Journal Voucher Management
You use journal vouchers to modify financial data for a paid invoice. You also use journal vouchers to record payments for which an invoice was not submitted. You can associate a journal voucher with an activity, a commitment, or most commonly, directly with the affected invoice.
Creating and Editing Journal Vouchers
To create or edit a journal voucher you need the Journal Voucher, Edit right, and you must be in the finance group for the activities for which you are adding and modifying journal vouchers.
You receive an invoice for a print job that was completed last week. You pay the invoice. However, an error was made on the invoice, and you owe additional money for the print job. You create a journal voucher and associate it with the invoice to reconcile the total amount for the print job. The invoice is not modified, but the additional funds are removed from the funding account for the activity to keep your accounting records accurate.
You can use journal vouchers to adjust either positively or negatively. If you overpaid an invoice, you can create a journal voucher with a negative amount to reconcile the financial records.
You can view, but not edit, journal vouchers from within an activity.
Using an Accounting Integration
If your organization uses an external accounting system, and all of these conditions are true, the journal voucher information is sent to the external accounting system:
- The Integrate with External Accounting System system parameter is set to Yes.
- The Send to External Accounting System field in the journal voucher is set to Yes.
Because your external accounting system stores unique information, you create extended attributes that represent your general ledger fields to create the fields for this section. For more information, see Extended Attributes.
For each accounting integration extended attribute you create, the Accounting Integration tab on the funding account has a corresponding column.
In the funding account, you assign each item a percentage. The total percentage must equal 100 percent. Each journal voucher uses the items you set up for accounting integration for a funding account. Each journal voucher is divided according to the funding account allocations you set up for the activity, and the items you set up on the Accounting Integration tab for a funding account.
You see the Accounting Integration Summary section on the Details tab of a journal voucher. You might be required to be in the finance group for the activity that contains the journal voucher to view this section, depending on the setting for the Require Finance Group Access to view Accounting Integration Summary system parameter.
If you know the external system has received the journal voucher, but it does not return information noting that the journal voucher is reconciled, your system administrator can manually enter the posted date for the journal voucher, which sets the status of the journal voucher to Reconciled.
If your organization has the Integrate with External Accounting System system parameter set to Yes, you cannot use the mass reconcile feature for journal vouchers.
Key Fields
The Details tab contains several sections. You always see the Details section and the Journal Voucher Items section. The Accounting Integration Summary section appears if your company uses an accounting integration, and when the journal voucher has a status of Pending Reconciliation, Rejected at Accounts Payable, or Reconciled. The Funding Account Summary section appears when you view a journal voucher from the Journal Voucher Management list page, and only if the journal voucher has been reconciled.
When you access a journal voucher within an activity, you can only view the information.
Details
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Journal Voucher Type |
Choose the category assignment for the journal voucher. The type you select might affect the additional fields, sections, and tabs that appear. You can create journal voucher types in the System Types module. |
| Commitment ID |
Choose the commitment to associate with the journal voucher. Click the Select Commitment button next to the field to search for the commitment to use. For more information, see Commitment Select. The Commitment ID Required system parameter controls whether this field is required for your organization. |
| Invoice ID |
Choose the invoice to associate with the journal voucher. Click the Select Invoice button next to the field to search for the invoice to use. For more information, see Invoice Select. If you associated the journal voucher with a commitment, the list of invoices with which you can associate the journal voucher are limited to those invoices that are associated with the commitment. |
| Invoice Number |
This indicates the unique invoice number for this invoice. Each invoice associated with the same supplier must have a unique number. The supplier that issues the invoice typically assigns this number. |
| Supplier |
Choose the active supplier to associate with the journal voucher. If the journal voucher is associated with an invoice or commitment, the supplier is automatically applied. You cannot edit the supplier in this case. If the supplier does not yet exist in the master supplier list, you can create a new supplier from the Details tab when you create or edit an invoice. If you cannot locate the supplier that you want to associate with the journal voucher, then it is possible that the supplier exists in the master list but is inactive. In this situation, edit the supplier record, and change the supplier status to Active. You must also associate the supplier with the same finance group as the activity that is associated with your journal voucher. |
| Contact |
