How do I create a template?

Select Add/Edit Supplier Invoice Templates found under the Data Entry tab in Accounts Payable. The system will assume that it’s the first template being created, and will default to new. Future templates will require a click on the “new” button (or File then New). Enter a template name, and then select a supplier. Use “100” as a basis to distribute monies against pre-defined g/l accounts, i.e. 30 16204.1 60 16204.2 10 16203.3 The purpose of the distribution is to create the calculation used by the system to distribute the total amount of the respective invoice. Once the template is created, go to Add/Edit Supplier Invoices and click on Load a Template (located on the toolbar – picture of a yellow cross with a window to the right of it). Select the template name and enter the amount of the respective invoice. Enhanced will use the “distribution” created in the template to distribute the total of the invoice to the various g/l account numbers. The template can be used as often as desired. Note: a/p templates don’t appear on the Operating Statement until they are posted.

Alaska Fund Accounting | Enhanced Business Systems

Fund accounting is the financial backbone of government and non-profit organizations. While a traditional for-profit business uses accounting to measure profitability (the “bottom line”), a government uses fund accounting to measure accountability.

Instead of pooling all money into one giant bank account, fund accounting splits resources into distinct, self-balancing sets of accounts—or “funds”—each with its own specific purpose, strict rules, and legal restrictions.

To understand why this system is not just useful, but absolutely vital for a state like Alaska, we have to look at how these distinct “buckets” of money operate and how Alaska’s unique economic landscape relies on them.

The Core Mechanics of Fund Accounting

In a government setting, money comes with strings attached. Taxpayers, grantors, and legislators dictate exactly how specific revenues must be spent. Fund accounting ensures those strings are never broken.

Here are the primary types of funds you will see in a state government:

The General Fund: The primary operating fund. This pays for day-to-day government services like state troopers, administration, and standard public education.
Special Revenue Funds: Money legally restricted for specific operating purposes. For example, a tax on gasoline that can only be used for highway maintenance.
Capital Projects Funds: Resources designated to build major infrastructure, like a new bridge or a water treatment plant.
Permanent Funds: Funds where the principal amount must remain intact indefinitely, but the investment earnings can be spent.

Why Fund Accounting is Crucial for Alaska

Alaska is an anomaly among US states. It has a massive, rugged geography, a relatively small population, and historically, it has lacked a state income tax or a state sales tax. Instead, Alaska’s economy and state government have been heavily fueled by natural resource extraction—specifically, oil from the North Slope.

Here is why Alaska fund accounting is the linchpin holding Alaska’s financial strategy together:

1. Managing Non-Renewable Wealth

When a state relies on a volatile, non-renewable resource like oil, revenue can fluctuate wildly from year to year based on global market prices. If Alaska dumped all its oil revenue into a single General Fund, the state government would wildly expand during boom years and face catastrophic budget shortfalls during bust years. Fund accounting allows the state to legally isolate surplus revenues into stabilization funds (often called “rainy day funds”) to smooth out these boom-and-bust cycles.

2. The Alaska Permanent Fund

The most famous example of fund accounting in the world might be the Alaska Permanent Fund. In 1976, Alaskans voted to amend their state constitution to deposit at least 25% of certain mineral revenues into a dedicated fund.

Fund accounting is the strict mathematical and legal framework that makes this work. It ensures that the principal (the corpus) of the Permanent Fund is locked away and invested, completely inaccessible for day-to-day government spending. A separate fund within the system—the Earnings Reserve Account—tracks the investment gains. Those gains are then meticulously tracked and distributed as the annual Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) to residents and, more recently, used to help fund the state government. Without the firewall of fund accounting, the billions generated by Alaskan oil would have likely been spent decades ago.

3. Federal Grants and Remote Infrastructure

Alaska relies heavily on federal funding to support its vast, remote infrastructure, including aviation facilities, ice roads, and services for remote Indigenous communities. Federal grants require incredibly strict compliance and reporting. Fund accounting provides the exact audit trail needed to prove to the federal government that money earmarked for a remote clinic in the Arctic Circle was not accidentally used to pave a road in Anchorage.

4. Intergenerational Equity

Ultimately, fund accounting in Alaska is about intergenerational equity—the idea that the natural wealth extracted from the earth today should benefit both current and future Alaskans. By legally compartmentalizing revenues, restricting how they are spent, and locking away principal balances, fund accounting prevents short-sighted political spending and preserves the state’s wealth for decades to come.