Closing Runs

Many of our clients have used and are familiar with accounting software programs other than ours and are accustomed to entering all revenue and expenses before they close a production period. It is important to understand that our software does not process like that. SherWare closes by runs instead of production periods. When a run is closed in SherWare, disbursements will be created for revenue and expenses as they are at this time. Closing a run does not close and create a cut off for a production period. Therefore you can close a run with entries from multiple production periods. This makes processing disbursements easier for you. Reports can be printed by a production period to show the totals for one or multiple production periods.

The advantage of this is that you can close at any time and not worry about whether everything has been entered for a production period or not. We have chosen to process data this way to reduce your headache. Many operators receive bills, checks, and invoices for multiple production periods at the same time. You might receive a check from a purchaser one month after the fact but you still pay for all of the expenses for a production period as they happen. Another example is in a situation where an issue might be pending or an expense might not have been noticed and entered until it was too late. Closing by runs instead of production periods makes it less stressful for you to manage your information.

Some clients want to close by production period so that every distribution is only for a specific production period. They can do this in our software by using the Allocation File to process disbursements this way. To do this you will have to mark the option to "Send All Revenue and Expenses To Allocation File" in the Miscellaneous Preferences screen. When this option is marked all revenue and expenses will be sent to the allocation file as soon as they are input into the software. When a run is closed it does not close any records in the allocation file. When you have all revenue and expenses entered for a production period you will then allocate all revenue and expenses for it. This will be done from the Allocate Held Revenue screen and the Allocate Held Expenses screen. Now when you close the run only the revenue and expenses that were allocated will close. The final result is a closed run that will only be for a specific production period.

While you can choose to process disbursements this way, we do not recommend it. We have designed the software to process data by runs to make your job easier. Putting all revenue and expenses in the allocation file adds another step to your job and creates a lot more opportunity for you to make mistakes.