3. 3
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
This guide is designed to show you how a true fund accounting™
system will help you to more efficiently
audit and advise your nonprofit and government clients. Abila MIP Fund Accounting™
addresses specific
needs such as tracking and reporting on individual funds from multiple sources and complying with
FASB, GASB, and other reporting requirements. With its flexible system setup and built-in reporting,
AbilaMIPFundAccounting™
helpsyour organizationmasteritscriticalaccountingandadministration
tasks. With 30 years of expertise in the nonprofit and government sector, this product provides more
than accuracy; it gives the quality and service that result in greater accountability, effective management
of funds,andmoretimetofocusontheorganization’scause.
Abila MIP Fund Accounting™
provides many features that are of interest to you as an auditor. Someof the
capabilities provided are:
• Comprehensive security for the organization’s database by user, function, and account .
• A table-driven chart of accounts structure that offers an unlimited number of reporting
dimensions. The segmented chart of accounts makes tracking donor-imposedrestrictions
and board-approved designations of funds manageable.
• A powerful built-in report writer with consistent setup selections for transaction analysis and
financial reporting that results in unprecedented ease of use. Includes FASB- and GASBcompliant
reporting and drill-downfunctionality.
• Account inquiry tools featuring drill-down from account balance to source transactions.
• User-defined fields to track attributes and performance data on records such as vendors,
customers, programs, and source transactions.
• Extensive comparative budgetreporting.
• An extensive audit trail for transactions, system changes, and modifications to master
recordsthroughoutthesystem.
• Direct export to Excel throughout the system to facilitate spreadsheet analysis.
• Ability to establish permissions to access the data tables directly using Crystal Reports,
Microsoft Access, or any other ODBC-compliant application, making special queries or audits
samplingeasy.
Database Security
A user accesses the Accounting application with an established user identification and password.
These IDs and passwords can only be created by an authorized user. Once in the application, select
Security > Maintain Users from the menu . The resulting form allows you to add user IDs, names
and passwords.
INTRODUCTION
4. 4
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
After creating a user ID and name, each user can be granted
rights to the Abila MIP Fund Accounting™
menu items.
Rights can be established for groups of users or individual
users . Rights assigned are cumulative . From the menu,
select Security > Setup Organizational Menus to grant
rights to relevant menus .
Figure:User Setup Security Form
After you specify a user, the menu options are displayed in an outline format. This form initially
displays the main menu items only. You can specify different rights for your users at each menu or
submenuselection.Therightsspecifywhichactionstheusermayperformateachmenuselection.
The rights and a brief description follow:
• View Existing Records: Recall a previously entered record
• Edit Existing Records: Modify a previously entered record
• Delete Existing Records: Delete a previously entered record
• Add New Records: Create new records
• Process Records: Perform calculations and initiate system actions
5. 5
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
Although Abila MIP Fund Accounting™
greatly assists with
system security and confidentiality by providing the means to
control menu and process actions, adequate internal
controls must also be built around the system to ensure
integrity of the data, to properly segregate duties, and to
address other internal control issues .
Read-only access directly to the database tables may also
be assigned using the SafeKey section of the organization
menu settings. Once you have created a user and granted
SafeKey rights, you can use Microsoft Access or any other
ODBC-compliant application to access the information in a
AbilaMIPFundAccounting™
database.
Chart of Accounts Structure
Thecoreof anyaccountingsystemis thechartof accounts,andunderstandingtheAbilaMIP Fund
Accounting™
chart of accounts is essential for generating the reports you need . Abila MIP Fund
Accounting™
offers a table-driven chart of accounts, which allows users to define each segment in their
account structure, thereby customizing the application to fit their unique reporting requirements. The
systemallowsyoutocreateasmanyreportingsegmentsasarenecessarytomeettheneedsof each
organization.Commonlyutilizedsegmentsinclude:Fund,GeneralLedger,Grant,Function,Program,
Department, Location, and Restriction (for FAS 117 compliance).
