Select this to create a Normal journal from a Standard journal (see Copy From Standard Journal).

This option is not available for Statistical or Inter-company journals.

The new journal is created with the same journal type as the journal being copied (see Copy an Existing Journal), unless you are copying a sub-module journal. When you copy a sub-module journal, the new journal is created as a Normal journal.

You can only save the journal once the Undistributed amount is zero (i.e. When the journal balances).

If zero value lines exist on the journal, a message is displayed indicating that these lines will be discarded. If you select OK, the journal is saved, but the zero value lines are deleted. If you select Cancel, you are returned to the journal.

Indicates the financial year into which the journal must be posted. This defaults to the year in which your company is working and may not correspond to the calendar year.

Although this field defaults to your current ledger year, you can post entries to the previous ledger year.

As a precautionary measure, you can run the Balance function of the GL Period End program and select the option: Balance a prior year. This enables you to establish whether the ledger is in balance for the prior year into which you want to process the journal, before actually posting the journal. Once you have posted the journal into the prior year, you then rerun the Balance function for the prior year to ensure that the ledger is still in balance.

When posting into the previous year the transactions are posted into period 13 if you are using 12 accounting periods and into period 14 if you are using 13 accounting periods (Company Maintenance). The reason for this is that your General Ledger year is already closed. If the transaction was posted into period 12, then your revenue and expense accounts would have a closing balance for the year which would be incorrect. SYSPRO therefore posts the transaction into period 13 or 14 and automatically clears the expense and revenue accounts to the Retained Earnings account.

The International Accounting Standards rule IAS8 governs the posting of entries into prior periods/years.

Indicates the financial period, within the Year indicted, into which the journal must be posted in the General Ledger.

This defaults to your current ledger period, but can be changed. You cannot select a ledger period which is closed.

This option is not available when processing Inter-company or Provisional journals as these must be posted into the current financial period.

The posting period does not necessarily correspond to the calendar month. e.g. If you have a 12 period financial year which starts on 1 March, then March is defined as period 1, April as period 2, May as period 3, etc.

If you post a journal to a period in the previous year after you have run the Year end function of the GL Period End program, then the system automatically updates the current year opening balances for the affected accounts and also the Retained Earnings account where applicable. i.e. It is not necessary to manually adjust account balances in the current year for such journals.

Inter-company journals cannot be posted into period 13 if you are using 12 accounting periods or into period 14 if you are using 13 accounting periods (Company Maintenance).

Journal numbers are automatically assigned by the system, beginning with 00000 for the first journal of the financial year, through to 99999.

If you selected the setup option: Next journal number by period (General Ledger Setup - Journals tab), then journals are successively numbered from 00000 to 99999 for each period.

When maintaining existing journals, you use this field to enter the journal number you want to maintain.

You can only add or maintain journals for the current year, next year and previous year 1.

You cannot maintain a journal which is Cancelled, On hold or Posted. You can, however view the journal details.

Select this to add or remove a line from the current journal.

Journals that are on hold or have been posted cannot be maintained.

If the option: Authorization of journals before posting required (General Ledger Setup - Journals tab) is selected, then the journal must be authorized before you can post it into the ledger.

If zero value lines exist on the journal, a message is displayed indicating that these lines will be discarded. If you select OK, the journal is saved, but the zero value lines are deleted. If you select Cancel, you are returned to the journal.

The journal cannot be posted if any of its ledger codes are on hold (General Ledger Codes).

A journal which is on hold can only be printed or released from hold.

You use this option to authorize journals that have been captured but not yet posted (see Authorize Journals).

This option is only enabled if you selected the setup option: Authorization of journals before posting required (General Ledger Setup - Journals tab).

Normal journals are traditional journals which you post once only to the General Ledger.

These journals are posted to the Ledger Detail file with a source code of JE.

The journal is posted to the ledger detail file with a source code of PV. If you selected to automatically reverse provisional journals at period/year end (General Ledger Setup), then the reversing journal is posted with a source code of RV.

Provisional journals are typically processed for income accrued but not yet received, or expenses incurred but not yet paid in a specific accounting period.

Alternatively, they can be used for accruals of prepaid expenses.

For example:

Your financial year runs from Jan 05 to Dec 05 and you pay a R400 license fee in Dec 05 for the next 4 months (i.e. Dec 05 to Mar 06).

The entry When paying would be:

Debit License fees (expense a/c) R400 and Credit Creditors or Bank (Balance Sheet a/c)) R400.

When you process a year end in December 05, your profit/retained earnings will be understated by R300 as 3/4 of the R400 relates to 2006, not 2005.

You need a "mechanism" to take the R300 out of the expense account and into the balance sheet over the year-end. To do this, you can use a provisional journal as follows:

Debit Prepaid expenses (Balance Sheet a/c) R300 and Credit License fees (expense a/c) R300.

The year-end procedure sets all expense accounts to zero and transfers the balances to the Retained Earnings account. In this case, R100 is deducted from the profit for 2005 - which is correct.

After year end, in period 1 of 06, the provisional journal is reversed and the remaining R300 is put back into the expense account.

Debit License fees (expense a/c) R300 and Credit Prepaid expenses (Balance Sheet a/c) R300.

