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VIRGO ACCOUNTSUser Manual
CONTENTSIntroduction
Client & Matter Details
Office Accounting
Enquiries
Reporting
Time Recording
Client Accounting
System Maintenance
Miscellaneous Functions
IntroductionThis document is a user manual for Virgo Accounts. It may contain functions and features that are not included in the current release of the software, but which may be included in a future release. This introductory section includes information you will need before using the system for the first time and covers the following topics: ~ Entering DataHaving selected a function from the menu, entry of data is consistent throughout all functions. The following conventions are used:
There are two modes of keyboard entry; "input" mode, used for initial input of information, and "amend" mode, which is selected when you choose the Amend option at the bottom of the screen. In input mode, if a value is entered incorrectly you may use the keys listed below to edit characters before you press Enter (or Tab); you may either accept the default value offered (as described above) or type a new value. In amend mode you may edit the existing value or leave it unchanged (by pressing Enter or Tab) you cannot over-type the existing value.
(* to obtain this key combination press and hold down the key marked Ctrl and whilst doing so press the Delete, Right arrow or Left arrow key; then release both keys.) Search FacilityThe search facility is available for the following fields: client code, matter code, fee earner, cashbook, nominal account code, charge group, activity and bill number. Entering ?? (or pressing F2) in any of the valid fields will activate the search facility. You will either be presented with a list of valid options for that field, or be prompted "Search for...", depending on the particular field. In the latter case you should enter the first few characters of the name or description you are looking for; if you just press Enter you will be given a list of all entries for that field. The system will display the entries with a name/description beginning with the characters you have input. If there are more items than will fit on one screen, pressing Enter will display the second or subsequent screen of details. To select one of the entries displayed, type the number corresponding to the entry you require and press Enter. You will be returned to the input screen with the selected code already entered in the appropriate field. Data ValidationThe following standard validation rules are applied to data as it is input. Posting Date The default for a posting date is always today's date. The date input may not be in the future and, unless the date check system parameter is set to N (see Maintain System Parameters), it may not be more than 30 days earlier than today's date. Error messages: Invalid date; May not be in the future; May not be more than 30 days ago Dates may be entered in one of several formats. The first option is using a slash (/), hyphen (-) or period (.) to delimit the day, month and year (e.g. D/M/YY or D-M-YY). In this case the date may be entered with or without leading zeros for the day and month, and if the century part of the year is omitted it is assumed to be 19 for values over 80, otherwise 20; the year may be omitted altogether, in which case the present year is taken. Option two is in the format DDMMYY where the entry must be exactly 6 digits. The third option is as an offset (plus or minus) from today's date; for example, 1 is yesterdays date. Examples of valid dates are:
Client Code: Unless the client is being inserted (using Maintain Client Details), the client code must already have been defined. The client name will be displayed. In most programs the client code defaults to the previously used client code. Error message: Does not exist. Matter Code: Unless the matter is being inserted (using Maintain Matter Details), the matter code must already have been defined for the selected client. The matter description will be displayed. In most programs the matter code defaults to the previously used matter code. Error message: Does not exist. Cashbook, Fee Earner, Charge Group, Activity, Nominal Account: Similarly, the codes for cashbook, fee earner, charge group, activity and nominal account must already have been defined using the appropriate maintenance program. The appropriate description will be displayed. Error message: Does not exist. Amount: In general the value/amount of a transaction must be a positive amount, although many routines allow negative amounts in order to correct mis-postings. The value may be entered as a whole number of pounds or as pounds and pence separated by a decimal point. Depending upon the transaction, additional validation may be performed. Error messages: Amount required; May not be negative. Printing ReportsWhen you request a report to be printed, before printing the system responds with the message Ready to print to LPT1: (Y/N/SP)? This is to enable you to check that your printer is switched on and is on-line and loaded with paper. You may respond in one of the following ways (using either upper case or lower case letters):
