About Journal Entries

Entering Journal Transactions

Two or more transactions are typically entered to create a balanced entry, with one transaction entered as a debit (such as receiving a cash payment), and the second entered as a credit (such as recording miscellaneous income). The sum of the debit transactions equals the sum of the credit transactions. If each group of transactions is assigned the same reference, it is easily recognizable later that these transactions were entered at the same time.

Transactions must be entered into the journal as the first step in changing an account's balance. The next step is to post the journal to the ledger, at which time the account balances are updated. After a transaction has been posted to the ledger, you cannot change it. The only way to correct an incorrect entry is by entering a reversing entry.

You cannot directly delete a ledger transaction; however, you can enter a journal transaction for an opposite amount (and the same date as the original transaction), and then post that transaction to the ledger to cancel out the previous transaction.

System Journals

SyteLine initially creates the following system journals, which you cannot delete:

AP Dist - Accounts Payable Ledger Distribution
AR Dist - Accounts Receivable Ledger Distribution
BNK Dist - Banking Distribution
CO Dist - Order Entry Ledger Distribution
FA Dist - Fixed Assets Ledger Distribution
FS Dist - SyteLine Service Distribution
General - General Journal
IC Distribution - Inventory Control Ledger Distribution
INV Dist - Inventory Ledger Distribution
Multi-Site - Multi-Site Journal
PC Dist - Project Control Ledger Distribution
PO Dist - Purchasing Ledger Distribution
PR Dist - Payroll Ledger Distribution
SF Dist - Shop Floor Control Ledger Distribution
WC Dist - Work Center Ledger Distribution

NOTES:

The BNK Dist journal is created for all databases, although it is populated only by running the Currency Revaluation utility.
The INV Dist journal is available in SyteLine only for backward compatibility, and to support any code modifications that post to the journal. This journal was replaced by the CO Distribution, IC Distribution, PO Distribution, and SF Distribution journals. Infor has no plans for future use of this journal.
If you have deleted material transactions, any ledger or journal records that reference them will have their references cleared. If you try to view detail on a ledger or journal and the specific material transaction has been deleted, you will receive a message that the record is not available.

Read-Only Journals

Except for unit codes, the distribution journals are read-only. The General Journal and any user-defined journals are considered "writeable". Transactions for the distribution journals are entered from the appropriate SyteLine function.

EXAMPLE: After a payment is entered and posted through Accounts Payable, the transaction appears in the A/P Dist Journal. Transactions for the General Journal are entered through the General Ledger.

Functions that are performed on read-only journals:

Enter text (to be associated with each transaction)
Compress journal by account & date
Post to General Ledger
Sequence reset (resequence transaction numbers)

You can also update unit codes for a journal transaction residing in a read-only journal.

Functions that cannot be performed on read-only journals:

Add transactions
Delete transactions
Update transactions
Perform year end closing
Update journal title

Standard Journals

A standard journal may be set up for recurring transactions (such as rent, mortgage, payroll, or loan payments). When transactions are posted from the General or standard journals, there is an option available to delete all entries in the journal.

Do not delete recurring entries in the standard journals. The transactions are needed for the next period's posting. Recurring entries are usually the only entries in user-defined journals you would not delete.

The entries in the General Journal change from period to period and need to be deleted.