Accounting for Government FInal Project

Table
of Contents

Chapter
1 ·············································· 3 Project Instructions and
Information 13 Chapter 2 ·············································· 14 Chapter
3 ·············································· 18 Chapter 4
·············································· 20 Chapter 5
·············································· 25 Chapter 6
·············································· 28 Chapter 7 ··············································
32 Chapter 8 ·············································· 36 Chapter 9
·············································· 38 Chapter 10
·············································· 40 Chapter 12 ··············································
40 Appendix A ············································· 41

2

CHAPTER
1

INTRODUCTION
TO THE CITY OF BINGHAM SOFTWARE

Welcome

Thank
you for selecting Version 1.0 of the City of Bingham Governmental Accounting
Software. This software is designed to be used with the McGraw-Hill/Irwin
textbook Accounting for Governmental and Nonprofit Entities, 15th
Edition,ISBN 0073100951.

System
Requirements

To
use the City of Bingham accounting software application, you must have the
following:

· Operating
System:
·
Microsoft® Windows 2000
or later
·
Mac OS X v10.4 or 10.5
·
Linux Red Hat®
Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5
·
Hardware:

·
Windows ®: Intel®
Pentium® II 450MHz or faster processor (or equivalent)

·
Macintosh: PowerPC® G3
500MHz or faster processor;
Intel Core™ Duo
1.33GHz or faster processor
·
Recommended screen
resolution of 1024 x 768 minimum

· 128MB
of RAM minimum
·
Spreadsheet program (in
order to easily view the exported CSV files)
·
Excel 2003 or later (in
order to view the exported Excel files)
·
Internet Explorer 7 or
later, Mozilla Firefox 3.x or later, Safari 3.x or later
·
Adobe Flash Player
version 10 or above

Licensing

This
manual was written for use with the City of Bingham software, Version 1.0. This
manual and the software described in it are copyrighted, with all rights
reserved. This manual and the City of Bingham software may not be copied,
except as otherwise provided in your software license or as expressly permitted
in writing by McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Inc.

3

Use
of the City of Bingham governmental accounting software (the “Software”) and its
documentation are governed by the terms set forth in your license. Such use is
at your sole risk. The software and its documentation (including this manual)
are provided “AS-IS” and without warranty of any kind.

RUNNING
OR REMOVING THE CITY OF BINGHAM

Running
the City of Bingham

The City of Bingham can be started by
clicking on the Start.html file as indicated in the “Opening the City of
Bingham” instructions below. As the City of Bingham is a web-based application,
it need not be installed onto your local computer.

However, the web-based software is
downloaded, copied to your computer, and run locally.

As
computers are often configured differently, you may need to change your Adobe
Flash Player Security settings in order to run the City of Bingham. For more
information and detailed instructions, please see Appendix A.

GENERAL
OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS

Opening
the City of Bingham

You can open the
City of Bingham at any time by clicking on the

Smithville_Bingham
folder and then clicking on
Start_Student.exe.Theapplication requires the Web
Browser pop-up blocker be turned off in order to run the application properly.

4

Creating
a New Project

To
create a new project, click on “Create New Project” in the opening
window. The Create New Project dialog window will appear, as shown below.

Enter
your first and last name, then click [Create]. You should save your project
folder in the Projects folder located in the Smithville_Bingham folder created
when the downloaded files were unzipped. For your own protection against
hard-drive failure, you should create a dated backup file at the end of each
session on a removable disk (CD/DVD/USB Flash Drive). This step creates the
accounts and funds that you will need to complete the “City of Bingham”
cumulative problem.

The main project
window will pop-up once the project is created.

Opening
an existing Project

Click on “Open
Existing Project”, and then select the file you wish to open.

5

Saving
the current Project

Click
on [File] and [Save/Save As]. If a filename has already been
specified, the current filename will be pre-populated in the Save dialog but
may be changed if desired. Unlike previous versions of Bingham, this version
does NOT automatically save your work. Be sure NOT to exit your browser
before saving your project file.

