How healthy is your Pastel data

Pastel Xpress and #Pastel Partner are still the two most commonly used accounting systems, by SME's in SA.

I work extensively with multiple Pastel databases. These databases are soundly structured based on T-account principles. As a CA, I am impressed with the depth and accuracy of it. 

The overall posting principles are guided by the way your Pastel has been configured. Mostly these configurations are seen in your Setup tab. 

Working with Pastel data, I have come across some common practices that are often overlooked. One of these are the default period settings. These can be found in Setup > Entry Types.

There are two options per Entry Type:
1) Date Sets Period
2) Period Defaults Date

Pastel defaults to option 2. With this option Pastel disregards the date you enter, but takes the period entered as the processing principle. For instance, if you post a cash book transaction with a date of 01/03/2030 accidentally, but select period 1 of your 2020 financial year, it will post to period 1 of 2020 and will report this way. This causes major confusion later, especially when your auditors look at it.

I recommend you select option 1 (Date Sets Period) which will help you eliminate this anomaly.

Our MyBI health check identifies these types of anomalies.