System Tab

Training demonstration related to this topic (click to start):

System Control (13:55)

Use the System tab on the System Control screen to customize how GlobalWare functions:

Invoicing behavior
Posting and ARC end dates
Bank reconciliation start date and an option to clear all general ledger transaction items (checks, deposits, and journal entries only) before and including this date
Default charts for various types of transactions
E-mail messaging, branch balancing, and credit card number security

To access the System Control screen, see Using the System Control Screen.

IMPORTANT:

Be very careful when editing and changing system control information. This information is very important for GlobalWare functionality. If you change a general ledger account number on the System tab, it must exist in the Chart of Accounts. The system does not accept an invalid account number.
The invoice number assigned in the Last Invoice # field on the System tab is used if no invoice number is interfaced or if an item is added manually into invoicing. At times, this number can be within the range of invoice numbers assigned by the GDS. If it is within the range when "duplicate invoice number" error occurs in the interface log, you must change the system-assigned invoice number.

Field descriptions

The following table describes the fields on the System tab.

Field	Description
Last Invoice #	Invoice number of the last system-generated invoice number. This number is used as the default for manually entered invoices and for interfaced invoices that do not have an invoice number. You should choose a number that will not conflict with interfaced invoice numbers. Otherwise, you could encounter duplicate invoice number errors. For example, if your front-room invoice numbers start at 1 and this number is 100, when an interfaced invoice has invoice number 100, there will be a duplicate invoice number error on the interface log.
Track Changes to Invoices	Indicates whether to keep track of all manual edits to main invoice information (including edits on the Refund/Exchange dialog box that affect the main invoice data).
Track Changes to Segments	Indicates whether to keep track of all manual edits to air segment information.
Track Changes to Comments	Indicates whether to keep track of all manual edits to Comments information (the lower section on the More dialog box).
Disallow Adding Invoice in Closed Period	Indicates whether to not allow agents to add invoices in a closed accounting period. Select this option if you do not want agents to be able to add invoices in a closed accounting period. Do not select this option if you want agents to be able to add invoices in a closed period, but you want then to receive warning messages.
Post Invoices By	Select which date to use for posting invoices. Note: This choice will not impact the posting of Sales for Tracking that post by Commission Rcvd Date and ARC items that post by A/R date. Warning: When an option other than A/R Date is selected, balancing subledgers to GL is more complex. GlobalWare standard reports have not yet been enhanced to support options other than A/R Date. You must create custom reports and processes in order to balance subledgers to GL if another option is selected. You can post invoices by: A/R Dates (default) Invoice Date Depart Date Return Date
Posting Date	Current posting date. This date is the default for financial statements, Create Expense Payables, and Bank Reconciliation. It also affects whether you can delete checks in the Void Checks function.
ARC End Date	Last day of the most recent closed ARC period.
Close ARC Period	Indicates whether to close the ARC period after settling with ARC. (You can also close the ARC period by using either the ARC/BSP/Dir Settlement Report function or the IAR Discrepancy Report function.) Closing ARC prevents editing of ARC data (such as ticket number and base fare) after you have submitted the ARC report. You also have the option to reopen the period if necessary by clearing this check box (or by changing the ARC end date).
Clear all items	Indicates whether to clear general ledger transaction items (checks, deposits, and journal entries only) with transaction dates before and including the Start Date as of date. Closing dates will be the current date. These items will not be listed on the Bank Reconciliation screen nor will they appear on the Bank Reconciliation report. You can further define which items to clear by selecting the Cash Account or the Cash Account and Branch. When Clear all items is checked, the start date defaults to the current date.