Choose the supplier contact |
| Journal Voucher Date |
Select the date on which you create the journal voucher. |
| Total Journal Voucher Amount |
This field appears when you view an existing journal voucher. Displays the sum of the journal voucher items. If the journal voucher currency is different from the base currency, the amount is displayed in both currencies. |
| Currency Code |
Choose the currency for the journal voucher. The currency for a journal voucher can be different from the currency for the activity, commitment, or invoice with which it is associated. The journal voucher is displayed in the currency you set for the journal voucher. |
| Scheduled Posting Fiscal Year |
Choose the open fiscal year in which the journal voucher is to be applied. |
| Creator |
Choose the user who created the journal voucher. |
| Send To External Accounting System |
This field appears if your company uses an external accounting integration. Choose whether the journal voucher information is reconciled with your external accounting system. |
| Posted Date |
Choose the date on which the journal voucher will be applied. If your company uses an external accounting system, the Posted Date field is filled in automatically and cannot be modified. However, if the journal voucher was sent to the external accounting system but did not get updated in the application, a system administrator can manually set the posted date for the journal voucher. |
| Status |
This field appears after the journal voucher is created. It does not appear when you create a new journal voucher. It indicates the state of the journal voucher. |
Commitment Select
You can associate a journal voucher with a commitment. You can enter the commitment ID directly in the Commitment ID field on the Details tab, or you can search for the commitment.
To search for a commitment or to narrow your options, click the Select Commitment button next to the Commitment ID field on the Details tab. Use the fields on the Commitment Lookup page to narrow your choice of commitments. Click the Continue button. You can also click the Continue button without narrowing your search.
Click the Commitment Select button next to the commitment with which you want to associate the journal voucher, and then click the Select button. You can click the Cancel button to return to the Details tab without selecting a commitment.
If the Commitment ID Required system parameter is set to Yes, you must select a commitment to associate with the journal voucher. When a journal voucher is associated with an invoice, the commitment that is associated with the invoice is automatically associated with the journal voucher.
Invoice Select
You can associate a journal voucher with a paid invoice in an open fiscal year. You can enter the invoice ID directly in the Invoice ID field on the Details tab, or you can search for the invoice.
To search for an invoice or to narrow your options, click the Select Invoice button next to the Invoice ID field on the Details tab. Use the fields on the Invoice Lookup page to narrow your choice of invoices. Click the Continue button. You can also click the Continue button without narrowing your search.
Select the invoice with which you want to associate the journal voucher, and then click the Select button. You can click the Cancel button to return to the Details tab without selecting an invoice.
If the invoice is associated with an activity that has a financial status of Locked, you cannot save it. You are prompted to either select another invoice or unlock the activity.
If you selected a commitment to associate with the journal voucher, the invoices that are available for you to select are limited to those that are associated with the selected commitment.
Journal Voucher Statuses
| Journal Voucher Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Draft |
All journal vouchers begin with the Draft status. While a journal voucher has a status of Draft, it can be deleted. If your company uses an external accounting system, the Posted Date field is filled in automatically. If your company does not use an external accounting system, you enter the posted date before the journal voucher can continue past the Draft status. When you enter the posted date you must submit the journal voucher. Click the Submit button to change the journal voucher to the status of Pending Reconciliation. |
| Pending Reconciliation |
After you submit the journal voucher, the status is Pending Reconciliation. If your company uses an external accounting integration, the Pending Reconciliation status also displays the status of the external accounting system. This shows whether the journal voucher is ready to be sent to the external system, or whether the journal voucher has already been sent to the external accounting system. The journal voucher can progress to the status of Reconciled in one of these ways:
|
| Reconciled |
The Reconciled status is set in one of these ways:
You cannot edit a reconciled journal voucher. |
| Rejected at Accounts Payable | If your company uses an accounting integration, this status might be set automatically if the external system rejects the journal voucher for any reason. If you have edit rights to the journal voucher, you can change it back to a status of Pending Reconciliation. You might also choose to cancel or delete the journal voucher. |
| Canceled | You cannot edit a canceled journal voucher. You can, however, delete a canceled journal voucher. |
Additional Fields, Sections, and Tabs
Your system administrator can create additional fields for some objects and make them available for certain system types. Additional fields appear on the Details tab in the Additional Details section or in other sections or on other tabs that the system administrator creates.
