Property Setup Wizard

Use the Property Setup Wizard to set up all your financial departments and buildings. Every accounting entity, whether it is your Head Office or a building, is set up using the Property Setup Wizard.

1. In the Navigation Pane click on System Tasks

2. In the System Tasks, select Wizards

3. In the Start a Task menu, select Property Setup Wizard

Before you begin:

- Set up your Sample Chart of Accounts.

- Modify all Control Codes to match this Chart of Accounts.

- Set up all cities that you are going to require for buildings, suppliers, owners, or tenants.

- You will need to know certain information before you begin the Property Setup Wizard, i.e. Accounting information, such as year end, current A/R period, accounting method, and whether you will be using vacancy accounting.

- If you have multiple buildings using the same bank account, the first "building" that should be set up is the financial department that contains the bank account. This department can also function as your head office. For a review of how the system handles multiple buildings using one bank account, please refer to the Accounting Considerations tutorial.

Financial Department

- The financial department(s) containing your bank account(s) should be set up first. The financial department(s) may contain nothing other than the bank account, and a few basic G/L accounts, such as Suspense, Retained Earnings, and Bank Charges.

- During the setup of the financial department, you will be prompted to add the Bank account information.

Full Name For this new Property

Enter the name that will appear on all reports for this property/department.

What kind of property is it?

Select the applicable building type from the drop-down box. If none of these descriptions fits your building type, you may key in another building type, which the system will prompt you to confirm. If this is a department that does not have units, select Financial Department. Selecting "Condominium" will make some changes to the reporting for condominiums.

Accounting ID (Department Number):

We recommend that you use numbers only, but you can use any combination of letters and numbers. Your accounting ID will actually form the property/building number for journal entries or accounts payable invoice coding. It is easier if you can use the number keypad alone, and this is why we recommend that you use numbers only and keep this Bldg ID as short as possible. This field cannot be changed or edited at a later date. Click on Next.

Enter the address of the property.

Enter the city by using the drill down button and choose, or if the city is not on the list then you can add a city using "add a city". The province or state is associated with the city when you set up the city. Enter the postal code/zip code, phone and fax numbers, and then click on Next.

Square Feet or Square Meters

Click on the type of measurement that you wish to use. This is an optional feature for residential buildings

Total Area, Common Area, Gross Leasable Area

This information is optional. However, it is important if you will be using the system for cost recoveries. For commercial properties the gross area leasable is used in determining the tenants’ proportionate share of recoverable expenses.

Banks

You must now specify the bank accounts that will be used for receipts, disbursements, and security deposits. In SPECTRA each bank account is set up as a "Bank". If this is your financial department or if each building uses its own bank account, click on the "Add a new bank button" to add your bank(s) now. If the bank account has already been set up in the system, select it now from the drop down box.

When you click on "Add a new bank", a new screen will pop up. Enter a meaningful bank name that clearly identifies this bank. If you have 20 accounts with ABC Bank, don’t name each of these accounts "ABC Bank". It would make more sense to call them ABC01 for Building 01, ABC02 for Building 02, or ABC Operating, or ABC Security Deposits, etc. These are suggestions for your ease of use. You should enter a unique name in the Short Name as well. Click on Next.

Enter the Bank’s address and click on Next.

Enter the Bank account number and telephone and fax numbers, if available.

Click on Next and then Finish.

You will be returned to the Bank Selection screen. If you need to add any other banks for this building, repeat the Add a new bank procedure, otherwise, click Next.

First day of this Fiscal Year:

Enter the first day of the fiscal year. The system defaults to January 1st of the current year, but you can override this. The screen will then display what your current fiscal year is. A building’s fiscal year may not be changed or edited at a later date. Be careful to enter the first day of the fiscal year, as this determines the fiscal year for this building. This can only be changed later at additional cost.

Period Descriptions

The system will automatically set up the accounting periods. You should review the list of dates for reasonableness i.e. do they begin on the first of the first month of the fiscal year? The only changes that should need to be made are if your accounting periods are not calendar months. The system creates accounting periods for two years in the past and four or five years in the future.

Click Next to proceed.

Current period for Accounts Receivable

Enter the month in which the system should start charging your tenants rent.

Next Cycle for this property

Select Begin A/R Month. This will set your system up so that you can run the Begin Month program to charge tenants rent for the month specified in the previous field.

Vacancy Accounting

Choose whether you want vacancy accounting or not. Vacancy Accounting means that financial statements will show total potential rent for a building less vacancy cost. Vacancy accounting does not apply if you later choose the accounting method of Cash. Click on Next.

Code for normal base rent and vacancy accounting:

Choose the regular charge code for base rent and vacancy from the drop down list. When you set up tenants for this property, the system will use this code and the expected rent for the unit to set up the base rent charge on the Tenant.

Management Fee

Select from the list of management fee types already set up on the system. If the required Management Fee has not been set up, you may set one up now. (See the Help File on Management Fee for more information on this process.) Click on the type and then the right arrow to move it over to the selected column on the right. Up to three management fees may be set up for each building. Click on Next.

Taxes

Choose the taxes that would apply to this property by clicking on the tax and the right arrow to move it over to the right-hand box. Enter the applicable tax I.D. numbers. Click on Next.