Start Date as of	This field is active once Clear all items is selected. Date after which to start bank reconciliation. For example, if this date is set to 12/31/2020, general ledger items (checks, deposits, and journal entries only) with transaction dates after this date will be eligible for reconciliation.
Cash Account	Select All to clear all cash accounts or select a specific cash account to clear. The Cash Account and Branch options allow you initiate bank reconciliation for certain cash/bank accounts without affecting others.
Branch	This field is active when Cash Account is not All. Select All to clear all branches or select a specific branch to clear.
Bank Account	General ledger chart number used for the default bank in Bank Deposit and Check functions.
Gift Certificate	General ledger chart that cash receipts and adjustments for gift certificates will post to.
Layaway	General ledger chart that cash receipts and adjustments for Layaways will post to.
Main Branch	Default branch location; typically your main branch. This branch is used as the default for functions that post to the general ledger (such as checks, receipts, and journal entries). It is also the branch stored for undefined pseudos/IATAs in the GDS Interfaces.
Retained Earnings	General ledger chart that retained earnings will post to.
Contra Sale	General ledger chart number that Contra Sales will post to. For more information about this chart, see Cash-Basis Posting and Accrual Posting.
Accrued Payables	General ledger chart that the payable side of expense payables will post to. (The default offset is set up per vendor.)
Group Payables	General ledger chart for group payables (manual payables entered in Group Adjust; see Group Adjust Overview).
Comm. Receivables	General ledger chart that commissions receivable (for non-ARC credit card sales) will post to.
Customer	General ledger chart number for Customer Unapplied Funds (on-account checks, receipts, and adjustments).
Provider	General ledger chart number for Provider Unapplied Funds (on-account checks, receipts, and adjustments).
Enable Database E-Mail Messaging	Indicates whether to enable Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) e-mail messaging. If you select this option, specify the server URL and port in the SMTP Server and SMTP Port fields.
SMTP Server	URL or path to the SMTP server that sends e-mail messages. This field is available only if Enable Database E-Mail Messaging is selected.
SMTP Port	Network port to use for outbound SMTP messaging. This field is available only if Enable Database E-Mail Messaging is selected.
Create Branch Balancing GL Entries	Indicates whether to create entries to keep individual branches in balance. This option is not available if there is only one general ledger branch.
Branch Balancing Chart	Enter the balance sheet chart number. This field is not available if there is only one general ledger branch or if Create Branch Balancing GL Entries is not selected.
# Agency Plastic for Check Num	Get Agency Plastic in Post Deposit stores the last digits of the credit card number in the check number field in General Ledger and Cash Receipts. Enter the number of digits you want to store.
# Group Plastic Digits for Comments	The credit card number is stored in General Ledger, Payments, and Cash Receipts comments/description fields for group plastic payments. Enter the number of digits you want to store.
Store all CC #'s through interface	Uncheck this if you want the interface to store only certain digits from the credit card number (for example, only the last four). This affects invoices, customer account IDs, and group plastic payments that the interface creates.
*Replace all except last number* digits**	Enter the number of actual digits from the end of the number that you want to store. For example, to store the last five actual digits, enter 5.
*Replace all except first number* digits**	Enter the number of actual digits from the beginning of the number that you want to store. For example, to store the first six actual digits, enter 6. Enter 0 if you want none of the beginning digits stored.
Replace others with	Enter the character you want to replace the other digits with. You cannot use the asterisk or percent characters (these are wildcard characters).

