IDC INTRODUCES DILOG ACCOUNTING FOR UNIX; A COMPREHENSIVE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Effective financial management is essential to government performance and productivity. The challenge lies in achieving maximum benefit from limited resources; the key is in the development and execution of a carefully crafted plan.

Information Development Consultants, Inc. (IDC) offers a comprehensive solution with DILOG Accounting, a sophisticated yet easy-to-use computerized financial management system. DILOG Accounting is specially designed to meet the accounting and financial control needs of governmental units, including cities, counties, airports, schools, special authorities, and federal, state and local government agencies. The system is designed with accounting controls built right in — everything from Government Accounting Standards board and Governmental Accounting, Auditing and Financial Report conformance to self-balancing funds to program, grant and project accounting.

The DILOG Accounting System is comprised of four software modules that can be licensed individually or in various combinations as an integrated financial management and control system. Each system module addresses a key component of governmental financial management: Financial Accounting, Management and Cost Accounting, Purchasing and Accounts Payable, and Budget Preparation.

The Financial Accounting module is the core of the DILOG Accounting system and contains the general ledger application appropriate subsidiary ledgers for expenditures, revenues, and encumbrances. Revenues and expenditures are recorded by object and sub-object account at fund, department, division, section and group levels as required. A single entry is required and the system expands it to update all the files and subsidiary ledgers.

Management Accounting maintains a revenue and cost ledger for programs, projects, grants, or other activities for any specified fiscal year(s). This provides a basis for planning, budgeting, and evaluating these activities, and also allows appropriate labor and overhead cost distribution and recording of statistical data. To ensure auditability and maximize reimbursements, all entries and reports are fully reconciled with the financial accounting records.

The Comprehensive Accounts Payable/Purchasing System (CAPPS) monitors purchases from initial requisition to final payment. The system maintains vendor history, processes requisitions, produces purchase orders, creates and liquidates encumbrances, records expenditures on an accrual basis, monitors cash requirements, prints checks, and provides for an automated bank reconciliation.

The Budget Preparation system provides up to five phases for budgeting revenues and expenses (initial request through adopted budget) and contains a simulation module to perform the number crunching necessary for the "what-if" environment. Personal services budgeting can take place at the specific employee, position, or account record through either direct entry or by interface with IDC's Payroll/Personnel system.

In addition, IDC's specially-created programs provide numerous features and functions not found in other accounting software. DILOG's functional security stipulates what each user can do — even by department.

Spending and revenue collection plans let you know where you stand at all times, eliminating surprise service cutbacks. The cost accounting module includes programmed allocation and maximizes grant and other reimbursements. Additionally, options and tables let you select or change your accounting policies and procedures without costly reprogramming.

DILOG Accounting for Unix begins at $2,700 per module and began shipping the first of December. •

May 1993 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 13