| Finance |
What is the significance of Numbering sequence in e-chain?
Numbering sequence is the running number assigned to several document, Master data and transactions within e-chain. The documents which uses Numbering sequence includes Purchase Order, Quotation, Sales order, Receivables (Invoice, Debit and Credit Notes), Payable (Invoice, Debit and Credit notes), TDS Certificates. Employee number is generated using the numbering sequence. PO Receipts, Miscellaneous Receipt, Miscellaneous Issue, Tolling Issue, Tolling Receipt, Material Requisition, Sub-inventory transfer, Warehouse transfer, Transfer Receipts, PO Rejection, PO Returns, Cash Receipt, Cash Payment, Miscellaneous Cash Receipt and Payment, Journal Voucher (Accrual, Allocation, Manual, Inventory and Others), Letter of credit, Quality Data Collections – PO Receipts and SFO Transactions, Preventive Maintenance Work Order, Recurring Journal, Recurring Invoice (AP), Project Number, Textile Spin Plan, and Dyeing (Lapdip process, Color matching request).
The numbering sequence also has a prefix, suffix and delimiter. Also the numbering sequence can be controlled for the Organizations financial year. Numbering sequence is all created through the e-chain Configurator. If numbering sequence is not setup, many documents and transactions will not work. |
 |
Can e-chain handle GL accounts at the tax level?
Yes, e-chain handles GL accounts at the tax level. This is useful for reporting financial statements (Sales register, Purchase register, Trial Balance, Ledger Report, P&L, and Balance Sheet) based on the GL account mapped to the taxes. Without the GL accounts on the taxes, Sales order, Purchase Order, PO Receipt tax, Receivable and Payable Invoice level taxes cannot be assigned. |
 |
What is the function behind "Transaction mapping" in e-chain Supply chain accounting?
Transaction mapping is a pre defined accounting setup for Debit and credit transactions for the following activities: Receivables Invoice Header (Dr), Receivables Invoice Lines (Cr), Payable Invoice Header (Cr), Payable Invoice Lines (Dr), Shipments (COGS - Dr, Inventory - Cr), PO Receipts (Inventory – Dr, Accrual Accounts Payable - Cr), Miscellaneous Receipts (Inventory - Dr, COGS or Accrued Accounts Payable - Cr), Miscellaneous Issue (Inventory - Cr, COGS or Accrued Accounts Payable - Dr), SFO Product Completion (Inventory - Dr, WIP Account - Cr), and SFO Product Allocation (Inventory - Cr, WIP Account - Dr).
The account mapping can be performed at various levels, such as:
| Transaction |
Levels |
| Receivables Invoice |
Customer Type (4), Sales Order Type (1), Customer (3), Customer bill-to location (2), Warehouse (5) |
| Payable Invoice |
Supplier Type(2), Supplier(1), Warehouse (3) |
| Shipments |
Item Type(1), Warehouse (2) |
| PO Receipts |
Header: Item Type (2), Warehouse (4), Sub-inventory(3), Item type - Sub-inventory (1) Lines: Item Type (2), Warehouse (4), Supplier Type(3), Item type - Sub-inventory (1) |
| Miscellaneous Receipts |
Debit: Warehouse(4), Item type(2), Sub-inventory(3), Item Type - Sub-inventory (1)
Credit: Warehouse(4), Item type(2), Sub-inventory(3), Item Type - Sub-inventory (1) (+) Miscellaneous Type (Variance account) |
| Miscellaneous Issue |
Credit: Warehouse(4), Item type(2), Sub-inventory(3), Item Type - Sub-inventory (1)
Debit: Warehouse(4), Item type(2), Sub-inventory(3), Item Type - Sub-inventory (1) (+) Miscellaneous Type (Variance account) |
| SFO Product Allocation |
WIP - Dr: Item Type - Sub-inventory(1), Sub-inventory (2), Item-Type (3), Warehouse (4)
Inventory - Cr: Item Type - Sub-inventory(1), Sub-inventory (2), Item-Type (3), Warehouse (4) |
| SFO Resource Allocation |
Resource - Cr: Item Type (1), Warehouse (2).
