Journal Components and Processing

At a minimum, a journal in PeopleSoft General Ledger consists of a header and journal entry lines. The header contains the information that uniquely identifies the journal (business unit, journal ID, and journal date) and options that enable you to quickly set up adjusting and reversing entries and foreign currencies. Journal entry lines record the monetary and statistical amounts and the ChartField values associated with each transaction.

Once you enter the header and line information, your journals are ready for processing. However, if you want a greater degree of control over the journal entry process, you can incorporate:

• Control totals that ensure accuracy and are particularly helpful when you enter a large number of lines.

• Journal approval, based on rules that you define, to ensure that only those journals within the limits that you specify are approved for further processing.

• Document sequencing to track journal IDs sequentially.

In General Ledger, standard journal entries (SJEs) enable you to automate the entry of similar or identical journals. There are three types of SJEs: recurring, template, and spread. A recurring journal entry is any entry that is periodically generated according to a schedule, such as monthly rent, lease payments, and depreciation expenses. A template journal entry is a data-entry model for other journals that you can automatically reproduce on a fixed schedule—like recurring SJEs—or use on request. A spread journal entry is an entry in which the entire journal's amount is spread proportionately across the different periods.