6

City
Of Bingham Main Window
If
you have opened a project file, the main project window should appear:

To
navigate between the Journal, Account, and Ledgers screens, simply click on the
[TAB] for that particular screen.

To
switch between different funds and governmental activities, government-wide,
choose the desired entity from the drop-down menu.

You
can verify which entity you are working on by the caption on the upper right corner
of the window. It will show the title of your project, and the current fund you
are in.

The
main window has the same standard window controls as most other applications.
To close down your project, simply click on the [X] box. Warning:

It
is very important that you always save your project file and remember where you
saved it before closing your browser.

7

Adding
and Posting Journal Entries

If
you are looking at the main window, you need to switch to the journal screen
before you can add any journal entries.

Once
you have switched to the journal screen, you will see the entry form on the
lower portion of the window.

Before
ANY entry can be added to the journal, a description and debit or credit must
be specified.

Once you have filled in the necessary
fields, simply click on [Add Entry] to add the entry to the journal. If
the entry being made is a closing entry, you must click on the check mark for [Closing
Entry].

If one of the fields is missing a value
or contains an illegal character, the [Add Entry]button will
remain disabled.

If
you are adding an entry that also affects a detail journal, the detail journal screen
will automatically open, as described on page 11, when you select the
corresponding control account from the drop-down Account #/ Description menu.

Once you have entered a batch of entries
into the system, you can post them to the general ledger at any time by
clicking the [Post Entries] button. In the case of the General Fund,
posting transactions also posts entries from the detail journal to the revenue
ledger and appropriations, encumbrances, expenditures ledgers as well.

The [Post
Entries] button only posts entries for the current fund/entity.

Editing/Deleting/Unposting
Journal Entries

To
edit entries that have already been entered, double click or right click on the
entry, and select edit. You will know you are in edit mode when the entry form
turns red and the blanks will fill in with the data from the journal. If you
wish to delete an entry, right click on the item and select [Delete] or
choose [Edit]-[Delete].

The
City of Bingham software provides the capability to “unpost” individual batches
of posted transactions. Simply highlight any entry within the batch you want to
unpost and either right click and select [Unpost] or select [Unpost]
from

8

the
Edit menu. Editing is then done in the same manner as for unposted journal
entries. When editing is completed, click [Post Entries] and your
corrections will be made to the appropriate accounts. If you need to add an
entry to a previously posted journal entry, then unpost as described above and
make the new entry at the bottom of the journal. You can then right click

Screen shot of

“Right
Clicking”on ajournal entry.

and
use the [Move Up] option to move the entry one step at a time up the
journal until it appears in the desired location. As in prior versions, a
provision also allows you to clear all of the transactions from the current
fund or entity. Under [File]-[Student Assistance] you will find
the option [Wipe out Current Fund or Entity]. The wipe out
function should be used as a last resort. Once you select thisoption,
there is no going back. It will remove ALL of the transactions for the current
fund or entity.

Working
with the Ledgers Screen

Switch
to the ledgers screen by clicking on the ledgers tab. The screen shown on the
following page

9

Switch
entities at any time by changing the selection.

If
your screen is not wide enough to display all of the columns, use the vertical
and horizontal scrollbars to navigate the data.

Depending
on the fund or entity you are working on, there may be different ledgers for you
to view. Choose the ledger you want to view from the drop-down list.

If
you want to print out a ledger, you need to select the [Reports] menu,
and choose the report.

10

Working
with the Detail Journal Screen

The
General Fund of the City of Bingham uses a Detail Journal to avoid excessive
detail in the general journal/ledgers.

If you choose an account that has
subsidiary detail associated with it, you will be taken directly to the Detail
Journal. If you attempt to edit a journal entry that has associated subsidiary
detail, you will automatically be prompted to also open the Detail Journal for
editing, if desired.