Having a provisional journal over year-end which affects income statement accounts only, makes no sense as the year end reduces the account' balances to zero anyway.

This type of journal enables you to post entries to your current company and the matched debit and/or credit to one or more other companies.

The journal is posted to the ledger detail file with a source code of IC.

The following rules apply:

A user-defined journal is the same as a normal journal, except that you can specify your own source code for the journal.

User defined journal source codes are maintained using the Browse on Journal Source Codes program.

This journal enables you to post adjustments to a prior period.

The journal is posted to the ledger detail file with a source code of PE.

This journal enables you to process the final ledger adjustments for the year When you are in the last period of your General Ledger.

The journal is posted to the ledger detail file with a source code of AU. This journal can be password-protected.

If you select this, then you will only be able to process entries to accounts defined as Statistical (General Ledger Codes).

Statistical journals are used for reporting purposes only. Therefore, When processing statistical journals, these journals do not have to balance (i.e. total debits do not have to equal total credits).

When you create alternate currencies using the GL Alternative Currency Maintenance program, statistical journals are created in the alternate currency with an exchange rate of 1. If you are using alternate currency ledgers, then statistical journals update the alternate currency tables at an exchange rate of 1.

You must define the alternate currency ledger to which you want to process the journal. The available alternate currencies are those created using the GL Alternative Currency Maintenance program.

Alternate currency journals can be processed into any open GL period in the current or previous year.

The source code for alternate currency journals is AC.

Transactions processed in alternate currency journals are only posted to the alternate currency ledger selected. The local currency ledger is not updated with these journals.

The entries are posted at the exchange rate currently defined in the currencies table (Currencies).

The series of journal reference numbers created for alternate currency journals are the same as those for all other normal journals. This means that if you created alternate currency journals, that those journal numbers will not appear in your local currency ledger.

This is the date you want to use as the transaction date for the journal.

This defaults to your current system date, but can be changed.

This enables you to attach a reference to the journal.

The entry made here is printed on the GL Journal Report and can be viewed within the GL Query program.

This enables you to enter additional text as a notation against the journal.

This entry is printed on the GL Journal Report and can be viewed within the GL Query program.

A message is displayed if you try to end the journal and the debit entries do not match the batch total entered.

Enter the debit value to be validated against the total debit entries in the journal When you end the journal. This field is only enabled if you selected the Batch total required option.

This option is only enabled for Alternate currency journals.

You can use the Browse on Currencies program to select the alternate currency in which you want to process the journal.

The source code indicates the source of transactions in the General Ledger.

The source code is defined by the system for all normal journals except for User-defined and Recurring journals. This field is therefore only available if you selected to process a user-defined or a recurring journal.

A User-defined source code and description must be created for user-defined and recurring journals using the Browse on Journal Source Codes program. The source code cannot be one of the standard source codes held on file.

This displays the difference between the value totals of the debit and credit entries.

When this value is zero, then the journal is in balance and can be posted.

This check is not applied to Statistical type journals. i.e. Statistical journals need not balance before they can be posted.

This indicates the Ledger code to which you want to post the journal amount.

If you enter a Statistical type ledger code, then a warning indicating that the account code you entered is a control account is displayed. This is because all statistical type accounts are automatically defined as control accounts to ensure that transactions are only posted to them from the General Ledger module.

If you are processing a statistical journal, then you can only enter a ledger code that is defined as a statistical account (General Ledger Codes).

If the ledger code is a Template account type, the template account itself is never updated. Transaction values are posted only to the accounts linked to the template account, based on the percentages defined against these linked accounts (see Template). Details of these postings are printed on the SRS version of the GL Journal Report providing you select the Report option: Include template details.

If you enabled G/L Structure Definition (GL Structure Definition), and you attempt to post to a General Ledger account code which has not yet been created (General Ledger Codes), then the ledger code is automatically created based on the template defined. As soon as a valid code is entered in the Ledger code field, it is immediately created in the General Ledger. It is not created only when the transaction is saved.

If a sub module journal could not be posted due to a missing ledger code, then **missing** is displayed in this column. You need to release the journal from hold before you can edit the line and enter the correct Ledger code. You use the Release Journal option from the Function menu to release the journal. The journal status is displayed in the Status field in the Journal Header pane.

This indicates the transaction date for the specific entry within the journal.

The date defaults from the Journal Header screen, but can be changed.

The entry made here is printed on the GL Trial Balance and can be viewed within the GL Query program.

This indicates the reference attached to the specific entry within the journal.

The entry made here (up to 60 characters) is printed on the GL Trial Balance and can be viewed within the GL Query program.

This comment is relative to the current entry being made.

This is only displayed if you are processing a Statistical journal.

It indicates the unit of measure defined against the statistical account code (see General Ledger Codes).

This only applies to Inter-company journals.

You need to specify both the debit and the credit ledger code for the journal to be processed in the selected inter company.

You can only enter a company to which you have access (Operator Maintenance).

This field is mandatory for an inter company journal.

This field is mandatory for an inter company journal.

Select the financial year for which you want to authorize the journals.

This field defaults to the current financial year.