Importer & Open Period Accounting

The Importer works the Open Period Accounting (OPA) feature to update the Nominal Ledger with transactions supplied in either a FoxPro compatible format (a file with the file name extension of .dbf) or a comma separated variables format (a file with the file name extension of .csv). The following types of imports are affected if the respective application in Opera 3 is linked to the Nominal Ledger:

The Importer consolidates all transactions for a certain period and year in the Nominal Ledger into one journal. If transactions update different periods in the Nominal Ledger, for example, period 6 in year 2011 and period 7 in year 2011, a journal is posted to each period which includes the imported relevant transactions.

Options

The Importer uses these two options if Open Period Accounting is used. They are displayed on the wizard in Opera 3 only if Open Period Accounting is switched on in the Nominal Ledger company. If you are importing Nominal Ledger journals the options are enabled if the Update Nominal option is ticked.

Parameter	Description
Bypass OPA Processing	This controls whether the OPA feature is used by the importer. The importer automatically assumes that OPA is in use unless this option is either ticked in the wizard or set to ‘O’ by developers using the importer as a command line utility.
NL Posting Date	This overall date controls the period in the Nominal Ledger that is updated for all the Sales Ledger transactions, Purchase Ledger transactions, Cashbook transactions for customer and supplier receipts, payments and refunds, or Stock Control transactions being imported. For other transactions, the main transaction date for each transaction is used.

Financial Calendar in the Nominal Ledger

Each period in the Financial Calendar in the Nominal Ledger has a status of either ‘Open’, ‘Closed’ or ‘Blocked’.

- If the transaction’s date is in a ‘Closed’ or Blocked’ period, it is not imported unless the period is in the future. Transactions to future periods that are not open are imported but only update the Nominal Ledger in a batch update command in Opera 3 after the period’s status changes.

- If the transaction's date is in an 'Open' period and the Real Time Update of Nominal Ledger feature is used, the Importer updates that Nominal Ledger period. If the real time feature is not used, the transaction is imported but the Nominal Ledger is not updated until a batch update command is run in Opera 3.

The real time feature is switched on using the Real Time Update of Nominal option on the System - Maintenance - Company Profiles form.

Which date does the Importer use to update the Nominal Ledger posting date?

The rules explained in the Financial Calendar in the Nominal Ledger section above are followed for each type of transaction.

Sales Ledger and Purchase Ledger transactions

This illustration assumes that the Bypass OPA Processing option is not selected, Open Period Accounting is used in the Nominal Ledger and either the Sales Ledger to Nominal option or the Purchase Ledger to Nominal option on the System - Maintenance - Company Profiles form is selected.

NTRAN.NT_ENTR field

This date holds the date that a transaction was posted and is shown on views and reports in the Nominal Ledger.

This is updated with either:

1. the Opera system date (normally today's date) if that date falls between the start and end dates for the Nominal Ledger period that the transaction falls in, or

2. the last day of the relevant Nominal Ledger period that the transaction falls in.

Example 1 - today's date falls in the relevant Nominal Ledger period ...

Period 3 is the current period in the Nominal Ledger (01/03/2016 to 31/03/2016). Today's date is 30/03/2016.

You import a sales invoice with a Nominal Ledger update date of 25/03/2016, which falls in period 3. Because today's date falls between 01/03/2016 to 31/03/2016, that date is used to update the NTRAN.NT_ENTR field.

Period 3 is the current period in the Nominal Ledger (01/03/2016 to 31/03/2016). Today's date is 02/04/2016.

You import a sales invoice with a Nominal Ledger update date of 25/03/2016, which falls in period 3. Because today's date does not fall between 01/03/2016 to 31/03/2016, the NTRAN.NT_ENTR field is set to the last day of the period - 31/03/2016.

Stock Control movements

This illustration assumes that the Bypass OPA Processing option is not selected, Open Period Accounting is used in the Nominal Ledger and the Stock Control to Nominal option on the System - Maintenance - Company Profiles form is selected.

Cashbook transactions (Sales Ledger & Purchase Ledger Receipts, Payments and Refunds)

This illustration assumes that the Bypass OPA Processing option is not selected, Open Period Accounting is used in the Nominal Ledger and the Use Cashbook option on the System - Maintenance - Company Profiles form is selected.

Nominal Ledger journals

This illustration assumes that the Bypass OPA Processing option is not selected and Open Period Accounting is used in the Nominal Ledger.