7.2 Transaction Record

Transactions
Each Financial Transaction is allocated to one Account and is designated as In (paid into the Account) or Out (paid out of the Account).

Transactions are normally dated with the date on which they are created, but this and most other details about a Transaction can be edited, including setting the date of the Transaction in the past or the future.

Each Transaction has a Transaction Number, starting at 1 and unique within the U3A’s financial records, which is displayed in the Ledger. Each transaction also has a unique “tkey” which is a unique identifier in the Beacon database and is shown in Excel Data Backups.

There are two special types of transactions, Transfers and Brought Forward.

You may display a Transaction Record from the Ledger and from certain other places where Transaction numbers are displayed by clicking on the transaction number:

Transactions for new memberships and membership renewals are automatically added to the ledger and are ‘associated’ with the member(s).

Adding Transactions
To create a non-membership Transaction, click Add transaction from the Home page or the Ledger.

Select either Money received or Payment. The field below will toggle between From and To accordingly.

• Enter the person (or body) From whom the money has been received or To whom it has been paid. The Amount should always be a positive figure.
  
  
• The Date may be changed by clicking in the date box and selecting the required date from the calendar.
  
  
• Select a Payment Method from the drop-down list and (optionally) add a cheque number or other reference in the Payment Reference.
  
  
• Detail (which will be shown in the Ledger) should give a concise reason for the payment. Additional information can be entered in Remarks.
  
  
• Transactions may be linked to 1 or 2 Members or a Group by selecting from the Associate transaction with drop-down lists.
  
  
• On the right side is a list of defined financial Categories. You must assign the money paid or received to one or more categories such that the total of the categories equals the Amount. You will not be able to save the transaction if this is not the case.
  
  
• Normally categories are positive amounts for a payment or receipt. An exception is Paypal Commission for an online membership transaction which is shown as a negative amount.

 When all is complete, press the Save button to commit the Transaction. If you press the Save & Add Another button, a new form will be shown to enable a succession of transactions to be entered efficiently. Otherwise the saved Transaction is re-displayed as confirmation.

Changing and Deleting Transactions
After changing any fields in a Transaction, press the Save button to commit the changes.

Ordinarily, for reasons of financial integrity, Transactions should not be deleted. Instead a new Transaction should be added that negates the original (a payment for a receipt and vice-versa).

However, if a genuine mistake has been made that is recognised straight away (a Transaction being entered twice, for example) it may be deleted by pressing the Delete button.

Notes:

• All changes to data throughout Beacon are audited
  
  
• Transactions that have been cleared cannot be deleted or changed, except that the figures in the Category fields may be edited (see 7.5).

 Cleared Transactions can be recognised by a ‘Cleared date’ in the last column of the Ledger.

 

Transaction Records also display the cleared date if applicable, along with note saying that the Transaction has been cleared.

v2	2021-04-23	Lyn Bossons	Merged KB Transactions article with start of UG 7.2