As segments are added duringthe databasesetup, a segmenttype must be selectedsothat the
systemcanassignasetofentryvalidationrulesforthesegment.Theseentryvalidationsensurethat
data entryis completebeforeit will be recordedin the accountingsystem. With accuratedata entry,
even the complicated reporting requirements that nonprofit and government organizations require
becomeseasy to accomplish. Thegeneralledgersegmentis requiredfor use in naturalaccount
classifications. A fund segment can also be established, requiring entries to balance and allowing
the user to create automatic inter-fund account entries. Other segments can be set to require full
account balancing; to track only revenues and expenditures; or to track revenues, expenditures, and
netassets.
Limitations placed on contributions by donors can easily be tracked in the system with a segment
for restriction tracking. As contribution revenues are recorded in the system,the user will identify if
thefundsareunrestricted,temporarilyrestricted,or permanentlyrestricted.Furthermore,asassets
are released from restriction they can easily be reclassified as unrestricted. Tracking and reporting
of net assets becomes simple, as the restriction classifications will carry into net assets upon close,
ensuring accurate balances.
Each segment is completely independent of the other segments—the software does not “string”
together each segment to form one account code. If a user wants to add a new department code
to their department segment, they can enter just one single code. Then they can use that new
department code with the other existing segment codes. Rules can also be configured to limit which
accountsthesystempermitstobeusedincombination.
6. 6
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
Audit Trail
The system keeps comprehensive logs of users accessing
the system, activities performed withinthe system, and all
transactions recorded. With the Advanced Security module,
the system also provides the ability to track changes to
master records including vendors, customers, employees, and
user organization security, as well as address codes, chart of
account codes, earning codes, benefit codes, deduction
codes, workers’ compensation codes, and leave codes.
System AuditTrail
For a nonprofit organization, transparency and accountability are crucial. Having a thorough and reliable
audittrailwill ensurethatcomplianceandcredibilityareprioritiesacrossthe organization. At the system
overview level, the System History form tracks and logs changes to each database. To view the System
History form, enter the application, then select Security > Manage Audit Trails > Summary Organization
Audit from the menu. On the resulting form, the system history can be viewed and printed. Users can
also filter for specific information within the form itself.
This history provides information about additions, modifications or edits and deletions of maintenance
items from the organization menus . This information is not permanent and may be deleted by an
authorized user.
7. 7
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
Summary Organization Audit Trail
Whether during an audit or as best practices for
internal controls, it is important to identify and analyze
changes at the organization level . Whether due to
errors or potential fraudulent activity, ongoing
reporting and monitoring will keep the organization
at the forefront of accountability and control .
There is also a Summary Organization Audit form that tracks
and logs changes to eachdatabase . To view the organization
history, enter the application and select Security > Manage
Audit Trails > Summary Organization Audit from the menu .
On the resulting form, the organization history can be viewed,
filtered, and printed.
This history provides information about additions, modifications or edits and deletions of maintenance
items from the organization menus . This information is not permanent and may be deleted by an
authorized user.
Figure: Summary Organization Audit Form
8. 8
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
Advanced Organization AuditTrail
During an audit, having the ability to pinpoint errors or
suspicious activity is essential . With the Advanced
Organization Audit form, users can easily monitor and
analyze activity surrounding key records that are
areas where fraudulent activity is a potential concern.
This functionality is included with the Advanced Security
module for MIP Fund Accounting™
. Users have the
abilityto turn advanced auditingon by record within Security >
Manage Audit Trails > Set up Advanced Organization Audit . To
view the Advanced Organization Audit form, enter the application and select Security > Manage Audit Trails
> Advanced Organization Audit. You can filter for specific information (date, record type, action, user ID,
etc.) and print information shown in a report format.
The Advanced Organization Audit form enables users to track additions, deletions, and modifications to
key records throughout the system, including vendors, employees, and customers . Most importantly, the
form provides detailed information regarding fields that were changed, including what the previous values
were and what the new values are . It also provides transparency into which user made changes, which
workstation and application of the product was used, and whether changes were made within the UI or in
the underlying database. This information is permanent and cannot be deleted by a user.
Figure: Advanced Organization Audit Form
9. 9
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
Transaction Audit Trail
In your examination of detailed accounting records, you
need a system that allows you to easily examine and
sample your client’s transactions. Transactions that
are posted in Abila MIP Fund Accounting™
cannot be
edited or changed—corrections are accomplished via
subsequent document reversals and the posting of
corrected copies. The system thereby provides a complete
audit trail ofall transactions recorded by each user.
