Version 1.03| 14 January 2020

This User Guide documents the recommended tasks for month-end processing and describes each of the recommended reports to run at month-end. The intended audience for this document is those staff within each organisation who have responsibility to process and manage accounts, and internal or external staff that prepare monthly or yearly financial statements and reports. Readers are advised to refer to the INSIGHT Online Help for additional information on generating the reports and completing the processing tasks outlined in this document. 

This section provides background information on the INSIGHT accounting module to help you better understand the features and processes described in this document.

INSIGHT provides the ability to manage all financial aspects of running a Trust Account, including reporting of all trust account transactions and balances. 

INSIGHT provides a basic accounting module to capture and report all financial transactions. This includes a Chart of Accounts, a pre-defined set of double-entry accounting transactions, and the ability to enquire or report on all General Ledger and Sub-Ledger accounts. 

You should note in particular the following features of the INSIGHT accounting module: 

• The INSIGHT General Ledger is updated at the point of posting each transaction. As a result, INSIGHT does not require an ‘end of day’ process to update the General Ledger. 
• INSIGHT does not capture or report transactions by ‘accounting month’. All transactions are created with a ‘posted date’ (also known as transaction date), and unless noted otherwise, all standard reports use this ‘posted date’ for reporting transactions and calculating balances. 
• INSIGHT transaction reports, including many of those documented within this Guide, use transaction or posted date to filter the transactions to be included in the report. 
• Given there is no ‘accounting month’ within INSIGHT, and reports use the transaction or posted date, it follows therefore that brokers using INSIGHT use calendar months for their financial reporting. 
• All references to month-end reporting and processing within this Guide should be understood on the basis that an accounting month and a calendar month are the same and may be used interchangeably. 

The following sub-sections provide some additional background information relevant to monthend processing and reporting.

INSIGHT does NOT have an automated month-end process. Section 3 outlines recommended tasks you should complete each month prior to month-end to ensure your monthly reports are current and accurate.

INSIGHT reports can be printed and re-printed at any time for any selected time period. INSIGHT does NOT prevent you from re-running reports following either month-end or year end. You have the flexibility when running many of the standard INSIGHT reports, to select a report start and end date. This provides you the flexibility to report for single periods (e.g. a calendar month) or multiple periods (e.g. multiple months). For your accounting records you may therefore consider running some reports not only for the latest accounting month, but also for the year to date position (i.e. from the start of the financial year to the end of the latest period). 

New accounting months are automatically created by INSIGHT. However, closing an accounting month is not automated, and must be completed by an Administrator. Regularly closing completed accounting months is strongly recommended. However, before closing an accounting month we recommend you complete the following steps for the month to be closed: 

• Run each of your Trust Account Reports (ASIC Returns) to confirm you do not receive an out of balance message on either report 
• Complete each of the Steps noted in the Section 3.1 – Month-End Tasks 
• Complete the Bank Reconciliation for your Trust Account (using either the INSIGHT Bank Reconciliation module or an external process)