How to prepare a journal entry

Journal entries are used to pass transactions between general ledger accounts in the same currency. The Journal entry form can have multiple clients, however, the source and base values for each client must sum to zero.

Make a journal entry

1. Click Financial management > Tasks > Make a journal entry.
2. Enter values in the fields where appropriate.
3. Click Enter on keyboard once the client is selected.
4. Click and select Currency.
5. Click Add first item…
6. Enter the Business Unit (if applicable) and the GL Account.
7. Click Enter on keyboard.
8. Enter values in the fields where appropriate. See Journal entry (form) for more details.
9. Click OK

 If the client is entered and the user then clicks Add first item, the Currency of the journal will automatically be the base currency of the client and cannot be changed.

Completing the fields

  At this point in the journal entry there may be a number of additional fields for this leg of the transaction. Visibility of these fields is dependent on the choice of GL account and the Transaction requirements for the account. To review these Navigate to the Financial management module > Lists > Setup > Chart of accounts. Open the properties of the account and refer to the Transaction requirements tab. 

The additional fields which can be made available are as follows: 

• Sub client 
  
   A sub client must be different from the Client. A client cannot be a sub client of itself. If possible, set the  Sub client field to Not set or select a different sub client.
  
  
• Sub account
• Sub security
• Sub depository
• Sub currency
• Sub fee
• Sub interest type
• Sub vendor
• Sub agent
• Sub asset
• Profit / cost centre

Balancing the journal

1. Click Add line item... to add another line item.
2. Follow steps 6 to 9 above.
3. Continue the same steps until the journal entry is balanced.

 When all line items have been entered, the scales icon must be balanced in the Transaction Balance part of the form in the lower pane. If the scales are showing an imbalance it will be necessary to review and change one or more of the line items in the upper pane.

Amending a line item

To amend a line item, double click the row in the upper pane to open the Journal line item form. To balance, the sum of each line item by client and currency must equal zero in the Source balance and Base balance.

Saving a journal

Click Save to save the journal. Give the journal a description. The journal can be recalled at any time from the Unposted transactions queue.

Schedule a journal

Click Schedule to create a recurrence of the journal. The journal will then follow a recurrence pattern and will automatically appear in the Unposted transaction queue in accordance with the schedule.

Posting the journal

Click Next and Finish to post the journal