Background: General Journal Entry
Use the General Journal Entry (GIP) program to enter or change a general journal transaction. See Road Map for work flow.
This topic has these subtopics:
Journals
General journals are used for adjustments or transactions that are not
created by other types of journals. For example, you can make manual entries
for payroll. Also, if you do not use the fixed asset programs, you can
make manual entries for depreciation. If you do not process expenses,
such as rent, mortgage, and electricity through the AP Invoice Entry (NE)
program, you can make manual entries for these expenses. If
you do not use the Bank Reconciliation (NBC) program, you can make
manual entries for bank charges and interest.
A journal consists of a name, description, and up to 99,999 transactions,
each of which consists of an organization, account, and amount. After
you enter the transactions, you run the register to post the journal entries
to the general ledger. The register notifies you if entries do not balance.
Templates
If you make the same entries every period or your entries are complicated, you should use a template that you set up in the Journal Template Maintenance (GSM) program. When you use a template, organizations and accounts for transactions display. For each account, you can enter an amount that changes that period.
If you enter an amount that exceeds the threshold you set up in the Journal Template Maintenance program, the program prompts Amount is outside the acceptable range - continue? For example, if the electric bill is normally $1,100.00 a period and you enter $11,000.00, either you have made a data entry error or the invoice needs to be checked. Setting up a template can save you time and reduce errors during the entry process.
Templates are advantageous for journal entries that are long and use the same accounts each period. For example, payroll journals contain entries for salary, overtime pay, accrued vacation time, sick time, and medical insurance. Some companies can have 20 different accounts for a payroll journal. You can set up payroll entries in a template journal. The program displays the organizations and accounts, and you enter the amounts each period. If you pay only salaried employees for which the amounts do not change, you can also set up the amounts in the template journal.
Currency
If you activated the multi-currency feature and post to accounts that use different currencies, you need to determine the current exchange rate and enter the appropriate offsetting entries.