This transaction audit trail uses the following data to identify
each transaction:
Session Number: This is the identifying number for the batch of documents the user is entering and
posting. It is required that this session number be unique for each type of entry. Each user can develop
their own method of controlling and entering session numbers .
Foreach sessionnumberthereis an associateddescriptionof the transaction series,date,andposting
status, all of which can be used to further group sessions. For example, users may want to leave the session
date the same as the date the session is created . This allows managers to easily determine when the
sessionwas created.
Transaction Source: This is the type of transaction. Example transaction sources include Journal
Voucher,AccountsPayableInvoice,VoidCheck,etc.
DocumentNumber: This is the number of the document associatedwith an entry. Multiple documents
can reside within a session but must be unique in number within the session. For example, in the case of
anAccountsPayableInvoicesession,thedocumentnumberisthevendor’sinvoicenumber;forchecks,the
checknumber;forjournal entries,thevouchernumber. Foreachdocumentnumberthereis anassociated
description and date. For some transaction documents there are additional fields. For example, the
AccountsPayableInvoiceentryformincludesDocumentAmount,VendorID,andDueDate.
Eachdetailedtransactionlineincludesallaccountcodeinformation,atransactionlinedescription,
the line amount, Effective Date, and Entry Type.
10. 10
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
Effective Date: This date is used to determine all ledger
activity and balances. The range of available effective
datesmaybecontrolledbysomeoneintheaccounting
organization who has access to the Administration application.
There he or she can access the Organization > Organization
Preferences > Entry Dates form to limit which dates can
be entered using the fields Prohibit Prior To, Warn Prior To,
Prohibit After, and Warn After. Each of these date fields may
be createdforeachtype of transaction. Thisfeature allows
users to soft-close accounting periods.
Figure: Organization Preferences Form
Document Date: The document date is used in modules that contain subsidiary ledgers . The Bank
Reconciliation module uses the document date to determine whether a transaction is outstanding or
cleared by comparing the document date with the reconciliation date and the cleared date . The Accounts
Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Encumbrance modules utilize the document date for aging purposes
and due date calculation where applicable.
Entry Type: This is used to separate transactions into four categories: Normal, End of Year Adjustment,
Adjust Opening Balance, and Beginning Balance. All of the Beginning Balance and Adjust Opening Balance
entries are usually accumulated and shown on the beginning balance line of reports . All Entry Types may
be shown in detail at the request of the person generating a report . End of Year Adjustments can be
included or excluded on reports.
11. 11
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
TransactionReviewandPosting
After entering but before posting an accounting entry,
the user can print an unposted transaction journal .
Until a transaction is posted, users have the opportunity
to make changes to the transaction.
At any time, you can obtain a listing of posted transactions.
(See the section on report generation for details .) You can
use this information to examine hard copy reports, or to
export the report data to a preferred file format. If you prefer to examine the data directly, you may do your
audit sample testing via an ODBC connection .
CashManagement
Because nonprofit organizations may have several cash accounts, auditing cash for these organizations
is aspecializedprocess. AbilaMIPFundAccounting™
allowsusersto maintainanunlimitednumberof
cash accounts within the natural account classification segment (usually called “General Ledger”). A single
cash account may be used with multiple funds, programs, etc. or limited to a particularfund or program
based on user configuration. Cash transactions can be traced in detail through the General Ledger reports,
Cash Journal, Check Register, Posted General Ledger Transactions report, and Display Balances > Account
Balance inquiries.
For systems that include the Bank Reconciliation module, users can also monitor the status of cash
transactions with respect to whether they have cleared the bank . Reports detailing the bank reconciliation
can be generated as the cash accounts are reconciled, and should be kept on file. Details can also be
retrieved within the Bank Reconciliation analysis reports and in Display Balances > Account Balance
inquiries.
Property and Equipment
Abila MIP Fund Accounting™
offers a Fixed Assets module to assist customers in tracking property
andequipmentaswellasingeneratingdepreciationanddisposalentriesfortheaccountingsystem.
