Here we are back to the accountants and bookkeeper issues. This keeps coming up because having an integrated general ledger is such a big feature of PACE, and is the poorest understood. I've seen all kinds of work-arounds, procedures, chart of accounts setup, endless manual gl adjustments etc., some were good and some weren't as people tried desperately to make the accounting work. The reason for all this haphazardness was/is due to a lack of training.

I estimate that 95% (Greater Vancouver area) do not use the accounting system in PACE. Of the shops that I have seen, not one has used the accounting system completely (eg: prepaid expenses, amortizing, accruing liabilities etc) nor properly, prior to investing in my training program.

The majority of shops are duplicating data entry into a Windows-based accounting software, which defeats the purpose of having an integrated software package like PACE. It is a shame actually, because it is so easy to do -- with the exception of finding errors in parts suppliers accounts.

Without exaggeration, in addition to day-to-day entries, it takes about a half hour per month to make the 'extra' entries (amortization etc.) and about an hour to make adjusting entries at the end of the month.

If there was one thing that PACE (the company) did poorly, it was the training model. The typical new sale consisted of software and hardware delivered and a couple days of training (seminar style). After that there was only phone support (which answered questions but could not elaborate on procedures) and additional paid support. This training model was singularly responsible for the poor acceptance of the PACE accounting system, in my humble opinion.

Here are just a few items to check to see if you are using the system properly:

• Account #521 should equal #524 (the signs are different but the figures should be the same)
• Should not be printing out more than a few pages for month end
• Should be no more than a couple hundred dollars (per year) in the adjustment (plug) accounts eg: #414
• Should have a sales department for Promotions
• Should be zero amount in bank adjustment accounts
• Should be only small amounts in cores and inventory adjustment accounts
• Should have $0 negative inventory
• Should have a policy for data entry format eg, all capitals, creating customer lookup filenames and supplier codes
• Year-to-date Earnings and Current Earnings on the balance sheet equals Income Statement earnings
• Retained Earnings account should be exactly the same as the accountant's trial balance
• Prepaid expenses should be amortized
• Payables and receivables should be accurate
• Small number of Manual GL Adjustments per month
• Fixed Assets (# 100's) should have categories of assets, not individual assets such as "Brake Lathe"