To make changes on this tab, complete the fields as appropriate and click SAVE.

Tracking Changes to Invoices and Associated Data

You have the option to track all edits made to invoice data by using GlobalWare functions (in Invoices, Settlement, Commission Tracking, Duplicate Invoice Review, Corporate Review Transactions, and CCR Maintenance). You can track edits made to fields in the Invoice table, the Segments table, and the Comments table. GlobalWare also tracks when an item is voided, unvoided, or deleted. The Invoice table includes all fields that you see on the Invoice screen, except for comment lines, which you see on the Comments screen. The Segments table includes all fields that you see on the Segments screen. To see a complete list of fields in these tables, see Printing the Database Structure.

GlobalWare tracks the original value (before the edit), new value (after the edit), the agent who made the edit, and the date and time the edit occurred. The Invoice Change Log report on the Invoice submenu enables you to generate a report of the changes. You can also generate this report from the Invoice screen with the CHG LOG button.

For DJD MIR that synch car and hotel data with the GDS, it will enter *** for agent in the Invoice change log for updates and adds through the DJD MIR, so reports off the invoice change log could be done to address which records need to be re-downloaded to third-party software packages.

Notes:

In a multi-user environment, all users must exit GlobalWare and re-enter after any of these options are changed. Until then, the old status of the option will be used.
Only changes made within GlobalWare are tracked. Changes made using a third-party package when you are logged in to the database as the EDIT user are not tracked.
Only manual edits are tracked. For example, if the Interface voids a ticket no entry is made to the invoice change log.
To remove older records from the change log, use the Purge Data function. For more information, see Purge Data.

Customizing Charts and the Default Branch

GlobalWare enables you to customize the charts to which invoices and other subledger transactions post. The Processing Table determines the charts to which invoices post. The System Control table enables you to customize the other posting charts. It also enables you to customize the default branch for certain functions.

Note: You should not change these charts after items have posted to them. New general ledger entries would post to the new chart while previous entries would remain in the original chart. For example, assume you enter an on-account customer receipt and then change customer unapplied funds from 2040 to 2060. The receipt posted to 2040. When you subsequently apply the receipt, GlobalWare will post to 2060 and both charts will have a balance rather than netting to zero. If you do need to change the chart, you need to journal-entry all open items to the new chart.

Balancing Branches

Transactions posted across branches (for example, a cash receipt deposited in branch one applied to a ticket invoiced in branch two) results in the branches individually being out of balance in the general ledger (although the general ledger as a whole is in balance). This option generates additional GL entries using the chart specified to put the branches back in balance.

The entries post to the chart you specify for the Branch Balancing Chart. You can use any balance sheet chart (chart number between 1000 and 4999). You should discuss with your CPA the chart that you want to use for this (such as an asset chart or a liabilities chart) and other implications.

The following shows an example of the branch balancing entries for a receipt posted to invoices in several branches. Notice that the branch balancing entry is a total for each branch. For example, the balance in branch 1 before the balancing entries is +600 (1000 - 400). Therefore, there is one balancing entry for branch 1 for -600 (not two entries for -1000 and +400).

Item	Branch	Chart	Amount
receipt	0001	1010 (bank)	+1000
invoice	0001	1510 (AR)	-400
invoice	0002	1510	-300
invoice	0002	1510	-200
invoice	0003	1510	-100

balancing entries	0001	1999 (branch balance)	-600
	0002	1999	+500
	0003	1999	+100

Note: Chart 1999 for the branch balancing chart above is only an example and is not to be taken as a recommendation.

There is not a separate, individual line in the provided Balance Sheet financial statement (although all charts are included in a group line item somewhere on the statement). You need to create this if needed on your statement.

Journal Entries, GL Import, and GL Edit/Query do not automatically generate balancing entries because you can specify all the entries in these functions. All other functions that can post to GL (such as Post Deposit, Adjust Accounts, and check functions) generate the entries automatically, when necessary.

For any control number, you can recalculate the balancing entries. In GL Edit/Query on the main dialog box, press Shift+F6 and enter the control number. This enables you to create balancing entries that were not created by Journal Entries, GL Import, or GL Edit/Query, and to recreate balancing entries if items in the control were edited or are missing.

"BRANCHBAL" is stored in the Ref2 and Ref3 fields for the balancing entries. "Branch balancing entry" is stored in the Comments field.

Setting Up Credit Card Security

Credit card numbers are stored in four places in GlobalWare: in the Invoice item, in the Customer account ID, in the check number field of agency plastic receipts, and in the comment field of group plastic payments.

GlobalWare enables you to limit the number of digits stored to protect the actual credit card number.

For example, if you want to store only the last four digits (which you might determine is enough to identify a number, but not enough to misuse it), enter the following:

Field	Enter:
# Agency Plastic for Check Num	4
# Group Plastic Digits for Comments	4
Store all CC #'s through interface	Uncheck
*Replace all except last number* digits**	4
*Replace all except first number* digits**	0
Replace others with	Your choice

Notes:

These options do not encrypt the data. If you select these, only the digits you specify are stored in the database. The other digits are not stored and will never be available.
You might also want to mask the credit card number in invoices and customer accounts from employees that should not see or edit this information. See Employee Accounts Overview.
If you use Credit Card Reconciliation, you might need to store at least some of the first digits, depending on how you set up credit card numbers for the CCR account. For example, if you reconcile Diners Club, you need to enter at least 4 for Replace all except first number digits (meaning that the first four or more actual digits will be stored).