Depreciation and disposal entries generated by the Fixed Assets module are entered as special journal
entries and can be reviewed in detail from the Asset Transfer Register or Posted General Ledger
Transactionsreport.InventoryreportscanbegeneratedfromtheAssetListreport.
12. 12
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
PayrollTransactions
Payroll and fringe benefits are often the most significant
expenses within a nonprofit organization and will be of
particular interest during an audit. Salary expense is a
common basis for allocating many indirect costs to
programsandotherfunctions.AbilaMIPFundAccounting™
offers a fully integrated Payroll module that helps
organizations properly allocate personnel service efforts.
Payroll administration, timekeeping, calculation, and payment
generation is performed within the Payroll application . Payroll entries are subsequently transferred to the
general ledger in summary or in detail . Payroll transactions are recorded with a special transaction source
to denote their origin. Detailed histories of hours worked, wages, account distribution, taxes, and more can
be found in the Payroll reports.
Allocations
Accounting entries can utilize pre-defined allocations through the use of Distribution Codes at the time
of data entry. Distribution Codes allow allocations to be based on fixed percentages, unit measures, or
fixed dollar amounts. Allocations Management is typically used to distribute indirect costs and investment
earnings,andwiththeAllocationsManagementmodule,userscanperformallocationsto movebalances
after the fact. Allocations can be performed based on fixed percentages, unit measures such as square
footage and number of employees, fixed dollar amounts, indirect cost rates or dynamic percentages such
asrelativeaccountbalances,weightedaveragedailybalance,andmore.Theallocationcalculationsare
based on actual or budget amountsfor any date range, and limits may be placed on allocations to avoid
exceeding contractual indirect cost limits. Full allocation methodology can be recorded on the allocation
setupandwillbeincludedontheallocationcalculationreport.Allocationentriesaredesignatedasaspecial
type of journal entry in the system to simplify the audit process.
Reports
Standard AccountingReports
Abila MIP Fund Accounting™
includes a built-in report writer that allows users to generate customized
financial statements and transaction analysis reports quickly and easily. The Report Setup form is virtually
the same for allreports, although some forms have additional setup options. The reporting segments
allowyouto analyzeyourdataatwhateverlevelof detailisnecessary.Additionally,manyreportsinthe
system contain the Drill-down Analyzer feature that allows you to easily drill down to the source entries that
comprise documented balances.
Full explanations of each report’s purpose, column selection definitions, and options are available in the
context-sensitive Help. To learn about a report, you can click the Help button on any report editing form.
13. 13
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
GeneralLedger Reports
To produce a general ledger report you begin on theReports
Manager navigator pane in the Accounting application.
Select the Analysis Reports option and then click on the
Reports tab of the Process Manager. Expand the selections
for General Ledger Analysis, then expand the option for
the Expanded General Ledger Report. Right-click on the
<Expanded GL – This Year> description and elect to edit the
report. This will open the Expanded General Ledger form.
This form consists of six tabs: Setup, Content, Filter, Groups, Options, Layout, and Security.
• Setup: Allowsyouto namethe report anddefine the reporting dates.
• Content: Allows you to determine the column types, sort order, totaling levels, and page
breaks for the information included in the report .
• Filter: Allowsyouto excludeinformationfromthe report.
• Groups: Allows you to report at the Group level . (Groups are a way to summarize accounts
within a segment .)
• Options: Allows you to set options specific to a report. For General Ledger, the important options to
noteare:
– Include Year End Adjustments: Normally you will include Year End Adjustments. These are
usuallyauditentries,andyouwouldonlyprintthereportwithoutthemifyoudidnotwant
to see the effect of the audit entries.
– Include Opening Entries in Detail: Normally you will not include Opening Entries in Detail
unless you do not know what makes up an opening balance . If a user enters Beginning
Balance/Opening Balance adjustment transaction types, you may need to see those
entries in detail.
• Layout: Allows you to set the font style and size, as well as the page margins for the report.
• Security: Allows you to restrict other users from making changes to the report.
The Print to Screen button displays the report on the screen without page formatting. You may use
this to review the report output prior to printing .
The Print Preview button displays the report on screen with the page breaks. You may use this to
review the report output prior to printing .
