Creating Journals

You use journals to enter adjustments to account balances and maintain an audit trail of changes to your data. You create journals by entering a journal label and description, balance type, point of view, and adjustment amounts. You can also enter a security class for the journals, and a journal group that you can use to filter and sort journals. After you create a journal, its status is Working.

Before you create a journal, check the point of view to be sure that the scenario, year, period, and value are the ones to which you want to enter adjustments.

You can drag and drop the Entity, ICP, and all Custom dimensions between the journal grid and the POV. If all dimensions in the journal detail lines are the same, the dimension is moved to the POV header information. If they are not the same, they remain in the journal details. The Account dimension remains on the detail line, and all other dimensions remain in the header. If you are creating a journal for a single entity, you can use the entity dimension from the POV header without dragging it to the journal rows.

When you enter journal data, you can scan the journal and verify that the entries are valid. In this way, you can make any necessary changes before you post the journal. See Scanning Journals.

To create regular journals:

1. Select Consolidation, then Journals, and then Manage.
2. Select New, and then one of these options:

   • To create a new journal, select Journal.

   • To use a journal template, select Journal From Template, select the template, and click OK.

3. To change the Point of View, click a dimension name and from Member Selection, select dimension members.
4. For Label, enter a journal label.

   Note:

   The label can contain a maximum of 20 characters. Do not use these characters: . + - */ # {} ; , @ ” If you need to enter other special characters for the label or description, you must enter the entire label or description within double quotation marks.

5. From Balance Type, select a type: Balanced, Unbalanced, or Balanced by Entity.
6. From Type, select Regular.
7. Optional: From Group, select a group for the journal.

   Note:

   The journal group that you assign must exist in the application. See Creating Journal Groups.

8. From Security Class, select a security class or use the Default security class.
9. Optional: Enter a journal description.
10. For Account, select an account by using one of these methods and then click OK:

    • Double-click in an Account row

    • Click Pick Members

    • Select Actions and then Pick Members

11. Optional: To move the dimensions from the POV to the table rows, click Move dimensions to Table.

    Tip:

    To move the dimensions selected for rows to the POV, click in the row and click Move dimensions to POV.

12. Enter an adjustment in the Debit or Credit column.
13. Optional: To add rows, select Actions, and then Add Rows. Rows are added to the bottom of the journal.

    Tip:

    To delete entries, select the rows and click Delete Row, or select Actions, and then Delete Row.

14. Optional: Scan the journal and verify that the entries are valid. Save the journal and click Scan. See Scanning Journals.
15. To save the journal, click Save.