Back End Overview

Jewel Auditor's back end is where the magic happens. But remember that not all magic is good! The back end is extremely powerful, which means it's also a place where mistakes can easily be made and audit trails can be lost forever. The back end is the raw data behind the Jewel database. Transactions in any time period can be deleted or changed or added. Reconciliations can be hopelessly tangled. Beginning balances can be altered. Deposits and entire databases can be left out of balance. And none of this leaves an audit trail unless you intentionally leave bread crumbs.

If you are not 100% sure of what you are doing in the back end, be sure you have a backup of your database, try your fix, then triple- and quadruple-check that you did what you intended to do. Or better yet, consult this wiki or your tech support team for help before things get hopelessly muddled. We often tell treasurers that there's very little they do that we can't fix. This is not true of Auditor users. If you mess it up, we may or may not be able to fix it.

Below is an overview of the back end features. Some get used more than others, and so their description is more detailed.

Open Database

The obvious!

Tables

All tables are sortable by clicking on column headings.

Names

This is the same list you see in Maintenance / Edit Names in the front end, but in spreadsheet format. Rarely used.

Accounts

This is the same list you see in Maintenance / Edit Accounts. Note that the AccountID column is an internal Auditor designation, and is not visible in Jewel. You will sometimes need to know the AccountID of a given account when editing transactions in the back end.

Accounts_Bank

These are the accounts marked Type "Bank Account", giving the contents of the extra bank account fields that those accounts get.

GeneralInfo

This table is useful for entering the EntityId, for setting the NextStep button back to Beginning Balances, and for verifying the Jewel password.

Allocations

The same info as in Maintenance / Edit Budget Allocations.

Archives

No idea! Must be the programmer's secret...

BankRecs

This is a list of all saved and undone bank reconciliations. The BankRecID is an internal Auditor designation that you will need when correcting bank reconciliations. The AccountID tells which bank account the reconciliation is for. Date is the actual date the bank rec was completed. EndingDate, BeginningBalance and EndingBalance are the date and balances from the bank statement. An EndingDate of 12/1/1994 indicates that the bank reconciliation has been undone.

Reports through Options

These are rarely used, as they record Jewel property settings.

DepositSlip_Cash and DepositSlip_Checks

These are also rarely used. They record information from individual envelopes in the offerings.

Journal

This table is a one-line summary of each Jewel transaction. The JournalID is an internal Auditor designation that you will need to identify transactions. You will rarely make changes directly in this table, though.

JournalItems

These are the breakdown of the line items on checks, deposits, and other transactions. If you need to correct a bank reconciliation, that happens on this table. You will need to know the BankRecID, the JournalID, and the AccountID of the particular line item you want to clear. Be careful!

Offerings and Envelopes

These are rarely used, as there are better places to make corrections to these items.

View Journal

This tool gets used a lot, as it pulls together information from the various tables in a way that's much easier to read. There is no sorting allowed, though, other than choosing the type of transaction you wish to view. Transactions are listed in the order that they were added to Jewel, so they are loosely in date order. This order can be helpful when troubleshooting, as it gives important clues as to whether a treasurer probably entered a transaction himself or, if the transaction is not with the others of its month, if he had help from someone with Auditor access.

View Journal is where you will correct dates and edit remittance checks. Most other needed edits can be accomplished more easily and safely in the front end of Auditor.

View Offerings

This tool pulls together the offering information in an editable, easy-to-read format. It's used mostly for deleting recently-entered extraneous offerings. (Remember that old extraneous offerings should be reversed, not deleted, in order to leave an audit trail.) Again, most corrections are more easily and safely made in the front end.

Find

Very useful when looking for a specific something.

Restore Tools

No idea. Never used it. Maybe it's another programmer's secret?

Current Month and NextStep

These menus quickly and easily change Jewel's current month and NextStep button setting. Changing these does not erase or move any data. It simply allows the treasurer to skip to another time/step in the monthly process. If you back a treasurer up, remember that they must then re-complete all subsequent steps in the monthly process, unless they ask for help again. So if you send someone back to Start New Offering, they will need to write a second remittance check. If you back them up past Make Budget Allocations, they will have to make allocations a second time. Since you have more experience than the local treasurer, it is your responsibility to plan ahead so that redoing steps doesn't cause confusion, either in the treasurer's books or at the conference office.