If the Data Import/Export module is active, the export options include a direct Export to Excel or
exportto any of the following file types:
Microsoft Excel®
*.XLS
Print Image *.PRN
WordProcessingText *.TXT
XML Document *.XML
Comma Separated Variable *.CSV
HTML Document *.HTM
Microsoft Access®
*.MDB
Microsoft Word®
*.DOC
14. 14
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
Trial Balances
To create a Trial Balance report, return to the General
Ledger Analysis selections within the Process Manager .
There are three different formats for a Trial Balance report:
Normal, Comparative, and Working . Each of these reports
can provide value to an auditor depending on the
auditor’sapproach . The Normal Trial Balance produces
current balance figures based on date and account
selections. The Comparative Trial Balance adds the ability
to selectbeginningbalancesinadditiontocurrentbalancesplusvarianceinformation. TheWorkingTrial
Balanceallowsyouto createworkspaceforadjustments.If youuseauditsoftware,youwillprobablyuse
the exported data from the Normal Trial Balance report to import balances into your audit software.
PostedTransactionsReports
A postedtransactionregistercanbe generatedfor anytransactiondate,type, user ID,andmore.
To get a printout of Posted Transactions, select Transaction Reports on the Report Manager
navigator pane within the Accounting application. Select the Transaction Reports and then expand
the Transactions Reports option within the Reports tab of the Process Manager. Further expand the
Posted General Ledger Transactions and run any of the default system reports, modify an existing
report, or create a custom report.
FASB and GASB Reporting
Abila MIP Fund Accounting™
can easily produce reports in the required FAS 117 and GASB 34
compliant formats. Financial statements are configured using the same report setup tools discussed
previously, with the addition of new reporting options on the Options tab of the setup, as well as a
financial statement format. Financial statement formats are templates the user creates that organize
the general ledger accounts into the properly labeled sections of the financial statements.
One option that exists in the financial statement format is the ability to designate for each section
on the statement whether to display the natural account classifications or the functional account
classifications. The user designates the functional account segment on the Options tab of the
financial statement when creating the report. This enables users to easily generate the Statement
of FinancialPositionshowingtheNet Assetssectionproperlysegregatedby restrictionandthe
Statement of Activities with the Expenditure section showing functional expenses.
A special report formatting option is available to assist in preparation of the GASB 34 prescribed
Government Wide Statement of Activities.
15. 15
Disclaimer
This guide is not a substitute for either individual study of authoritative literature or the use of sound professional
judgment. Abila Inc. in no way implies that the procedures outlined here will reduce your audit risk.
Budget to Actual Reporting and Budget Controls
AbilaMIPFundAccounting™
canalsohelppreventusers
from over-spending their budgets. Budgets can be
recorded in the system and monitored through reporting,
inquiry,andestablishedbusinessrulesto preventusers
from over-spending. The following reports include the
abilityto comparebudgetto actualperformance:
• Statement of Activities
• Statement of Revenues & Expenditures
• Statement of Revenues & Expenditures by Period
With ownership of the Budget module, additional budget analysis tools and reports become available .
DirectAccessto the DatabaseTables
There are various reasons to reportfrom the database directly,including writing customreports in
third-party applications and providing an audit sampling mechanism. The on-premises system provides the
complete table structure and field definitions within the application from the Organization > Default Table
Structure menu to assist you in locating the information you need . Refer to the Security section of this
document to learn how to gain read-only access to the database tables.
The Tables an Auditor Will Use Most Frequently
Looking for PostedTransactions
Almost everything you want to know about account transactions can be found in the following tables:
tblDLSession,tblDLDocument,andtblDLTrans.Thesethreetablescontaineverythingaboutalltheposted
general ledger transactions. If you have user defined fields (UDFs) set up, the following tables relate
to posted documents as well: tblDLDocument_UDF and tblDLTrans_UDF . Encumbrance information is
stored in the following tables: tblENSession, tblENDocument, tblENDocument_UDF, tblENTrans . Budget
information is stored in tblBLSession, tblBLDocument, tblBLTrans, and tblBLTrans_UDF .
Accounts Payable BalancesConfirmations
Tired of typing up confirmation letters? Now you can build just one form letter, attach any client’s
tblAPVendors table in their accounting database, and then print confirmation letters for the client’s
A/Pvendors.
