What are some general rules to know before making journal entries?

It is important to be careful about making journal entries for accounts to which other journals post. Doing so may make it difficult to reconcile reports to the general ledger. Here are some general guidelines:

• Avoid making journal entries to any of the control accounts. Control accounts are accounts that you specify in the "settings" or "control" screens of each module. The following are examples of control accounts:
  • Cash: Accounts Payable, Cash Receipts
  • Accounts Payable: Open A/P Report
  • Accounts Receivable: Accounts Receivable Aging
  • Accrued Salary & Wages: Payroll Journal, Labor Distribution Journal
  • Revenue: Revenue Journal
  • Unbilled Accounts Receivable: Revenue Journal, Billing Journal

  Costpoint posts to each of these accounts from other journals or has reports that provide supporting detail. When you make a journal entry to these accounts, the reports do not reflect the journal entry because it was not part of the normal posting process for the account. As a result, the report amounts do not agree with the account balances in the general ledger.

• If you can make the entry on the Manage Accounts Payable Vouchers screen, make the correcting entry on that screen rather than on the Manage Journal Entries screen. The Print Voucher History Inquiry screen stores transaction details, and that information is available through other inquiry screens. In general, entries made on transaction screens are easier to research and locate later.
• When you make journal entries, pay attention to the organization, the level of the organization, the project, and the level of the project, as well as to the account number. Even if the account is correct, incorrect project or organization entries cause problems in other areas.
• Use account entry groups to control which accounts can receive journal entries. If an account receives entries from other posting sources, you can set up an account entry group that does not accept journal entries and assign that account to that group.

Can I make entries on this screen to generate a paycheck?

No. You cannot generate a paycheck from entries in this screen. However, you can use the screen to enter labor amounts from subsidiaries, and so on.

The labor information is posted to the Labor Summary table and is available for project reports and any other reports generated from that table.

Should I use this screen to make labor corrections?

No. You should normally make labor corrections using a correcting timesheet.

What happens if I leave the JE Line Description field blank? Which reports display this description?

If you do not enter a description for a detail line in a journal entry, the description of the journal entry as a whole is automatically used as the line description.

Costpoint stores the description in the G/L Detail and displays it on the following reports: General Ledger Detail Report, Open Billing Detail Report, Non-Labor Support Schedule, and Project Non-Labor Detail.   

I need to enter an out-of-balance adjusting journal entry. Costpoint prompts me for a password, but I do not know what it is. Where is it set up?

The password required for saving an out-of-balance journal entry is specified on the Configure General Ledger Settings screen. You should carefully control access to that screen.

I created a recurring journal entry and then accidentally deleted it. Can I recreate it?

Yes, you use the Create Recurring Journal Entries process to recreate it. That process uses data from the Manage Journal Entries screen and the Journal Entry History tables to determine if the recurring entry already exists for the fiscal year, period, and subperiod. If it does not exist, as is the case if you delete a recurring journal entry, it creates the entry.

I set up a reversing journal entry and posted it. I cannot remember what year, period, and subperiod I entered on the Reversing subtask. As a result, I do not know when the journal entry will be reversed. How can I find this information?

Costpoint creates the reversing journal entry when you post the original journal entry (assuming the Reversing check box is selected).

Use Query on the Manage Journal Entries screen to find the information for an unposted journal entry and display the Reversing subtask. After you display the record, the year, period, and subperiod display in the Period to Post group box.

However, for a posted journal entry, Costpoint deletes the reversal year, period, and subperiod that was stored in the JE_RVRS table.