Within FocalPoint is the ability to transfer financial information to third party accounting software (such as QuickBooks, PeachTree and BusinessWorks) in journal entry form. As you are creating transactions, taking payments, creating credits, or doing any other kind of financial specific activity in FocalPoint, FocalPoint is tracking this information and storing this information in financial "buckets" related to income, expense, asset and liability general ledger accounts. Nearly all of this functionality is possible through the use of posting codes in FocalPoint.
Posting codes are internal codes that are assigned general ledger account numbers to give you the ability to track revenue and expenses by a classification other than GL accounts. They are the buffer between your accounting books and your employees. They offer an adaptable method to track revenue and expense without the need for front-line people to have to determine where revenue and expenses should flow from an accounting standpoint.
If you have been using QuickBooks or some other financial software package to create rental transactions, you are probably used to seeing all of your transactions in your financial software package. Because all of these transactions are now being created and stored in FocalPoint, you will no longer see individual transactions in your accounting software. You will simply see one journal entry per day or period of time reflecting the financial activity for the day or period of time that was created in FocalPoint.
The exception to all of this revolves around payables and the disbursement of money. There is no accounts payable functionality or general ledger functionality in FocalPoint. This exception will be further discussed later.
If you choose to report on your financial activity instead of export your financial activity, the setup steps are the same. Most of the reports related to financial information in FocalPoint relies on the same setup as the exporting functionality does.