For long reports you are recommended to write the report to a file or spool it and then print it later, rather than printing it directly. Time Recording and Work-in-ProgressWork-in-progress is valued at the appropriate charge rate for the activity undertaken. It is valued at the time of posting and is not revalued when there is any change of charge rates. To cater for legal aid time recording, the system maintains a comprehensive series of fee rate tables based upon the type of work or legal aid category (referred to as a charge group) and the activity. Each combination (of charge group and activity) has an hourly charge rate or, for certain activities, a charge rate per item. Each client matter is assigned a default charge group, which defines the valid activities for that work type and the charge rate for each activity. Most users find that one non-legal aid fee rate table is sufficient for their needs. However, if the practice requires, separate fee rate tables may be set up, for example, for different clients or for each fee earner. For each client matter the time recorded is normally held in summary form, by fee earner, as the total amount of time and/or number of items for each activity, together with the value of that time. A system parameter (see Maintain System Parameters) provides the option to hold detailed time entries showing the date of the entry in addition to the summarised time. DisbursementsOne of the more complex features of solicitors' accounts is the handling of disbursements. The following is a summary of how disbursements may be handled. Please refer to the appropriate program documentation for full details. If you have an invoice for a product or service which you intend passing on to a client, you should record the item as a disbursement using Post Disbursement Item or, if the invoice is to be split among a number of clients, Post Disbursement Batch. Having posted a disbursement you may do one of four things: (i) you may include it in a bill (using Post Bill); (ii) you may ask the client for a cheque, in which case when the clients cheque arrives you would post this using Post Disbursement Receipt (note: you may only do this if there is no VAT); (iii) if you have money on client account which may be used for this purpose, you may transfer it using Client to Office Transfer; (iv) if you find after all that you cannot charge the client you can write off the disbursement using Write Off Disbursement. If on receiving a third-party invoice you have money on client account which may be used for this purpose, you can write a client cheque to settle the invoice, using Post Client Payment to record the transaction. When posting a bill you may include disbursements which have not yet been recorded on the system (and, therefore, presumably have not been paid by the firm in which case they must be separately shown on the bill). When you receive the invoice for such a disbursement you may either post it as a disbursement and then write it off, or post it as an office expense using Post Office Payment with the charge to account E280 (non recoverable expenses). Office and Client CashbooksThe system supports up to 99 office cashbooks, numbered 1 to 99, which may be bank, building society, petty cash or credit accounts. Where appropriate, when making a posting, you are asked to identify the cashbook from which, or into which, the sum is being paid. The system also supports up to 900 client cashbooks, numbered 100 to 999, which may be general client accounts, client trust accounts or designated client accounts at a bank or building society. Cashbook 100 is the general client bank account and cashbook 101 is the general client trust bank account; these are set up automatically at the time of installation. Each client matter may have only one client cashbook, which may be either the appropriate general account (ordinary or trust) or a designated account. Thus a single client matter may not have client money in both general and designated accounts. Where this is the case, a separate matter must be set up for the client. In this instance it is suggested that the matter code for the second matter is appended to the description of the first matter and/or a zero value receipt or payment may be made to the first matter with a narrative to indicate that another account exists. Client InterestThe "nominal" interest on each client account is calculated daily, based on the client account balance for each matter. Interest calculation is performed by Day End Processing, unless the auto day-end parameter is set to N. This is the value of interest that would be due notwithstanding the appropriate regulations. It is only when interest is actually posted that cognisance should be taken of the overall balance and/or the number of days for which the funds have been held. Depending on the circumstances, interest is posted using either Post Client Interest or Post Client Receipt. The firm must ensure that client account transactions are posted promptly and that the interest rates table is maintained up-to-date. Nominal LedgerThe system maintains a nominal ledger which holds balances and open item transactions for a variety of accounts to support double-entry accounting. Account codes begin with I for income accounts, E for expenses, A for assets and L for liabilities. A010 to A090 are fixed assets, A110 to A990 are current assets; L010 to L030 are the client ledger control accounts, L040 to L490 for current liabilities, and L510 to L990 for long-term liabilities. The system also maintains balances for a number of statistical (non-financial) accounts which do not form part of the double-entry system; these accounts begin with N. Certain accounts are designated as "system" accounts. These are accounts to which postings are made automatically as a result of making other accounting entries, e.g. posting a bill or an office payment. System accounts may not be deleted and care must be taken when posting directly to a system account you are warned when attempting to post directly to a system account. Refer to Financial Postings for details of the accounting entries made for each type of posting. Posting DatesPosting dates are for memorandum purposes only. All accounting entries are displayed and printed in the order in which they were posted, which is not necessarily in posting date sequence. Correction of Mis-postingsIt can be all too easy to make a mistake when posting, and it can then take an inordinate amount of time to attempt to correct the entry. Many of the routines allow you to reverse a mis-posting simply by entering negative values; other routines have a "mirror opposite" (for example, Post Client Receipt and Post Client Payment). Refer to Financial Postings for details of the updates made by each posting program. In all cases, the method of correcting a mis-posting should be firstly to reverse the error and then re-post the correct entry. This way you have an audit trail of what has happened.