WIP - Dr: Item Type (1), Warehouse (2). |
| SFO Product Completion |
Inventory - Dr: Item Type - Sub-inventory (1), Sub-inventory (2), Item Type (3), Warehouse (4).
WIP - Cr: Item Type (1), Warehouse (2) Resource - Cr: Addl Resource assigned manually Item Type (1), Warehouse (2)
Material OH - Cr: Item Type (1), Warehouse (2)
Cost Adjustment - Cr: Item Type (1), Warehouse (2)
GL Overheads - Cr: Item Type (1), Warehouse (2)
Sub-contracting cost - Cr: Item Type (1), Warehouse (2)
Product Cost - Cr: Item Type (1), Warehouse (2)
Inventory Transfer - Cr: Item Type (1), Warehouse (2) |
|
 |
Does e-chain supports TDS?
Yes, e-chain supports all the statutory need of “Tax Deducted at Source” (TDS). Separate TDS tax category is maintained. When we create the Payable invoice, we assign the TDS category to the Invoice header. This information can default from Supplier if it is assigned to the same. On Approving the Payable invoice, the TDS amount gets reduced from the total invoice payable amount and is eligible for payment. The TDS amount is also deducted from the payable amount on the Payable reports such as Supplier Aging and Ledger Report. The TDS category can be applied to supplier additional information which is used when the supplier invoice is auto generated against the Purchase order receipt. |
 |
Explain Bank in e-chain.
e-chain supports Multiple bank accounts. We can maintain the Letter of credit and Bank guarantees. The Bank finance charges can be also maintained. Check books can be maintained and automatically the check numbers are defaulted in supplier payment voucher based on bank and check book chosen. |
 |
How does the Month end processing work in e-chain?
e-chain maintains the periods for the sub-ledgers (payable and receivables) and also for the main ledger (general ledger) at the finance unit level. The periods can have status such as:
| Status |
Description |
| Future |
The period is not opened. No transactions are allowed in this state. |
| Soft Close |
This is a state where the users cannot perform any financial transactions and posting is also not allowed. This state can be changed to Open by authorized personal based on the business need. This is quiet useful for quarter and year end adjustments. |
| Hard Close |
This is a state where the users cannot perform any financial transactions and posting is also not allowed. This state cannot be changed to Open status. The Finance department should have reconciled for the month by the following steps:
1. Review the “Unaccounted DL Invoice” inquiry screen. This tool can help in displaying all the unaccounted and incomplete DL Invoices. Using this screen, the user can complete or account the DL invoices which need to be booked for the period. If certain DL invoices need to be moved to future period and invoice dates, please change the period / invoice date in the DL invoice.
2. Review the “Unaccounted Cash Receipt” inquiry screen. This screen shows the unaccounted cash receipts and miscellaneous cash receipt for a period. The cash receipts and miscellaneous cash receipts recorded in a period need to be accounted and then retry to soft or hard close the DL Period.
3. Review the “Unaccounted Supplier Invoice” inquiry screen. This screen shows the unaccounted supplier invoice. The supplier invoice in the approved status cannot be moved to the future period. Once we account all the supplier invoices for a specific period, please retry to soft or hard close the CL period.
4. Review the “Unaccounted Supplier Payment voucher” and “Unaccounted miscellaneous payment voucher” screens to account the supplier payments and miscellaneous payments. Once we account all the supplier payments and miscellaneous payments for a specific period, please retry to soft or hard close the CL period.
5. Bank Reconciliation – Step1: Perform the bank reconciliation load – select ledger – this program picks the Credit and Debit transactions happened within a period against a bank. Step2: Get the electronic bank statement from the bank and load it into e-chain using “BRS Data Loader” program. Step3: Run the “Bank Reconciliation Statement Report” – this shows the closing balance as of the report parameter, Cheques Issued But Not Presented, Cheques deposited but not realized, Amount debited by the bank but not accounted, and Amount credited by bank but not accounted, and Balance as per the bank statement. Step4: Review the BRS Report and fix the discrepancies and ensure the system’s ending balance and bank statements ending balance matches.
