Multi-company business accounting system and method for same including journals

A multi-company accounting system for providing a computer implemented method for journalizing financial information for use in a general ledger (GL) and which is accessible by one or more persons defining an interface user, the system comprising:

• a computer arrangement including at least one processor operative to:
• create a journal within the multi-company accounting system, wherein the interface user enters financial data into the multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement including:
• selects one of a plurality of companies of a multi-company group as a main company for the journal;
• and
• enters input detail lines of the financial data to define the journal, each of the input detail lines associated with a GL date, an account associated with one of the plurality of companies of the multi-company group, and a debit or credit amount;
• release the journal within the multi-company accounting system to limit changes to the input detail lines to define a released journal;
• add multi-company detail lines to the released journal including for a sum that is not zero of debits and credits by the GL date for a corresponding company of one of the plurality of companies of the multi-company group that is not the main company, the multi-company accounting system automatically adds a pair of the multi-company detail lines to the released journal to balance monies owed between the main company and the corresponding company, thereby keeping balance sheets for each of the main company and the corresponding company in balance, and wherein the main company and the corresponding company are different companies that are affiliated with each other and each uses the multi-company accounting system for tracking money flow and balancing the balance sheets for their respective accounting operations;
• and
• post the released journal with the multi-company detail lines to the GL.

A computer implemented method for journalizing financial information for use in a general ledger (GL) and for use within a multi-company accounting system that operates on a computer arrangement and which is accessible by one or more persons defining an interface user, the method comprising:

• at a processor, creating a journal within the multi-company accounting system, the interface user entering financial data into the multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement including:
• selecting one of a plurality of companies of a multi-company group as a main company for the journal;
• and
• entering input detail lines of the financial data to define the journal, each of the input detail lines associated with a GL date, an account associated with one of the plurality of companies of the multi-company group, and a debit or credit amount;
• at the processor, saving the journal within the multi-company accounting system, wherein the multi-company accounting system allows the journal to be edited and saved repeatedly by the interface user;
• at the processor, releasing the journal within the multi-company accounting system to limit changes to the input detail lines to define a released journal;
• at the processor, adding multi-company detail lines to the released journal including for a sum that is not zero of debits and credits by the GL date for a corresponding company of one of the plurality of companies of the multi-company group that is not the main company, the multi-company accounting system will automatically add a pair of the multi-company detail lines to the released journal to balance monies owed between the main company and the corresponding company, thereby keeping balance sheets for each of the main company and the corresponding company in balance, and wherein the main company and the corresponding company are different companies that are affiliated with each other and each uses the multi-company accounting system for tracking money flow and balancing the balance sheets for their respective accounting operations;
• and
• at the processor, posting the released journal with the multi-company detail lines to the GL.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions for providing a computer implemented method for journalizing financial information for use in a general ledger (GL) within a multi-company accounting system which is accessible by one or more persons defining an interface user, the set of instructions to direct a processor to perform acts of:

• creating a journal within the multi-company accounting system, wherein the interface user enters financial data into the multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement including:
• selecting one of a plurality of companies of a multi-company group as a main company for the journal;
• and
• entering input detail lines of the financial data to define the journal, each of the input detail lines associated with a GL date, an account associated with one of the plurality of companies of the multi-company group, and a debit or credit amount;
• releasing the journal within the multi-company accounting system to limit changes to the input detail lines to define a released journal;
• adding multi-company detail lines to the released journal including for a sum that is not zero of debits and credits by the GL date for a corresponding company of one of the plurality of companies of the multi-company group that is not the main company, the multi-company accounting system will automatically add a pair of the multi-company detail lines to the released journal to balance monies owed between the main company and the corresponding company, thereby keeping balance sheets for each of the main company and the corresponding company in balance, and wherein the main company and the corresponding company are different companies that are affiliated with each other and each uses the multi-company accounting system for tracking money flow and balancing the balance sheets for their respective accounting operations;
• and
• posting the released journal with the multi-company detail lines to the GL.