What’s new in Pastel Accounting 2009?

Pastel Bank Manager
Download a bank statement from any major South African bank, import via the Bank Manager into Pastel, map the transactions to the correct customer, supplier or ledger accounts and the system will automatically assign the transactions on every subsequent import.  Tediously capturing transactions from the bank statement will become a thing of the past.  .........read more

System and Transaction Audit Trails
The System Audit Trail tightens the security of your overall system by tracking the date, time and user who makes any system set-up changes, such as allowing inventory quantities to fall below zero and renumbering customer or inventory codes. This feature promotes accountability, minimizes mistakes and deters users from fraudulent behaviour.

The Transaction Audit Trail provides a chronological sequence of transactions to help with data interrogation. This includes "behind the scenes" postings and transactions and will simplify investigations into anomalies or queries. For instance, it will be possible to identify deleted transactions because each transaction is now uniquely numbered and listed in the order that processing occurred, so any deleted transactions will not appear in the Transaction Audit Trail. Thus, if transactions INV000102 to INV000107 have been deleted, for example, then the transaction history will jump from the audit number 750 to 775. This new feature allows the user to extract only transactions relating to a specific batch, including the related generated entries.

Cashbook and Journal
Cashbook Transfer Assistant
Transfer funds from one bank to another in one entry by using the Assistant.

Line Numbering & "Go To" Command
Each line of your cashbook or journal is now sequentially numbered, allowing you to use a keyboard shortcut to move quickly to the line number you specify.

Insert Line
Instead of having to add a missed entry to the bottom of your batch, use this keyboard shortcut to insert a line in your batch. This feature will help you keep entries in order and therefore help reduce the time it takes to check your entries before posting.

Bank Balance displayed on the Cashbook
On the Cashbook processing screen, the system displays the bank balance, which is the year to date balance including the opening balance.

Force Cost Codes
You now have the option to force cost codes on cashbooks and journals, helping eliminate errors for those environments which are dependant on entering cost codes.

Batch Total Field
If you are capturing entries from a document or schedule, this field will ensure that you do not post the batch with errors. The total batch value excluding the contra entries will be displayed in this field, thus allowing you to check that it is the same amount as the total on your document or schedule.

Automatically Reverse Accrual Journals
You may sometimes post an accrual journal in a period, which you need to reverse in the next period. By simply selecting an option when updating the batch, the system will automatically reverse the accrual journal in the next period for you.

Drill down on Standard Reports
When you preview reports on the screen, the system offers drill down capabilities where available. This enables you to view more detail about the displayed amount. For example:

• If you view a trial balance on the screen, you can drill down on any account that has a balance. The drill down will show the transactions that make up the balance.

• If you drill down on the sales account, the transaction details that display can drill down further. For example, you can drill-down from the general ledger sales transaction to the original invoice.

User Groups and User Access .....read more
Once a User Group is created, it's just a matter of attaching the user to the overall group, without having to do a separate set-up. In addition, the levels of access control you can impose now range from the type of document a user can process to the type of functionality a user can access. For example, with the new Menu Access, you can:

• Allow an employee access to a particular report they need, but not all the financial reports such as the Trial Balance.

• Give one user the ability to only do quotes, and another the ability to only do invoices.

• You can even determine which users should be able to do backups.

The question  left to be answered is "Are you ready to go beyond accounting?" 

If you are -  click on the link below and we will escort you there.