Silverfin Management Accounts
SILVERFIN MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS – STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES
A new Workflow 5 has been developed to reconcile management accounts on a monthly/quarterly basis.
It is effectively a copy of Workflow 2, containing most of the same schedules, but has stripped out some of the statutory sections that are not needed for interim periods.
Schedules that are shared between Workflows 5 and 2 (i.e. the majority) will populate in both, meaning that reconciling M12/Q4 will also reconcile the statutory accounts in Workflow 2.
Bookkeeping and adjustments will all be made within the client software, not in Silverfin. Silverfin will purely be there to provide a backing reconciliation, effectively replacing the old Excel working papers.
Outputs will then be produced from the client accounting software or via Spotlight if included in the package.
Overall process - simplified:
1) Change Silverfin file to interim reporting
2) Link accounting software to Silverfin (or import TB if non-cloud. See Non-Cloud below)
3) Make adjustments in client accounting software
4) Reconcile balances in Silverfin via live sync
5) Produce outputs via accounting software/Spotlight (not Silverfin)
Overall process – detailed
1) Edit > Periods > Advanced > Report by > Change to either Quarter or Month. If you increase the number of periods in the year, you will not lose any data from extant periods. If however you decrease the number of periods, all data from removed interim periods will be lost.
2) Add Workflow 5 from homepage. Add workflow > 5. Management Accounts – Limited Company/Unincorporated as applicable. Workflows 1 to 4 can be left uncompleted.
3) Set up your bookkeeping sync from the first day of the next statutory year. This will ensure that no historic statutory periods are affected, but that data will run ‘live’ throughout the year.
4) Make adjustments to bookkeeping directly in the client’s software – refreshing the sync when needed, to update Silverfin (as infrequently as possible to limit the downtime while waiting).
5) Reconcile all Balance Sheet items within Workflow 5 in the same manner as statutory year-end (unlikely to need to worry about loan maturities etc).
6) Profit and Loss codes are cumulative throughout the year, so reconciliations can be built up period on period.
7) Points Forward can be populated, with the ability to select whether you want the point to be carried forward to the next interim period, or straight to the year-end.
8) At the top of Workflow 5 is a Management Accounts Documents schedule in which you can attach the final outputs, be that from the client software or Spotlight.
9) A greater emphasis will be put on locking client data, and limiting back-dated postings, as these will result in previously reconciled interim periods becoming unreconciled.
10) Unlikely to need to worry about ‘flip codes’ as reports will not be generated out of Silverfin directly.
11) Preparer to complete new Workflow 5 checklist on the home page, confirming that all reconciliations have been completed and variances examined.
12) Reviewer will then review Xero/QBO/Spotlight report (found in Management Accounts Documents) against backing schedule in Silverfin, marking as reviewed and raising to-dos as they go.
13) Reviewer to then complete new checklist similarly, simply confirming that the figures have been reviewed.
14) Final reports approved by client to be saved down in Management Accounts Documents.
Non-Cloud Software:
If your client does not keep their records in Xero or Quickbooks Online then you will obviously not be able to use the sync function.
A trial balance would need to be imported each month/quarter via the ‘replace bookkeeping data’ option, and then the file can be reconciled as usual.
More thought will need to be given as to how adjustments are processed. If we receive a backup of a client’s software (Sage 50 for example), then adjustments can be processed directly into Silverfin. These adjustments will then be the Journal Adjustments sent to the client.
If the client keeps their records on a software that we have a live access to, but is not Xero or Quickbooks Online, then a choice will need to be made on how to process adjustments:
1) Import an initial trial balance pre-adjustments. Post adjustments in Silverfin. Reconcile file. Post adjustments back into the client software to correct their figures and produce reports
2) Make all adjustments in client software first. Once comfortable with figures, import ‘correct’ trial balance into Silverfin to reconcile. Any further adjustments would need to either be made in the client software and a trial balance reimported or made in Silverfin and replicated in the client software later.