Main System FunctionsMaintain Client DetailsThis program is used to input new clients and amend or delete existing clients. Note that the client code cannot be amended. A client may only be deleted if there are no matters for the client; unless the conditions for deletion are met you will not be given the option to delete the client. The program prompts you for the following details:
Automatic client numbering: When inserting a new client, you may obtain the next available client code by entering just a * if you use all numeric client codes, or an initial letter followed by * if your coding scheme uses an initial letter.
Maintain Matter DetailsThis routine is used to input new matters (for existing clients) and amend or delete existing matters. It also provides the option to remove all financial transactions for the matter without deleting the matter record, which may be useful if you wish to keep the basic details of all matters without the overhead of retaining all the underlying financial transactions. Note that the matter code cannot be amended. A matter may only be deleted or its transactions removed if all balances for the client matter (that is bills, disbursements, work-in-progress, client ledger and client nominal interest) are zero; unless the conditions for deletion are met you will not be given the option to delete the matter or remove the transactions. You are strongly advised to take a full matter ledger and client ledger print for your records before deleting a matter or removing the transactions. The routine prompts you for the following details:
Analysis codes: Two analysis codes are provided to give a method of grouping matters together for reporting purposes. They are used by Matter Search, Bills Analysis, Matter Balances Analysis and Work-in-Progress Analysis. They may be used, for example, for the type of work, the fee earner responsible for the matter, source of introduction, or any other classification. If used for fee earner you need not use the fee earner number, but could, for instance, use the fee earners initials. In any case, coding of the analysis codes is entirely up to the user, and must be consistent if it is to provide meaningful results. Note that the labels for Legal aid, Stakeholder, Trust, Analysis A and Analysis B may be amended on all screens and reports if required (refer to Maintain Pseudonyms for details.). However, the effect of the trust indicator, particularly in relation to client cashbooks, remains the same.
Client/Matter EnquiryThis program is used to display or print basic details about a client and its matters. You will be prompted for:
If you selected a single client, the client details are displayed in the same format as for Maintain Client Details. You may choose to display a list of matters for the client (by selecting option M (Matters)), from which you may select one to display the matter details in the same format as for Maintain Matter Details.
Matter SearchThis program is used to find and print a list of matters that meet specific user-selected criteria; for example, you may list all legal aid matters, all non trust matters, or all matters that have been referred to you by your accountant. You are prompted for the following. You should enter a value for one or more of the fields prompted:
Note that you must enter a value in at least one of the prompts. The program will perform its search looking for matters that meet all the criteria selected. You may then print the list of matters found.
Matter Limits ReportThis report will list any matters that are over or nearing their action date and/or budget limits. It may be set to run automatically each time the system is started for the first time each day, if required. You will be asked to enter:
Action Date ListingThis program will list all matters that have an entry in the Action Date field on the matter record. Any matters found are listed in order of the action date.
Office AccountingPost Disbursement ItemThis program is used to post a disbursement to a specific client matter. A separate routine is provided to allow a single payment to be split between a number of client matters. Disbursements may be paid from any office cashbook. The program prompts you to enter the following details:
You may use this program to post anticipated disbursements by posting a disbursement with a Net and VAT amount of zero and a narrative describing the expected item and amount. This will be printed on draft bills and matter ledger enquiries.
Write Off DisbursementThis program is used to write off disbursements. Rather than writing off individual disbursements, this function creates a single credit disbursement entry. Disbursements will normally be written off by including them in a bill. The program prompts for the following details:
Post Disbursement BatchThis routine is used to post a single cheque to pay disbursements for a number of client matters. You are prompted for:
You will then be prompted for a series of:
When all entries are complete, exit input mode and then select U (Update) to post the entries; you will not be able to post the batch if the Gross amount entered in the header is not equal to the sum of the Net and VAT amounts entered in the line items. If you exit input mode in error, you may enter input mode again by entering I (Insert). An entry may be corrected by entering S (Select) and the item number; you may then delete or amend the selected item.
