Journal Entry

Journal Entry is used to adjust account balances without creating an accounting document such as a check, invoice or bill. Most other entry screens only let you specify accounts and classes for the detailed distribution of a transaction with the offsetting amount coded to a predefined control account. Journal entries use a debit and credit format that give you complete control over the distribution of your entries.

The Journal Entry screen will generally be used for month-end or year-end account balance adjustments. Since Journal Entry only generates general ledger transactions, documents like vendor bills or customer invoices should be entered in Bill or Invoice/Credit Memo to ensure that vendor and customer balances are updated and the appropriate open bill or invoice is created.

To enter a Journal Entry, complete the following steps:

1. Access the Journal Entry application from the Financial/General Ledger menu and click on New in the Journal Entry list screen to enter a new document.

2. Enter a description and reference number to provide information regarding the reason for the journal.

3. The Date will default to the current business date and can be overridden to reflect the correct posting date.

4. Fill in the journal entry detail lines. You must select an Account and enter either a Debit or Credit Amount. Enter as many transactions lines as you need. The total debit transaction amounts must equal the total credit transactions amounts in order to save an Active journal.

5. By default, Active will be checked. If you do not want the journal to be included in your financials or if the debits do not equal the credits because you have not completed the entry, uncheck the Active field to save the journal and complete it at a later time.

6. Optionally, you may enter a Class or a Memo on each detail line.