General Ledger

When my journal entry posts, why does it have a ledger intercompany line?

Journal entries will create balancing segment lines when posted if the journal has different units or different fund types. These are system generated transactions to balance journals for financial activity between units and/or fund types.

Do I have to submit journals to the Office of the University Controller for processing if I am charging a different unit on my journal?

No, as needed, any Unit or Unit, Division, Organization combination can be used on your journal which will be submitted to your Finance Approver for review and approval. It is the responsibility of the unit preparing the journal to inform the other unit, as necessary.

What is a spreadsheet journal?

A spreadsheet journal is an Excel document specifically designed to be used for the financial management system to create journals. The spreadsheet functionality allows uses to more efficiently create journals with a large volume of rows. The template can be saved to your desktop and when ready, the user is prompted to sign in to the application to upload it to the financial management system. Alternatively, users can create a journal in the application directly instead of using the Excel spreadsheet.

Can someone have the role of both a preparer and approver?

Yes. A user can be a “Finance Approver/Supervisor” for another person and at the same time create journals, which will be routed to his/her approver. Preparers will not be able to approve their own journals.

Can you send batch entries to an Approver, or will they get one-by-one notifications to approve each individual journal?

Approval is always for an entire batch, not individual journals in the batch. Batch journal functionality is at Rutgers University and allows users to create individual like journals associated to a single batch.

Can I add an attachment to a journal?

Yes, you have the ability to add attachments to a journal.

Can a preparer withdraw a journal?

A Preparer has the option to withdraw a journal as long as the journal has not been approved.

Can an unbalanced journal be posted?

Yes, users will get a warning that the journal is not balanced when they attempt to submit the journal for approval. It is important that all users responsible for creating journals heed the warning and fix the journal before re-submitting. It is also important that approvers reject any unbalanced journal submitted to them for approval. Since we have enabled Suspense at the ledger level to assist with processing interface journals from external systems, the system will accept unbalanced manual journal entries and post the difference to suspense.

What are the journal categories and when should they be used?

RU Actuals will be used most of the time to create your journal entries.
RU Cash Receipts category will be used when you create a cash journal. This category is linked to the ability to record cash receipts on projects and linked to the Cashier’s office approval group as they are the only approver on these entries.
RU Accrual/Deferral category will be used at month-end or year-end to accrue or defer an expense. The journal entered in this category automatically reverses in the next non adjusting period. These adjustments will populate the Actuals column on P&Ls.
RU Manual Encumbrance category will be used to encumber a specific expense. These could be for purchases that are planned but a requisition is not going to be processed in near future. These manual encumbrance journals will be in the Encumbrance column on P&L.
RU PGM Revenue Adj category is used to adjust revenue from general ledger to projects, project to projects, or projects to general ledger.