Post Disbursement ReceiptThe purpose of this program is to record a receipt from a client to pay a disbursement without the firm having raised a bill. This may only be for disbursements on which there is no VAT; if the disbursement is VATable then a VAT invoice must be raised, even if it is not sent to the client. You will be prompted for:
Post BillThis program is used to record a bill sent to a client. A bill may only be for a single client matter. It may also be used to write off all unbilled disbursements and work-in-progress on a matter. You will be prompted for the following details:
By default, all disbursements on the client matter will be written off and removed from the main section of the matter ledger as the result of raising a bill, regardless of the value of disbursements actually billed. If you wish to retain some disbursements on the matter for later billing, select option D (Disbursements). This will list all unbilled disbursements for the matter. You can then individually mark those entries to be retained by using the M (Mark/unmark) option. Items marked in error may be "unmarked" by selecting M (Mark/unmark) again. All disbursements removed are retained on the historic entries section of the matter ledger. Note also that any time not removed is carried forward as a single entry for fee earner number 1 with an activity code narrated "carried forward". Only summarised time entries are removed; any detailed entries remain until the matter is deleted or archived. You may use this program to write off all unbilled disbursements and work-in-progress for a matter. To do this enter a bill number of 0, a fees billed and disbursements amount of 0 and a time removed amount equal to the outstanding work-in-progress. Post Bill also creates an ASCII text file (named XSBILL.SPS) which may be used with the mail merge option in most word processors to create the actual invoice that is sent to the client. The file will be overwritten by each bill as it is posted. If the program is unable to write to the file you will get the message Warning - File in use, and the file will not be written.
Post Bill ReceiptThis program is used to post the receipt of a payment of a bill. This may be in full or partial settlement of a bill. The program may also be used to reverse a bill payment, if required, simply by entering negative values for the Net and VAT amounts; in this case care must be taken to ensure that the correct VAT amount is entered. The program prompts for the following details:
Post Bill CreditThis routine is used to post a credit against a client bill other than receipt of a payment. This may be to write off the remaining portion of an unpaid or part paid bill, or to cancel a bill entirely. If the entire bill is being cancelled it may be written off or the unbilled balances may be restored for inclusion in future bills. However, the unbilled balances may only be restored if the bill is fully unpaid at the time of posting the credit. The routine prompts you to enter the following details:
Note that any reinstated time creates a single record which is assigned to fee earner number 1 and has an activity code of "general".
Post Office ReceiptThis program is used to post receipts of office funds other than for payment of a bill. You will be asked to enter the following details:
Note: a negative office receipt is not the same as an office payment since a receipt affects the VAT output figures and a payment affects the VAT input figures.
Post Office PaymentThis program is used to post payments of office expenses that are not directly recharged to clients. The program prompts for the following details:
Note: a negative office payment is not the same as an office receipt since a receipt affects the VAT output figures and a payment affects the VAT input figures.
Cashbook TransferThis function is used to post a transfer funds from one office cashbook to another. You will be prompted for the following details:
Remember, where appropriate, to give instructions to the bank to transfer the funds.
Journal TransferThis program is used to post transfers between accounts on the nominal ledger. This may be required, for example, to post depreciation of fixed assets, by transferring from the appropriate fixed asset account to the depreciation account. The program prompts for:
Transfer Matter BalancesThis program may be used to transfer from one matter to another all or part of the balance of unbilled disbursements and work-in-progress. This will usually be if it is required to combine more than one matter on a single bill. The program does not transfer the unpaid bills balance. You will be prompted for:
Note that any time transferred is assigned to fee earner 1, general activity code.
Nominal to Disbursement TransferThe purpose of this routine is to allow part of an office expense (such as postage or car running expenses) to be recharged to a client as a disbursement. The program prompts for:
EnquiriesMatter Ledger EnquiryThis routine is used to display or print the office balances and matter ledger transactions for a selected client matter. The program prompts you for:
The account balances and all office transactions (unbilled disbursements, bills and bill receipts/credits) for the client matter are displayed (in posting order). If any historic entries (billed disbursements) exist then the option to display these is given. Enter H (History) to display the historic entries; from the history screen enter C (Current) to return to the current entries screen. If you select the print option it will print either the current entries or historic entries depending upon which screen was displayed at the time the print option was selected. Note that the sequence for the historic entries is posting order within bill number. Entry of Z or pressing F10 will take you directly to Client Account Enquiry.
Cashbook EnquiryThe purpose of this function is to display or print the balance and transactions on a specified office or client cashbook. The program prompts for:
The cashbook balance and all transactions for the cashbook are displayed (in posting order). If any historic (archived) entries exist then the option to display these is given. Enter H (History) to display the historic entries; from the history screen enter C (Current) to return to the current entries screen. If you select the print option it will print either the current or historic entries depending upon which screen was displayed at the time the print option was selected.
Unpaid Bills EnquiryThis program will display or print all unpaid bills. This will only show bills that have been posted; it cannot show, for example, legal aid bills where only a bill number has been allocated without the full bill details being recorded. Bills are shown in sequential order. If a printed report is selected, the total value of all unpaid bills is shown.
Matter Accounts EnquiryThis enquiry program displays the unpaid bills, unbilled disbursements, client ledger and work-in-progress balances, together with the matter |
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