6. Cash Reconciliation: The cash on hand need to be verified with the Cash book report. e-chain handles Cash on hand in the form of Banks. We can perform the movement of cash from Bank to Cash on hand using the Miscellaneous Payment voucher. The cash clearance account should be setup in “payment clearance account” setup form. The payment voucher automatically gets accounted and creates a miscellaneous cash receipt.
7. Please check if there is any Receivable or Payable invoice or vouchers which are not entered into the system which are issued or received in paper.
8. Please check the Supplier invoice grouping and DL invoice grouping data and interface the invoices and record the vouchers within the period before it is closed.
9. Run the “Test Ledger” and review the report output. Please also run the “Test Ledger Exception Report” to check if any discrepancy exists with the accounted data.
10 After we are confident on the “Test Ledger” report output, please run the “Final Ledger” program. Final ledger creates the Journal entries. The data is interfaced through XML exchange server.
11. Please check all the un-posted GL Journals and make sure it is all posted. The Journals can be posted at the Batch or Journal Level. There is a inquiry screen “Un-posted Journal vouchers” which lists all the GL Journals which are not posted.
12. Reconciliation of Debtor’s ledger and Creditor’s ledger with General Ledger. Debtor’s ledger recon:
Step-1: Run the “Debtor’s ledger Report” in the Sub Ledger. Find out the closing balances.
Step-2: Run the Ledger Report for the Debtors. Find out the Closing Balance.
Step-3: Match the above balances and check for any differences. |
|
 |
What is Cost type?
e-chain supports standard and average costing. Cost types are defined to assign a particular cost method, such as: standard costing, and average costing (moving average, FIFO, LIFO, Actual). Cost types are linked to the cost calculation, which defaults during costing an item. A warehouse can be assigned with only 1 cost type. |
 |
What is a Ledger code?
Ledger code consists of Fiscal calendar, Chart of accounts or accounting structure and Functional currency. Ledger code is linked to the Finance units. |
 |
What is Cash receipt?
Cash receipt is a function which helps to receive receipts against the Receivable invoices. Cash receipts support multiple currencies. We need to apply the cash receipts to an invoice. |
 |
What is Miscellaneous Cash payment?
Miscellaneous Cash payment are used for payments where there is no suppliers invoice is involved. This is equivalent to direct payment. All petty cash or sundry expenses, such as: travel, entertainment, office supplies, incidental, postal etc. The line level debit account need to be picked manually by the user. |
 |
What is Supplier Payment Voucher?
Supplier payment voucher are created to pay against the supplier’s invoices. This is also called as Bill to Bill payments. The accounts are automatically selected from the supplier’s invoice. Bank account gets credited and Accrued accounts payable account gets debited. Supplier payments also support multi currency. |
 |
What is Miscellaneous Cash receipt?
Miscellaneous Cash receipts are used for receiving all cash inflows with no Invoice involved. The cash received are debited into Bank accounts and credits the account picked by the user. Miscellaneous Cash receipts are performed for transactions such as: Fund Transfer (Bank to cash book), Scrap sales, Fixed asset sales, Returns of advances, Bank Interest etc. |
 |
How to Adjust a prepayment against Payable invoice?
1. Create a Prepayment Invoice.
2. Perform the supplier payment against the prepayment invoice created in step1.
3. Create a New Payable Invoice.
4. While approving, you will get a message to apply the prepayment invoice against the Payable invoice. One or more prepayment invoices can be applied against the Payable invoice. Automatically the invoice amount gets adjusted with the prepaid amount. Current Invoice amount = Original Invoice amount – Prepaid applied amount. |
 |
How to adjust an advance receipt against Receivable invoice?
1. Create an “Advance Deposit” Receivable invoice.
2. Perform the cash receipt against the Advance Deposit.
3. Create a Receivable invoice.
4. Complete the Receivable Invoice.
5. Select the “Details” button and apply the Advance deposit against the invoice. The invoice amount gets reduced to the extent of the advance deposit applied. |
 |
How to perform Debit memo adjustment against Payable invoice?
