Journal

Journals

Journals procedures

Invoices, credit notes and receipts are used to charge, credit and process payments on client accounts.

Journals are used for passing other adjustments that cannot be done via invoices, credit notes and receipts. A journal can be used to debit or credit an account for any reason. As such they are powerful but must be controlled.

Typical reasons for journals would include the following:

• Taking on an opening balance from another system.
• Writing off a balance on an account.
• Transferring a balance on an account to a general ledger account.
• Transferring a balance on a general ledger account to a client account.
• Transfer a balance from one account to another.
• Charging interest.

NB Journals should NOT be used to:

• Correct an incorrect invoice. An incorrect invoice should always be corrected via a credit note (remember the “retrieve” key) followed by a new invoice.
• Correct an incorrect credit note. An incorrect credit note should always be corrected via an invoice followed by a new credit note.
• Correct an incorrect receipt. An incorrect receipt should always be corrected by reversing the receipt (a “negative” receipt) followed by re-entering the receipt correctly.

Errors should, if possible, be corrected in the same month that the error occurred in. All journals MUST be entered , detailing the debits and credit adjustments being passed with full reasons for them, written into the “Narration Field “.

Processing of a new Journal :

To create a journal click on: File , or on the main menu bar.

Journal Header:

Date	Enter the journal date. Note that the month is pre-set and cannot be changed.
Consultant	Enter the consultant code of the consultant that created the journal. The consultant code may be looked up by clicking on the button.
Details	Enter a short description of the journal. Note additional information can be captured under the Narration option.

Journal Options:

New	Click on the “New” button to create a journal line item.
Open	Highlight the journal line item and click on the “Open” button to open it for editing.
Copy	Highlight the journal line item and click on “Copy” the information into a new journal line item.
Delete	Highlight the journal line item you wish to delete and click on the “Delete” button

Narration	Click on the button next to the “Narration” button to open a notepad where you can enter additional information regarding the journal.
Save	Click on the “Save” button to save the journal Save as Draft: Will save the journal in draft format. In draft format you still have the option to edit a journal. The journal will appear in the relevant accounts in pink and no allocation can be made to this journal. Save as Closed: Will save the journal and will prevent further editing. The journal will then be posted to the relevant accounts selected and allocations can be made to the journal.
Take On	This option allows for take on balances to be imported from an existing Dos Main and General Ledger module.
Import	This option will allow you to import journals from an external source as long as they are in the correct format.
Interest	This option will allows you to charge interest on overdue accounts.