Computerized Fund Balance Project

Government and Not-for-Profit Accounting: Concepts & Practices, 5e

By Granof and Khumawala

Welcome and general instructions

Welcome to the Computerized Fund Balance Project. The objective of this practice set is to give you an opportunity to see how government accounting is practiced by state-of-the-art governments that use the most up-to-date Sage MIP Fund Accounting software. First introduced in 1982, the product was developed specifically for the unique accounting and reporting challenges faced by nonprofit and government organizations, and features a unique modular architecture. You will be learning the product that thousands of financial professionals in the public sector rely on every day to manage their operations.

The practice set (Sage_Gov_Projects) approaches government accounting from a perspective different than that of the text. Whereas the text focuses mainly on conceptual issues of accounting, the practice set is strictly practical. It leads you through an entire accounting cycle and is intended to give you a sense of accomplishment as you see your efforts resulting in various reports and a complete set of financial statements as required under GASB Statement No. 34.

In the practice set you will be asked to form a new government and account for a variety of typical transactions in their appropriate funds. In the first project you will learn the basics of the Sage program. In the second, you will form the new government by transferring assets and liabilities from an existing government. You will also prepare budgetary entries and encumber funds for goods and services. In subsequent projects you enter transactions in each of the basic funds. To avoid having you make an inordinate number of entries, almost all of the transaction are in summary form. (e.g., all property tax collections for a period are recorded at once). In the final project (No. 10), you will be able to see how all the entries fit together and result in both fund and government-wide financial statements.

As might be expected, the first one or two projects are substantially more time consuming than most of the others. That’s because it takes awhile to get accustomed to making and processing the entries. Once you get comfortable with the recording process, you will find that the project can be completed in a relatively short time. The final project, since it introduces you to a new and wide range of the program’s capabilities, also takes longer than the intermediate ones.

Welcome to Sage MIP Fund Accounting

Please register for the Sage MIP Fund Accounting software by following the instructions provided on the inside cover in your textbook. This will trigger an email containing a link to the software, files, instructions and your activation codes. One important note, we recommend that the students accept all defaults when installing the Application to ensure consistency.

Once you have installed the software, you will need to restore the Sage_Gov_Projects database. This file is in the same folder you created to access the software. This is the database to do the project and you must follow the instructions below in order to restore the database.

PLEASE NOTE: Sage has created a special forum in their community where you can ask questions and get additional help. To sign up for this forum, click here

The database is an nps file.

1.  Please copy this Sage_Gov_Projects.nps file from the folder on your desktop to your computer in your C drive:

C:\MIP Share\Data (same computer and hard drive on which the Application is installed).

Sometimes operating systems limit rights to downloaded files. To help ensure you can restore the database successfully make sure that you have sufficient rights on your computer. (The illustration below is based on Microsoft Windows XP Professional).

a)  Right click on Sage_Gov_Projects.nps and select Properties

b)  Select the Security tab and then the Add button

c)  Enter Everyone on Select Users, Computers, or Groups form and select OK

d)  Back on the Security tab, select Everyone and assign full control, click Apply and OK

2.  Now, open the Sage MIP Fund Accounting Administration module from your computer by going to:

Start > Programs > Sage Software > Sage MIP fund Accounting > Administration

3.  You will now need to Log in: Remember

the Username is: admin and PW is: api

4.  From the dropdown menu leave the Select an Organization field blank and click OK

5.  On the next screen go to File > Restore to display the Database Restore form shown below

6.  Left mouse click in the Restore to Database field and type Sage_Gov_Projects as shown

7.  Hit the tab key and select the Ellipses button and browse to

C:\MIP Share\Data, the location of the Sage_Gov_Projects.nps file that you downloaded earlier.

8.  Select Sage_Gov_Projects.nps and click OK

9.  Click Start and the restore process will begin, once completed you will be back at the login screen and can login and select the newly restored organization database.

10.  Now follow the instructions below before you start your project. Please do note that you must go through it completely to be able to do this project.

Before you begin - a note on organization...

Simply put: this practice set generates a lot of processing reports and backup files. Each item, though, serves a purpose: the processing reports help you ensure that the data you have entered are correct, so that you don’t make mistakes; the backup files help you recover in case you do make mistakes. And there is one thing that you can be sure of: sooner or later you will make a mistake. The procedures outlined below will help ensure that you have the reports necessary to find your mistake and, if necessary, restore the files to their state before the mistake happened. We strongly recommend that you follow these procedures to manage your data files and reports. Because of the cumulative nature of this practice set, failure to adhere to these recommendations could result in loss of your data and necessitate re-entering your transactions.

Backup Data Files

You should always backup your data files prior to making permanent changes in the accounting records – primarily when you post accounting entries. Unlike many other types of software programs, accounting programs do not always let you delete or change items at will, so correcting mistakes can require several steps. If you have the appropriate backup file, you will be able to restore the data to its state before the error was made.

We remind you to backup your files at the appropriate times: you need to be sure to follow our instructions. Inevitably, the backup that you decide to skip will be the backup that you will need.

