuss GST tax items and GST Batches in Readysell. This is the procedure Readysell uses to generate a GST calculation worksheet report
  • See also Optional Set up for GST Go Live for Full Readysell, GST Items and Tax
• Bank reconciliation
  • Frequency and timing of bankings. You may need an undeposited funds account if you don't bank your physical cash and cheques every day
  • Frequency and timing of bank reconciliations. For example loan accounts may be reconciled very occasionally while trading bank accounts may be reconciled as frequenty as daily
  • Any exceptions to banking, such as not banking petty cash
  • Any bank transfers between bank accounts for things like transfer of money to pay other types of Bank accounts eg Visa etc
  • POS payouts of petty cash amounts if required to specified accounts for specified reasons for payout
  • Supplier payment runs may appear as lump sum files
  • Determine if all supplier payments are via ABA. It is more secure to get your book keeper to do all supplier payments using ABA file and one tender.
  • Decide which tenders for which transactions come through as a lump sum on the bank statement. For example the EFTPOS totals don't line up with the statement. It may require one tender for a number of cards
  • See also Setting up for Bank Reconciliations Go Live, Setting up and using automatic bank reconciliations and Performing a bank reconciliation manually (not importing the bank statement)
• Complete data cleansing/preparation of cards for financials:
  • Define any unusual data imports. Such as importing some cards from multiple systems 
  • All chart of account changes complete
  • All supplier and customer account tenders and bank accounts are setup
  • If contacts and address details exist in multiple systems. Identify which contains the best contact, address and email information
  • New accounts that might be handled as COD during a trial period
  • Financial credit limits and trading terms
  • See also Cards
• Agree timing of initial general ledger journal entry. Readysell does not import any financial data.
  • Check that the previous year's end of year has been 
  • The brought forward journal can be delayed for a time after go live. There is no rush to get this figure imported on the first day
  • We have to make sure we all understand the process involved with bringing in the initial balances

Readysell will help you design a training program using a combination of the following available training strategies:

• Self training using text and videos in the training guide
• On site training by Readysell training team members
• Remote screen to screen training

Descriptive Note

• Before go live date we need to:
  • Determine the 'Cut off date' re data on the old system.
  • A Bank statement to be downloaded for each bank account on the last day of trade before go live.
    All entries off the bank statement are entered into your old database.
    A Bank reconciliation is extracted and reconciled up to the last day of trade on the old system for each bank account.
    Print off a bank reconcilation report for each bank account and provide it to Readysell for each bank account with the closing bank statement figure plus/minus any unpresented deposits/payments.
  • All non stock financial transactions need to be entered into your old data base eg Merchant fees, non stock suppliers expenses etc.
  • All Sales Orders/ Invoices need to be finalised off the old system on the last day of trade
  • Ensure your General Ledger is up to date with all transactions from your old system on the last day of trade
  • Setup all non-stock suppliers in Readysell. Such as suppliers for electricity etc.
  • Enter all bank payment details for suppliers etc.
  • Define how you currently manage bank recs under your existing system
  • Define your current supplier payment process
  • Define how your financial processes will change
  • Define any differences in transactions between your existing system and Readysell.
    For example banking transactions, not general journals, are used for bank transactions
  • Parrallel runs:
    
    • Parrallel runs for key financial transactions complete before go live
  • Determine how familiar your financials team is with Readysell
    • Do you need to get all your financials team up to speed with Readysell basics
• Friday before go live
  • All monthly and other sales invoices must be completed and closed on the old system. If you are a V7 Readysell store, ensure that the Once a Month Invoice process is run on the last day of trade.
  • All purchase receipts must be completed on the old system
  • Watch out for open invoices or quotes that might need to be completed after go live
  • Ensure all direct deposits are entered into your old system and the last bank reconcilation for each bank account is completed on your old system
• First day of go live:
  • No transactions are to be back dated prior to the go live date. 
    If any supplier invoices have been received dated into the past, they need to be dated the first day of go live in Readysell.
  • All banking direct deposits are to be entered on the same date as they are shown on the bank statement
  • Download a bank statement from the last day of trade
  • Enter all the customer direct deposits into Readysell from this bank statement but check with readysell on which date to use.
  • All other transactions such as deductions from suppliers will need to be reviewed
  • Extract the last bank reconcilation on your old system for each bank account and ensure it is completed before you print it off and provide it to Readysell. This will be inputted into Readysell as the Starting position for each bank account.
    The closing on the bank statement should equal your General Ledger Bank Account Opening
• After go live date:
  • No Back dating of any transactions prior to the go live date in Readysell. 
    If any supplier invoices have been received dating into the past, they need to be date the first day of go live in Readysell.
  • Provide Readysell, for all bank Accounts with the Closing Bank Statement Figure Plus/Minus any unpresented transactions from the old system. This nett result must equal the General Ledger Bank Account closing as at that date.
  • Readysell will insert the Brought Forward Transactions and Initial Bank Reconcilation for each Bank Account as at the closing bank reconcilation from your old system. A ticket is created to stand for this for each bank account.
  • Training and Extraction on Bank Reconciliations by using the Import Bank Statement Feature in Readysell
  • A General Ledger Balance Sheet will need to be printed from your old system and a Brought Forward General Ledger Journal will be entered into Readysell to stand for the Opening Position. A ticket is to be created to stand for this.
    No General Ledger Financial data is exported from the old system.
  • Tidy up of Suppliers BSB and Bank Account Numbers and Supplier Account Number in order to use the ABA file generation in a supplier payment run is a gradual and manual process if the data was not stored on the old system
  • Agree on a date for first supplier payment 
  • Training and first Supplier Payment Run. A ticket to be created to stand for this.
  • Training on First GST Batch Extract. Before GST Batch can be extracted a starting position to stand for GST Received Tax Value, Total Value Inc & Total Value Ex & GST Exempt & Value Inc & Total Value Ex for Sales and GST Paid Value, Total Value Inc, Total Value Ex and GST Free Value, Total Value Inc, Total Value Ex for Purchases is to be provided to Readysell. Readysell will insert these figures behind the scenes. These figures must equal the closing GST general ledger account brought forward figures in the journal.

Cost benefit of Readysell's financials implementation assistance 

• You will need to budget on a substantial investment in financials implementation asssitance. Don't expect to be able to bring financials on line on your own, you will need quite a bit of implementation assistance from Readysell. We will do the work for you in respect of the first bank rec, suggestions about setting up the chart etc. There is a lot of work to managing and performing the financials conversion, avoid suprises by planning a substantial investment in assistance from Readysell
• Readysell will be contacting you after the financials implementation plan is agreed
• A ticket is created for each financial module and each ticket incurs a charge.

• Financial budget estimate
• Financial Engagement Meeting - not full financials