1. Create a “Debit memo” Payable invoice. Approve and account the Invoice.
2. Create a Payable invoice. Approve and account the Invoice.
3. Select the “Details” button and apply the “Debit Memo” against the Payable invoice. The invoice amount gets reduced to the extent of the debit memo applied. |
 |
How to perform Credit memo adjustment against Receivable invoice?
1. Create a “Credit Memo” Receivable invoice. Complete and account the Debit memo.
2. Create a Receivable invoice. Complete and account the invoice.
3. Select the “Details” button from the Receivable invoice and apply the “Credit memo” against the Receivable invoice. The invoice amount gets reduced to the extent of the credit memo applied. |
 |
Does e-chain allow applying Cash receipts against multiple Receivable invoices?
e-chain allows a cash receipt to be applied against multiple Receivable invoices. |
 |
Is it possible to void a cash receipt?
e-chain allows voiding the cash receipts. We can void the cash receipt at various stages such as:
1. Unaccounted Cash receipts
2. Accounted cash receipts which are not posted into GL Balance
3. Accounted Cash receipts which are posted into GL balances. If the cash receipts are converted into Journals before the voiding, then e-chain creates a reverse journal which follows the same process of Test Ledger/Final Ledger or Online Journal creation based on the global attribute EAC_ACCOUNTING_TRANSACTION_TYPE (XML or Online). |
 |
Explain Trail Balance report in e-chain.
Trial balance report is a tool for the Finance team to review all the credits and debits for a period or date range for each account structure. The report is highly flexible to report based on detail and summarized based on any segment used in the account structure. The cost center and balancing segment can be selectively picked for running the grouping report as well. The fields shown on this report includes, opening balance, Transaction for the period (Total debit and credit, net transaction value), and Closing balance (Closing Debit and Credit, Net closing balance). In the report the total Debit and credit should match for the Transactions in the period/date range and Closing balance as well. |
 |
Explain Profit and loss statement.
Profit and loss statement shows the income and expense summary for the account combinations against a period or date range. Posted and un-posted journals can be considered for the statement generation. This report will be highly useful for daily close. Generally this report is run during the period closing to check on the profit / loss of the company. |
 |
Explain Balance sheet statement.
Balance sheet statement is executed to review the assets and liabilities based on “as on date”. This is a mandatory statement needed for any company. Generally this report is run during the period closing to check on the financial status of the company. |
 |
Explain e-chain’s Account grouping functionality.
Account grouping is a flexible framework for preparing the Balance sheet and Profit & loss schedules. We can incorporate hierarchy within each schedule. This functionality is used for preparing the statutory formats of balance sheet and profit & loss. This framework supports global needs of financial statement generation. The steps involved in generating the statement through this framework are:
1) Create the MIS Document – The document can be setup to be executed based on period, “as on date” and date range.
2) Setup Account grouping – Setup the schedules, sub schedules, account combination or range, ad-hoc amounts for preparing the financial statements.
3) Run the “Account Grouping Report” to execute the financial statements – Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss. We can also compare the financial statement with the prior periods. |
 |
What are the main Ledger reports in Receivable and Payable modules?
The important ledger reports include:
(1) Creditor Ledger Report
(2) Creditors Aging Summary
(3) Creditors Invoice wise aging report
(4) Payment Register
(5) Payments Summary
(6) Suppliers invoice history
(7) Debtors Ledger Report
(8) Debtors invoice aging
(9) Debtors invoice wise overdue
(10) Debtor wise aging summary
(11) Debtor wise overdue
(12) Cash receipt register
(13) Cash receipt summary
(14) DL Invoice history
(15) Cash Book Report
(16) Sales register report
(17) Purchase register report |
 |
Explain Aging report in Receivable and Payable modules.
e-chain offers flexible aging buckets. A user can create custom aging bucket for Payables, Receivables and Cash Forecast. The aging reports will be reporting the receivable/payable and cash forecasting numbers for each of these custom aging buckets. |
 |
What is the Importance of financial calendar?
e-chain financial calendar is flexible to allow the companies to setup their posting period weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly. e-chain recommends monthly posting periods. e-chain also supports daily close. |
 |
What is the usage of Finance unit?
e-chain aggregates all the financial transactions at the Finance unit level. Multiple inventory warehouses can be linked with a finance unit. All financial statements and reporting are done at the finance unit level. Inventory, supply chain execution, shop floor management and supply chain planning operates at the inventory warehouse level. |
 |
How do you implement VAT/ Cen-vat in e-chain?