Sage_Gov_Projects maintains a separate directory of all of your backup files. The filename for the backup file identifies the date and time of the backup and the database being backed up:

Filename: Sage_Gov_Project-201005080050.NPS

Whenever we suggest that you backup your files, we include a form in the margin of the instructions for your use to note the date and time of the backup. This will enable you to identify the backup you need if you discover that you’ve made a mistake in your data entry or if you encounter a problem in your data files. It is critical that you follow this recommendation. Failure to do so could make it necessary for you to re-enter your transactions.

Report Notebook

The projects in this practice set (other than the final project), each generate some processing reports each. If you discover problems in your financial statements, you will need to come back to these reports to identify the source of your error. For this reason, we suggest using a notebook with dividers (preferably) or a carefully managed folder to organize and store these reports. The following sections and document orders are recommended:

Section Name / Contents
Chart of Accounts / Keep your Chart of Accounts report here. You will use it frequently to identify the correct account codes to use for each project.
Project Sections
(one for each project) / Project Reports: Each project requires you to enter some entries and generate some processing reports.
Practice Set Instructions / Because your Practice Set Instructions may contain notes that you have made while entering transactions, we suggest that you retain your completed project instructions in your notebook.

Following these organizational suggestions will make the practice set as a whole much more comprehensible to you, as well as potentially saving you time and trouble should you encounter data entry or computer problems.

Starting Sage MIP Fund Accounting

To start Sage MIP Fund Accounting, click the Start button on your Taskbar and choose All Programs. Find the Sage Software Folder and click on it to open up Sage MIP Fund Accounting Folder. Click Accounting from the menu.

Then the following window will appear. Click OK

Then the following log on screen will appear. This student version of the software has been pre-set with the Username: admin and the Password: api.

After entering the user name and password and choose Sage_Gov_Project from the dropdown list under Select an Organization, click OK.

Then the following screen may or may not appear.

If the above screen appears, Click OK (If the above screen does not appear, do not worry), and then the following screen will appear.

The Main Menu and Navigator Pane are circled in the following figure. The most important selections for the student projects from the Navigator pane are General Ledger Transactions, Budget, Encumbrances, and Report Manager.

Using the Sage MIP Fund Accounting Help System

Sage MIP Fund Accounting has a very complete set of online documentation that can help answer any questions you may have about using the system. To view the documentation, click Help and Support on the Navigator Pane, and then click Navigator Overview.

Then the following screen will appear. You can search any topics that you may need help, from the left hand box, similar to opening a book.

Printing the Chart of Accounts

The Chart of Accounts Codes lists the fund, department and account codes you will use to record accounting entries and is a useful document to have close by as you enter your transactions. First, Click Report Manager on Navigator Pane.

If the Process Manager section does not show up as shown in the above figure, Click View from the Main Menu, and then choose Navigator, Process Manager, Help Links, and Show Windows in Form View options.

Then you can see the Process Manager section. Next, click Lists under Report Manager.

Then single click the Plus sign beside Lists, under Process Manager.

Then single click the Plus sign beside Chart of Accounts.

Then Double click Accounts by Segment.


Then the following Chart of Accounts Codes will appear.

You can print the Chart of Accounts Codes right now or try some other functions by clicking the buttons circled in the following figure.

About the Account Codes: This practice set uses a 9 character code to classify each transaction. The code is separated into three components, with each component separated by a dash:

- the fund code (a 3 digit code)

- the department code (a 3 digit code)

- the GL account code (a 3 digit code with each group of 3 digits
separated by a period)

For example: 101-000-101


In this practice set, as with most governmental entities, only expenditure/expense accounts use department codes: revenue, asset, liability and equity accounts are not identified at the department level and thus always use the department code “000.”

In the column status, A is denoted as Active and I is denoted as Inactive. To complete journal voucher entries and properly generate financial statement, you must have Active status in all accounts you have transactions with.

Print the Chart of Accounts (if you have not done so) and take a few minutes to look through the Chart of Accounts to familiarize yourself with the fund and department names and GL account codes. Keep the Chart of Accounts (in your binder) to use as a reference when entering your practice set transactions.

Backing up the Data Files

You should always back up your data files before posting any sessions. That way, if you make a mistake or have a problem with your computer and can’t correct it, you will be able to get back to your original data. We will back up the data files now, before you enter your practice session transactions, and then restore your system to its current state after you have completed this project.

Be sure to back up your data files now as you will need to restore data from this backup in order to go on to the next project.

To begin the backup process, click File in the Main Menu and select Backup from the dropdown list.

The Backup Dialog Box (shown below) gives you the opportunity to change the location of the data files to backup and the location in which the backup files will be stored. Most users should not change these options.

Click Start. After a few seconds, the following completion message will appear..

Click OK to continue.

Important Note: Sage MIP Fund Accounting keeps track of its backup files by date and time and maintains a library of all of the backups it has created. Because of this you may find it helpful to make a note of the date and time display on your computer whenever you backup your data. This way, if you ever decide that you need to restore your data from one of the backup files you will be able to easily determine which backup data you want to restore. Take a minute now to note the date and time displayed on your computer in the margin of these instructions.