Journal Voucher (GA100-1)

Process Group/Policy Details

• Subject: Journal Voucher Processing

• Process Group: Journal Voucher

• Title of Policy: GA_Journal Voucher Processing

• Effective Date: 07/01/2014

• Approved/Revision Date: 07/01/2014

• Approved by: State Controller

Process Group Description

• This process group includes Journal Voucher Processing, which provides the ability to record manual journal entries for accounting events that originate from standard business practices covered in other functional areas where there is not another acceptable method to process the transaction.

Rationale or background to policy:

• CORE provides flexibility for utilizing a Journal Voucher to record activities not accomplished with other CORE transactions and transactions that do not fit the business function of other transactions. In order to provide consistency across departments in the acceptable uses of the Journal Voucher transaction, a common policy is required.

Policy Statement:

GA.PO.01.1 Journal Voucher Processing

• Departments shall enter the accounting information into the Journal Voucher including the event type, date, and description. The Journal Voucher transactions  are only to be used where there is no option to correct or post the accounting entry using the originating transaction or another more compatible transaction. Departments shall use zero dollar transactions instead of Journal Voucher transactions to perform corrections or redistributions. Use of the JV Transaction is to be limited to Accounting positions as identified by each department.

Procedure(s):  

GA PR.01.1 – Journal Voucher Processing

• General Accounting provides the Journal Voucher transaction for recording manual journal entries that do originate from standard business functions covered in other functional areas.  Data entry of this transaction is unlike any other in that there is a broad range of event types and related posting pairs that can be manually entered instead of being limited to those delivered with the system or cloned by the State for the transaction type. 

• Common business tasks for the Journal Voucher include adjusting/correcting entries for expenditures and revenues (when modification of the original transaction is not possible such as correcting a payment disbursement or Commercial card payment), and establishing the Allowance for Bad Debt, and expensing Prepaids. Other uses include recording accounting that is not suited to any other functional area and interfacing accounting activity from other systems.

• JV transactions will require additional accounting lines for cash balancing. The State’s Journal Voucher transactions are clones of the system provided JVR transaction, to enforce transaction balancing at the department level.

• The JV transactions available for manual entry are as follows:

  • JV1STND – Standard Journal Voucher – Use for data entry with an event type to control the posting codes.

  • JV1CASH – Cash Journal Voucher – Use to record cash transfers between Treasury’s bank accounts (limited use).

  • JV1ADVN _ Advanced Journal Voucher (See GA PO_03).

  • JV1BOND –Journal Voucher for recording bond activities (see TA PO_01).

  • JV1CL – Journal Voucher for Capital Lease activities (see TA PO_04)

  • JV1TRES – Journal Voucher for Treasury activities (see TA PO_03).

  • JV1STND transactions should not be used for recording or clearing accruals. Departments should use ACC, ACCA, and ALC transactions for that purpose.

• The JV contains the following sections:

  • Transaction Header: The transaction header is to be populated for the required fields including:  transaction name (60 characters), transaction description (60 characters), and the record date.

  • Extended Description: An extended description field with 1,500 characters is available to record a longer description.

GA PR.01.2 – Manual Entry of Posting Code on the Journal Voucher

• Line Group: The Journal Voucher line group provides fields for transaction referencing information that will default to all accounting lines in the line group for data entry assistance.  An “Event Type” is required to be entered on the standard JV transaction “General Information” tab. Event types are used to select the proper “posting pair” for the JV transaction. The Event type will be selected from the drop down box. Enter any other information that applies to all debits and credits in the line group.

• Whenever practicable, all Journal Voucher transactions should have a memo reference to the original transactions that they are impacting.

• Event Type and posting pairs specified on the JV Line Group limits the choice of posting codes that can exist on the JV Accounting Lines under that line group. In CORE, General Accounting area event types start with GA* or XG* for cloned general accounting event types.  Accounting Line: The “Event Type” and “posting pair” may be entered on the accounting line, thus bypassing the line group at least initially. Also enter the debit and credit dollar amounts on this tab.

GA PR.01.3 – Control Mechanism Dates on Journal Voucher Transactions

• If the current Application Date should not be used, then manually enter the correct date in the “Record Date” field on the JV “General Information” tab. Do not populate any of the date fields on the accounting lines. The “Current Application Date” or “Record Date” will infer/update the date information on the accounting line “General Information” tab.

GA PR.01.4 – Journal Vouchers with Reversal Dates

• The Journal Voucher can be used to record an accounting event along with use of the reversal functionality of that transaction to invoke Future Transaction Triggering to reverse the accounting event in the subsequent year.

• The Journal Voucher is capable of performing one action that no other transaction type can perform. This action creates a second Journal Voucher in the future exactly like the first one except that the debit and credit amounts on the accounting lines are reversed. This action can only be performed once in the future, making it different than the main trigger type - Recurring.

• Information to establish reversals is contained in the header section of the Journal Voucher.  Two fields make up the information. One is the Reversal Date, which is when automatic creation of the reversing Journal Voucher is to be performed. It must be a date in the future. The second field, Create Reversal Transaction on Hold, is an indication of whether or not the reversing Journal Voucher will be created in the Hold transaction status or with a status of Ready.

• When the reversal is created, line groups and accounting lines will contain memo reference to the original Journal Voucher. If there were references already on the first transaction, the second transaction replaces them. Because of this reference, when a user retrieves the history of either Journal Voucher, they will see that there is a second Journal Voucher that relates to the first. A Journal Voucher may not contain both recurring and reversing information. There can only be one of either type.

GA PR.01.5 – Cash Receipting - Undistributed Receipts

• To be used in instances where the CR transaction cannot be used.

GA PR.01.6 – Transaction in Workflow Routing Prior to Approval

• Workflow will be determined in each department for input and approval. However, if the transaction posts to a balance sheet account for fund balance (3xxx), the workflow will route the transaction to OSC for approval.