Value added tax (VAT) is applied for purchase receipts and sales order shipments. The tax percentages currently charged are 1%, 4% and 12.5%. These taxes are applied based on the product received and shipped. In e-chain to implement VAT, we need to create tax names and enable for VAT on purchasing or sales. Account combinations are applied to these taxes at the inventory warehouse level. Create a purchase order and receive the PO. Create the Payable invoice automatically or manually through grouping of purchase receipts. The payable invoice creation process assigns the Value added taxes to the payable invoice lines. For the sales side of VAT implementation, create a sales order and ship it. When a Receivable invoice gets created against the shipment, the Value added tax(VAT) gets applied to the Receivable invoice lines. VAT reports available in e-chain are: “VAT Input register report” and “VAT Output Register report”. Cenvat is a tax which is applied at the purchase and sales cycle. Cenvat is applicable only for manufacturers. The manufacturers will record the cenvatable taxes on purchase and sales into RG Registers. E-chain provides the following excise reports: RG23A-Part1 (Purchase receipt quantity), RG23A-Part2 (Purchase receipt value), RG23A-Part4 (Accounts of raw material and components), PLA Report (Personal ledger account), and RG1 (Finished goods report). |
 |
Is it possible to make entry in previous period with current date?
e-chain will not allow. |
 |
Explain e-chain’s Test Ledger / Final Ledger / XML Exchange Server concepts.
e-chain creates accounting entries from the following sub-ledgers: Inventory, Shop floor management, Procurement, Point of sale, Payables, and Receivables. All these transactions before been interfaced into General ledger, the sub-ledger process picks these data and gives an opportunity for the user to review all the accounting transactions. Once the Final ledger is ran, the Journals are created and cannot be changed. Test ledger report can be exported to excel to review the data more closely. e-chain also allows on-line transaction for creation of journals from sub-ledger transaction. e-chain advice the users to use the Test and Final ledger process for minimum 2 period closures before the on-line option is turned on. |
 |
Explain Bank Reconciliation process within e-chain.
Bank Reconciliation – Step1: Perform the bank reconciliation load – select ledger – this program picks the Credit and Debit transactions happened within a period against a bank. Step2: Get the electronic bank statement from the bank and load it into e-chain using “BRS Data Loader” program. Step3: Run the “Bank Reconciliation Statement Report” – this shows the closing balance as of the report parameter, Checks Issued but Not Presented, Checks deposited but not realized, Amount debited by the bank but not accounted, and Amount credited by bank but not accounted, and Balance as per the bank statement. Step4: Review the BRS Report and fix the discrepancies and ensure the system’s ending balance and bank statements ending balance matches. |
 |
Does e-chain support Recurring invoice/Journals?
e-chain supports Recurring Payable invoices and GL Journals. Recurring Journals are created for scenarios where there is repeated journals to be created for multiple periods. Reversals of journals are also supported within recurring journals – this function will be helpful to enter a journal in one period and reverse in the next. The journals generated from the recurring journal will be assigned to the same GL batch. Recurring Payable invoices can be created for scenarios where there is repeated payable invoices to be created for multiple periods. The payable invoices generated from the recurring invoice will be linked with the same Payable Batch. |
 |
What all automatic data loading features provided by e-chain within Finance track?
e-chain has data loader templates for loading GL Segmented Account values and combinations, Item Tax Category, Bank Reconciliation Statement (BRS), GL Balances, Journals, Payable invoice, and Receivable invoice. All data can be loaded automatically through these loaders. These loaders comes standard with the e-chain modules. |
 |