General Entry
General Entry is the journal voucher of Businessflo. Each line names an account and a debit or a credit amount. When debits equal credits the voucher is stored and, unless it is parked, it is in the ledger. Every other module also lands here: a customer invoice, a payment or a stock issue creates a General Entry of its own, which you can open and read but not change.
What it is for
A General Entry moves amounts between accounts by hand. The rule people get wrong: the posting status decides whether the voucher is in the ledger, not Save. A voucher saved with Posting Status Park is stored but waits; Batch Posting or an approval turns it to Posted. Only a Posted voucher can be reversed, and a Posted voucher can no longer be edited.
Vouchers that another screen created (a sales invoice, a payment, a recurring entry) open here read-only. Every toolbar button is switched off on them. To change or undo one, go back to the document that created it.
Every field in plain words
Header
| Field | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Voucher No | The number of the voucher | Given by the number range of the journal on Create |
| Transaction Journal | The journal the voucher belongs to. It decides the number range, the posting statuses you may pick and the user group | Pick one. Only journals of the journal-voucher nature, not blocked, whose Date From and Date To include the Posting Date, are offered. Required |
| Posting Date | The date the voucher hits the ledger | Required. Locked once the voucher exists. Choosing it fills Financial Year and Financial Period |
| Posting Status | Posted or Park | Filled with the journal's default posting status when you pick the journal. You may pick any other status listed on that journal. Required |
| Reference | Your reference | Free text, with a lookup of references already used |
| Notes | The header text | Free text |
| Journal | The nature of the journal | Filled from the journal. Read only |
| Journal Indicator | The journal's indicator | Filled from the journal. Read only |
| Financial Year, Financial Period | The year and period the Posting Date falls in | Filled by itself from the company's fiscal calendar. Read only |
| Legal Entity | The company | Your current company. Required |
| Debit Amount, Credit Amount, Difference Amount | Totals of the lines in the line currency | Calculated. Read only |
| Local Debit Amount, Local Credit Amount, Difference Amount | The same in the company's local currency | Calculated |
| Reporting Debit Amount, Reporting Credit Amount, Difference Amount | The same in the reporting currency of the ledger | Calculated |
| Reverse Voucher No, Reverse Date, Reverse Reason, Remarks | Shown on a reversed voucher | Filled by Reverse |
Lines (Basic Data)
| Field | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Line # | Line number | Automatic |
| Currency | The currency of this line | Starts as the company's local currency. Change it for a foreign-currency line |
| Exchange Rate | Rate from the line currency to local currency | 1 for local currency. For another currency it is looked up on Currency Conversion for the Posting Date when you pick the currency. You may overwrite it. Cannot be zero |
| Account | The ledger account | Only accounts released to this company and valid on the date are offered |
| Name | The account name | Filled. Read only |
| Debit Amount | Amount on the debit side | Either debit or credit on a line, never both. Typing one clears the other |
| Credit Amount | Amount on the credit side | |
| Line Text | Text for this line | Free text |
Hidden on the lines but filled by the system: local and reporting currency, exchange category and rate, and the reporting amounts. A voucher created by another module also carries the post key, posting profile, tax codes, customer or vendor and instrument number on its lines.
The Dimensions tab holds the cost centre, project, business area and other dimensions of each line. Which dimensions a line needs comes from the account's range on Ledger Setup.
What Save checks
Save refuses the voucher, with the line number, when:
- there are no lines, or a line has no account or no currency;
- the account is blocked on General Ledger Account or blocked in this company;
- the account is not released to this company, or the Posting Date is outside its Date From and Date To;
- the account has Validate Currency ticked and the line is in a different currency;
- the exchange rate is zero, or a line has both a debit and a credit, or neither;
- the account has Validate Ledger Balance ticked and the line would take its balance to the wrong side of its Balance Control (a debit-balance account below zero, a credit-balance account above zero);
- the account has Validate Ledger Balance ticked and Manual Entry not ticked;
- a mandatory dimension is empty, or a dimension value is not one the account's range allows;
- the line goes over a ledger budget set to stop (a budget set to warn asks you to confirm instead);
- the local debits and credits differ by more than 0.001;
- the period of the Posting Date is closed on Financial Year and no special condition lets this journal through.
The arithmetic
- Local amount = line amount × Exchange Rate.
- Reporting amount = local amount × the rate from local to reporting currency on the Posting Date. When both currencies are the same, the rate is 1.
- Debits and credits must balance in local currency. A foreign-currency voucher may show a difference in the transaction-currency totals and still save.
Several units in one company
When the ledger has a Balancing Financial Dimension on Ledger Setup, Save groups the lines by the value of that dimension. If one value carries more debit than credit and another more credit than debit, Save adds inter-unit lines on the two accounts set against post keys G70 (inter-unit debit) and G71 (inter-unit credit) on Automatic Transaction, so each unit balances on its own. You may not post to those two accounts by hand.
How to configure it
- Give the journal-voucher journal a Posting Status line Posted, and a line Park if vouchers should wait for Batch Posting. Tick Default on the one that should come up first.
- Import is allowed on this screen, for opening balances or many vouchers at once.
- Whether a posted voucher may be deleted is decided by Allow to Delete Posted Entries on Client Customization.
Scenarios
- Month-end accrual. Debit the expense, credit the accrued liability, Posting Date the last day of the month, status Posted. Reverse it on the first day of the next month.
- Opening balances when going live. One voucher per area of the balance sheet, dated the day before go-live, against a suspense or opening-balance account. See How do I bring in opening balances?.
- A junior prepares, a senior posts. The junior saves with status Park. The senior posts a day's or a week's vouchers at once on Batch Posting.
- A foreign-currency loan. Put the loan line in its currency with the day's rate; the bank line in local currency. Debits and credits balance in local currency.
What it is connected to
- Transaction Journal - number range, statuses, user group.
- Batch Posting - posts parked vouchers.
- Financial Year - open and closed periods.
- Process Allocation and Process Recurring Entry - create General Entries of their own.
- Month-end close - where vouchers sit in the close.
- Lists and reports - Vouchers, Trial Balance, the Voucher print.
- Reason - the reasons offered when a voucher is reversed; Number Range - how voucher numbers are made; Special Validation - extra checks linked to the screen.
If something looks wrong
- "Debit Amount: ... should match Credit Amount: ..." Local debits and credits differ. Check the exchange rates of foreign-currency lines.
- "Line ID: ... - Gl Account ... is not valid in ... Date" The account is not released to this company, or the date is outside its validity. Fix the dates on Release Account in Legal Entity.
- "Document cannot proceed - Fiscal Period: ... of Fiscal Year: ... is closed" Open the period on Financial Year, or add a special condition for this journal.
- "Manual Entry is not allowed on Account: ..." The account is reserved for system postings. Use the document that should post to it.
- "Source transaction cannot be changed" / "Source Vouchers can not be reversed" The voucher came from another screen. Change or reverse that document.
- "This Transaction is already posted" A posted voucher cannot be edited. Reverse it and enter a new one.
- "Only Posted Vouchers can be reversed" A parked voucher is not in the ledger. Delete it or edit it instead.
- The currency message shows a strange text in place of the account's currency. The message names the account but not its currency correctly. Look up the currency on Release Account in Legal Entity.