Step-By-Step Guide to entering BenchMark data
11/09/2009 00:00:00

First off, lets login.

We are assuming that BenchMark is installed, and so on your desktop you should have an icon as follows.

Note the text of the icon is just ‘BenchMark’ if it says anything else then it is likely an old version and will not work.

We load BenchMark through that icon, and we will be presented by the login screen.

This requires the email address and password that you registered with on the AVN website. You can click ‘Remember me’ if you don’t want to see this screen again (remember anybody who uses your machine will then be able to log straight into BenchMark).

Although on the main home screen, that we come to next, there are lots of options, we are currently only interested in the first one which says ‘Enter a new client’.

Now we are at the first of four data entry screens.

The basic information to enter is:

• Clients Name (to show on the reports)
• Reference
• Trading Entity (Ltd Co, Sole Trader or Partnership only)
• The sector performance group should be left at ‘My industry is not available in this list’ (The only time you change this is when you are submitting your own accountancy practice accounts)

 

We now click on the magnifying glass to select the SIC and activity to bring up a selection wizard.

This is probably the single most difficult part of the whole process.

You have the choice of picking just an SIC (can sometimes be a little vague) or and SIC and Activity (which is a lot more precise for specific industries).

Type in some text to search for and select the best activity for your client. Remember don’t be too restrictive, i.e. if you search for plumber you will end up with no results, however searching for plumb will show you all the activities for plumbing.

 

Now we’ve completed the first data screen we can move on to the second (don’t worry – they get easier). Select the ‘Year End and Account Period’ tab at the top.

 

The Year end should be self explanatory and a map of the regions can be shown to help you with your region choice.

The Private Data box can be ticked if you only want yourself personally to view this BenchMark data (if you leave it un-ticked then the data is only visible to people in your practice).

Check the start / end dates (they will have been filled when you set the year end date. They can be changed if you have a partial set of accounts.

The Account Status is just Draft or Final. Draft accounts can be edited but show draft on the reports. Final accounts are locked out for further edits (if you find you do need to edit the data then just contact our technical support).

Moving on to Profit and Loss.

This information should be available from the accounts.

 

Balance Sheet.

Again this information should be available from the accounts.  The number of employees may require a quick call to the client – but remember to include any part time employees (hence the decimal point).

 

We are now at the stage where we can click save and submit.  We click ok to the 2 message boxes and can then click report.

The report page is detailed in a further walkthrough.

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