Canadian Clients Only:

Record as Input Tax Credits:

If this building is a commercial building, you will want to record Input Tax Credits, so tick this box.

Record Tax Expense Separately:

If this building is a residential building and you want to record the GST/HST separately, tick this box. If this building is residential, and you don’t wish to expense GST separately, then leave both fields unticked.

Cash or Accrual Accounting

Choose the accounting method you will use - cash or accrual. If in doubt, consult your accountant, as this cannot be changed later without additional cost. Click on Next.

Chart of Accounts

Select either Sample Building or an Existing Building? Click on where you want your accounts copied from, and then double click on the building. Note the Sample Charts of Accounts are maintained on the System Tasks – Spectra Utilities – Update Sample Chart of Accounts menu item. Click on Next.

The system will produce a list of that building’s chart of accounts. To select individual accounts, double click on the account number which should be set up in the new building. If you want to use most of the accounts, click on the double right arrow to move all accounts over then double click on the unwanted accounts in the right-hand column to move them back to the left column. Click on Next.

Review the resulting chart of accounts. You can press G/L Description button to sort by G/L description and then press G/L Account to return to the GL account number order.

1. To Add G/L accounts, go to the bottom of the list and key in new account numbers, descriptions, and account type.

2. To Change any descriptions, key in a new description over the existing one.

3. To delete an account, click to the left of the account number, and press the Delete key on your keyboard. You will be prompted to confirm this deletion.

When you have finished modifying the chart of accounts, click Next.

Important G/L Account Numbers:

You are now required to enter certain essential G/L account numbers, which will be stored on the Building – Accounting screen.

Inter-Department Journal Entries

Each building/department is maintained as an accounting entity with its own General Ledger. Therefore, if you enter a journal entry debiting an account in one building and crediting an account in another building, the system needs to know where to put the offsetting entries to keep each building in balance, i.e. debits match the credits.

Suspense Account

The system will need a Suspense Account in the event that a particular account number does not exist on a building’s chart of accounts. An example of this might be a Regular Charge code that credits Storage Revenue. If Storage Revenue does not exist in the building’s chart of accounts, the system wouldn’t know where to post that revenue. Rather than post an unbalanced entry, the system will post the revenue to Suspense. The user can then add the missing account and journalize the entry out of Suspense. The Suspense account must be a separate account not used for any other purpose.

Retained Earnings

At the end of the year, accounts that are marked Revenue or Expense will be closed out to Retained Earnings. All other accounts will be carried forward into the new fiscal year. Therefore, this Retained Earnings account must be an Equity account.

Deposit Refunds Payable

When you process a security deposit refund, the system uses this account as an interim clearing account. You should have three accounts: Security Deposits (to record the actual security deposit), Accumulated Deposit Interest (to record the interest liability) and Deposits Payable.

Accounts Payable (Accrual Accounting Only)

When you enter Supplier Invoices, you tell the system which accounts to debit or expense. Enter the account number here that is the offsetting account to credit, which is your Accounts Payable liability.

Unearned Revenue (Cash Accounting Only)

If a tenant prepays their rent, there is no outstanding charge for this payment to be applied to, so the system does not know which revenue account to credit. Enter the account where you want any tenant prepayments to be reflected. If you select a liability account, the revenue will show on the income statement when the payment is applied to the charge. If you select a revenue account, the unearned revenue will show on the income statement as soon as it is received. Click on Next.

Accounts Receivable (Accrual Accounting Only)

Enter your GL control account for your Accounts Receivables. Click on Next.

If you did not add a new bank, you may click on Finish.

Bank Information:

If you did add a new bank, the system will prompt you for the following information:

Bank GL Account

Enter the G/L account number for this new bank.

Discount GL Account

If you take discounts on your payable expenses e.g. 2% in 10 days, you need to enter the account number you want the 2% discount stored in, e.g. Other Revenue. If in doubt, enter the Suspense account number. Do not use the Bank G/L account for this purpose.

If your new bank will be used by other buildings, enter the Due To/From Account to use: This account does not need to be entered in your Chart of accounts, as the system will create it automatically.

Enter the account number that will represent, or be used for each individual building’s contribution to a main bank account. If you have 2 different trust bank accounts i.e. one for an operating account and one for security deposits, you may wish each bank to have its own Due To/From account number. In our sample chart of accounts we have used account 1090

Click on Next, and then Finish.

Space Setup Wizard

The system will now prompt you if you wish to start the Space Setup Wizard to create spaces for this property. The Space Setup Wizard is used to set up units or parking stalls in a building. You may start the wizard now, or answer No, and start the Space Setup Wizard at a later time. You cannot set tenants up until you have units in which to put them.

Canadian Clients:

After you have completed the Property Setup Wizard, go to Find – Banks – drill down on your new banks – Bank Edit – select the CPA Standard 006 option. If you will be ordering NEBS SS9039 cheques, you have a choice of date formats of MMDDYYYY, DDMMYYYY, or YYYYMMDD.

Both American and Canadian Clients:

Please refer to the Check Printing topic for additional NEBS check ordering instructions.