For more information about an additional field, section, or tab, contact your system administrator. For more information about additional fields in general, see Additional Fields.
Journal Voucher Items
Use the Journal Voucher Items section to itemize the goods or services that were purchased from the supplier.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Commitment Item |
This field appears if you associate the journal voucher with a commitment. It lists the items for the commitment with which you associated the journal voucher. |
| Invoice Item |
This field appears if you associate the journal voucher with an invoice. It lists the items for the invoice with which you associated the journal voucher. |
| Quantity |
Type the quantity of the item. The quantity is multiplied by the price to determine the total cost of the journal voucher item. If the journal voucher is associated with a commitment or an invoice, the quantity defaults from the associated commitment items or invoice items. |
| Price |
Type the price for the item. When you enter the price, do not type commas or other whole number separators. To view the monetary values with comma separators, position your cursor over the field. The ScreenTip displays the amount with commas. The price is multiplied by the quantity to determine the total cost of the journal voucher item. If the journal voucher is associated with a commitment or an invoice, the price defaults from the associated commitment items or invoice items. |
| Activity |
Choose the activity with which the invoice item is associated. If the journal voucher is associated with an invoice or a commitment, this value defaults from the associated commitment item or invoice item, and it cannot be changed. |
| Expense Category |
This field appears if the Expense Categories in Financials system parameter is set to Yes. It is required if the parameter is set to Yes - Required. Choose the expense category with which the journal voucher item is associated. The expense category list is limited to those expense categories that are associated with the fiscal year that contains the commitment or invoice with which the journal voucher is associated. It cannot be changed unless the fiscal year of the commitment item or the invoice item is in a different scheduled payment fiscal year from the journal voucher. For more information, see Expense Categories in Journal Vouchers. |
| Funding Account |
Choose the funding account affected by the journal voucher item. If this field is set to Automatic, the funding account that is affected by the journal voucher item is determined by the configuration of the Funding Accounts section in the associated activity. If this field contains a specific funding account, the account is associated with the entire amount of the journal voucher item, even if this funding account is not on the activity funding account allocation. |
| Total |
This field displays the sum of the journal voucher items. This value is calculated using the quantity and price information you enter for each journal voucher item. |
Expense Categories in Journal Vouchers
You can associate a journal voucher item with an expense category. The list of expense categories from which you can choose depends on the fiscal year for the invoice or commitment that is tied to the journal voucher.
The Expense Categories in Financials system parameter determines whether you can associate a journal voucher item with an expense category and whether it is required.
You need to correct an invoice that you paid. You owe money for the 10 extra golf shirts you had to order at the last minute for a trade show event. You create a journal voucher and associate it with the appropriate invoice. You select the Trade Shows expense category so the money is adjusted for the correct expense category.
You can fund activities with multiple funding accounts. If the activity you select for the journal voucher item is funded by multiple funding accounts, the expense category might determine which funding account is altered for the journal voucher item.
Accounting Integration Summary
The Accounting Integration Summary section appears if your organization integrates with an external accounting system. If so, information is reconciled when the journal voucher is saved.
Funding Account Summary
This section displays the funding accounts affected by the journal voucher items, based on the activity or activities for the journal voucher. The calculations use the exchange rate from the day each item was paid rather than the current exchange rate.