What is a Journal?

A journal is a document that makes corrections or adjustments to your existing FinancialForce data.

For example, you would need to post a journal in the following situations:

Click on the list item for its solution.

All journal types must be posted to an open period Closed An accounting period to which a user can save documents and post transactions..

Canceling Journals

If a journal was posted in error, you can cancel it by creating a canceling journal Closed Type of journal used to cancel out the transactions a previous journal posted in error.. For every transaction line posted in the original journal, a canceling journal includes a corresponding transaction line with the opposite entry.

Any existing override currency values are inherited by the canceling journal.

You cannot cancel an intercompany journal in this release of the application.

Note:

You can only create a canceling journal from a posted journal once. Once a particular journal has been used to create a canceling journal, its Cancel Journal button is disabled. You will be able to cancel the canceling journal.

You cannot amend a journal that has been canceled.

Reversing Journals

If you want a journal to automatically reverse itself, you can create and post a reversing journal. This is a journal that automatically reverses itself in a subsequent period.

The reversing journal is the exact opposite of the source journal, but with a different period. For example, if the source journal debited an expense account and credited Accrued Expenses, the reversing journal would credit the same expense ledger account and debit Accrued Expenses.

The following characteristics are also inherited by the reversing journal:

Any existing override currency values
The journal's status, In Progress or Complete

Example: You have incurred an expense towards the end of a period, but the invoice has not yet arrived.

Solution: Create a reversing journal to reverse the accrued expense on the general ledger. This creates a reversing journal entry for a subsequent period. When the payable invoice arrives in the subsequent period, create and post it in the normal way. The invoice and the reversing journal will effectively cancel each other out, leaving the expense in the original period where it was actually incurred.

Note:

You can cancel a reversing journal and the original source journal that was reversed. But, you cannot reverse a canceling journal or a reversing journal, nor can you reverse the original source journals that were used to create them.

Cash Matching Journals

Journals are also automatically generated when the matching process involves a settlement discount Closed A discount agreed with the purchaser for payment within an agreed period of time. The value of the discount is posted to a settlement discount account., write-off Closed An outstanding, but usually small, amount of money not collected from a customer, typically as a result of a small variance between the cash submitted and the value of the documents matched to it. Differences are posted to a write-off account. or currency write-off Closed Generated when there is a difference in the exchange rate between the date of the invoice and the date of the payment. The invoice and the payment are each converted from the document currency to account, home, and dual currency on the date they are created. Differences are posted to a currency write-off account.. These journals are called cash matching journals. Two cash matching journal lines are created for each transaction line against which the discount or write-off was entered—one account line and one analysis line. In the case of a currency write-off, two journal line items are created for the sum of any positive currency write-offs, and two for the sum of any negative write-offs. All general ledger accounts and analysis dimensions Closed Custom objects that allow you to analyze the activity in your business in additional ways, such as by cost center, project, employee, or any other business entity important to you. are copied from the cash matching analysis details.

Prepaid Expenses Journals

A prepaid expenses journal is a system-generated journal created by the prepaid expenses process.

For more information, see About Prepaid Expenses.

Income Schedule Journals

When you post a sales invoice that has one or more line items associated with an income schedule:

The scheduled income is posted to the deferred income account specified on the income schedule associated with each line item.
For each line item which is associated with an income schedule, a series of income schedule journals are created, one for each period in the schedule. All periods in each associated schedule must be open.

The resulting income schedule journals must be posted to release the income from the deferred income account to the sales revenue account defined on the product. This can happen automatically at the same time as the associated sales invoice, or manually later. If you want to retain the ability to amend the income schedule journals after the sales invoice is posted, you must choose the Save option on the income schedule grid.

The journal date of the first journal in each schedule is the income schedule start date defined on that income schedule. This can be found in the income schedule section of the sales invoice if all line items that are associated with an income schedule share the same schedule. If different income schedules are associated with the same sales invoice, you can find the start date of each income schedule by clicking the button on each line item. Subsequent journals are posted on the first day of the remaining accounting periods in each schedule.

Bank Reconciliation Journals

A system-generated journal created by the Bank Reconciliation process.

When you commit a bank reconciliation Closed The process of comparing and matching transaction values against those shown on a bank statement in order to uncover any possible discrepancies. that contains bank or interest charges, a bank reconciliation journal is automatically created and posted to record all of these amounts against the relevant bank account.

Tax Journals

A tax journal is a specialized type of journal that includes tax lines that support both the tax value and the net goods value. These journals enable you to record ad-hoc sales and purchases that include tax, and to make adjustments to your tax return. For more informatio, see Analysis and Tax Details on a Journal.

By posting a tax journal, you can create a transaction that is identical to one created by a sales invoice, sales credit note, payable invoice or payable credit note.

Any overrides you make between document and home currency on a journal are applied to any tax values and taxable values on the journal lines. Tax values and taxable values are only stored on the transaction line item in document currency and home currency (not in dual or any other currencies), so currency overrides only apply between document currency and home currency.

Reversing and canceling are supported.
You must enter the tax value and taxable value manually. There is no calculation of tax rates and amounts.
Exchange rate/value overrides are also applied to the tax value and taxable value.

Intercompany Journals

An intercompany journal is a specialized type of journal that allows you to transfer costs to other companies in your organization Closed A deployment of the Salesforce/FinancialForce applications with a defined set of licensed users. Your organization (org) includes all of your data and applications, and is separate from all other orgs..

For more information, see About Intercompany Journals.

Year End Journals

A system-generated journal created by the Year End process. You cannot create, edit, cancel, discard, reverse or delete these journals directly.

For more information, see About the Year End Process.

Journal Statuses

A journal can be in one of the following statuses:

Status	Description
In Progress	The journal has been saved but has not been posted.
Complete	The journal has been posted. Once a journal is complete, you cannot repost or discard it. You can only edit a limited set of fields on a complete journal. For information on how to reverse a complete journal, see Creating a Canceling Journal.
Discarded	The journal is no longer required, but evidence needs to be retained. The user must provide a discard reason. This is stored with the record for future reference and auditing.