PRODUCT REVIEW: MIP FUND ACCOUNTING

The MIP Fund Accountingsystem from Micro Information Products, Inc. is designed for use in both not-for-profit and governmental organizations. As a result, it contains features not found in accounting packages designed for use in commercial entities, such as the use of funds and encumbrances.

General Ledger

MIPuses a table-driven chart of accounts which uses the following
structure:

General

FY Period Fund Ledger

XX XX XXX XXXXX

Subaccount Subaccount Subaccount

AB C

XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX

You enter codes for each component‹fiscal year, fund, general ledger, and the three subaccounts‹one time. The F8 key can be used to look up the general ledger account and subaccount code fields and their descriptions, thereby simplifying the data-entry process. This unique approach results in a chart of accounts which is much smaller and much easier to maintain.

The subaccounts are not required, but add greatly to the system's flexibility. For example, they can be used for grants (e.g., Title I), functions (e.g., training), and programs (e.g., summer jobs). If the subaccounts are used, the MIP Fund Accountingsystem can provide financial statements by grant, project, or program, as well as, any other categorization used.

Online, context-sensitive help is available with a single keystroke. Password protection provides several authority levels for each module.

Reporting

Reports are generated by a report generator which provides extensive options. You determine which accounts you want to see in your reports, the order in which they are to appear, and where subtotals are to occur. In addition, the report generator provides the following:

* Selection of ranges of accounts to be included in the report,

* Selection of a single grant or project, or for a range of grants/projects,

* Combination of accounts with the combined total a new title for summary reports,

* Selection of any reporting period, for example, when there are funding sources with a reporting year different from the organization's fiscal year,

* Long-term contract periods (e.g., three or five-year contract periods),

* Financial statements required by the FASB and GASB,

* For management-analysis purposes, printing of a 14 column (period-by-period) balance sheet, statement of revenues and expenditures, and statement of cash flows, and

* Special "report packets" to which any number of reports can be assigned. Later, specifying the packet automatically prints all associated reports.

Entering Transactions

All of the MIPtransaction entry screens are essentially the same. When you learn one MIP screen, you've learned them all.

MIPprocesses data in batches rather than interactively. The entire transaction appears on one screen. The fiscal year and period, along with all account codes related to the transaction, are displayed for each transaction. You can move anywhere within your entry and make any changes or corrections needed.

Many options are provided to speed data entry. There is a context-sensitive lookup which lets you view a list of valid entries, such as vendors, customers, or account codes. You can search the list based on the code or its related description, and even add accounts "on the fly." There are both automatic allocations and entry offsets available. Allocations and entry offsets may be intrafund or interfund.

When the time-saving data entry features are used, the results are displayed on the screen immediately. You can then verify or modify them, as necessary.

There are also options to ensure the quality of the data entry. Valid and invalid combinations of accounts can be set up which the system monitors during data entry. Codes for certain fields can be designated as required, optional, or not allowed, according to the general ledger account.

There is also a check to make sure your entries balance within each year, period, and fund; if you're out of balance, the system tells you where you're out of balance.

An unlimited number of years and periods of financial information can be kept on line; for historical periods, you may choose to keep detail transactions or just balances.

Subject to user-defined controls, transactions can be entered to any year and period. This means that both entering prior period adjustments and beginning a month or year before completing the pervious month/year poses no problem.

Routines

Closing the period in MIPconsists of selecting a single menu option. Plus, the MIPclose-year process was designed with grant reporting in mind. The close itself removes no data from the year being closed, allowing the generation of reports which include closed years.

At your option, the system will automatically adjust opening balances when adjustments are posted to a prior (closed) year. There are no barriers to closing a year as soon after year-end as you wish.

MIPprovided a compressed backup- and-restore process, yielding an average compression ratio of 7:1.

DOS commands are available from within MIP, thereby providing the ability to format a diskette in the middle of a backup, or check remaining free disk space. These options and others are available through menu driven commands.

Budget Reporting

This module is used to create a budget "worksheet" based on historical budget or actual data. The worksheet can be modified on a line item or global basis; amounts can be increased or decreased by a percentage or a specific amount for any fiscal range desired. As many worksheets as needed can be created. Budget adjustments may be made at any time by creating a new worksheet or making an entry.

Budgets can be created on an annual basis or period by period. Reports can be printed comparing budgeted and actual revenues and expenditures on a period, year-to-date, and annual basis.

Encumbrances & Purchase Orders

Purchase orders can be generated online, or entered after-the-fact. The system prompts for all significant information during the process. Purchase orders may contain separate "bill to" and "ship to" addresses.

MIPautomatically creates the encumbrance entry related to purchase orders. In addition, encumbrances can be entered without actually printing purchase orders.

The system automatically liquidates the encumbrances feature when disbursements are entered through the general ledger module or invoices are entered through the accounts payable module.

Multiple report options are available to make the reconciling of the encumbrance subledger easier. Aging reports with user-defined aging periods are available.

Accounts Payable

An unlimited number of accounts- payable accounts can be set up, each with its own subledger. Each payable account may be tied to a specific fund and cash account combination for check generation purposes.

Invoices to be paid can be selected manually or by vendor, discount date, or due date. The system automatically calculates any applicable discounts. Even though invoices are selected for payment, the amount of the actual check may be modified before printing.

Accounts Receivable

An unlimited number of receivable accounts can be set up, each with its own subledger. This option provides for different types of receivables, such as customers and students, to track and report upon.

Invoices can be printed online. All significant information is prompted for during the print process.

A preliminary billing register is available and any invoices selected may be modified before printing. Customer bills, past- due statements, and customer activity statements can be printed. Customer statements provide details of existing and new charges, payments and other adjustments, and an ending balance, for any range selected.

Database Interface

Data may be exported or imported
in ASCII, Delimited ASCII, .WKS or .DBF format.

Evaluation

Installation. MIP Fund Accountinguses an installation program to install the modules selected. No problems were encountered. Ishould point out that the version tested (8.0) is a DOS program. (MIPis completely rewriting the system to run under Windows.) In addition to running under DOS, I also ran it under DOS prompt of Windows 3.11and Windows NT without incident.

Operation. The system is completely menu driven. The control interface for each of the modules is remarkably similar. As a result, the learning curve was relatively short. Some of the interfaces could be shortened, but this was a minor inconvenience. Extensive training material and sample data are included. The unique structure of the chart of accounts (described above) greatly simplified data entry.

The system includes drivers for numerous printers. Avoid using a dot-matrix printer, if at all possible. The drivers automatically adjust the print size when laser and ink printers are used.

I have installed a number of main-frame systems in not-for-profit and governmental organizations. This system is as comprehensive and a lot simpler to learn and use. It comes with an extensive amount of useful documentation. One thing it did lack was an integrated fund-raising module.

* Requirements: 640 KB of memory and 10MB of hard disk space, using DOS 3.1or higher.

* Prices: general ledger, fixed assets, and payroll, $995 each (network versions $1,495 each); accounts payable, accounts receivable, budget reporting, encumbrance/purchase order, $795
each (network versions, $1,195 each); database interface $595 (network
version $795). Training, and annual
software maintenance and support
are available.

Micro Information Products, Inc.

505 East Huntland Drive, Suite 340

Austin TX 78752-3772

(800) 647-3863 *

Editors:
Paul D. Warner, PhD, CPA
Hofstra University

L. Murphy Smith, DBA, CPA
Texas A&M University

SEPTEMBER 1995 / THE CPA JOURNAL