1. CORE Help Center
  2. Using CORE
  3. Accounting
  4. Accounts

General Journal

Updated

Overview

Note: Help content (except videos) has been updated to reflect the UI/UX changes in BQE CORE.

The General Journal screen allows you to record general journal entries or non-routine transactions such as depreciation, bad debts, sale of an asset, trust fund accounting, opening balances, etc. It also enables you to edit transactions recorded in your accounts and make adjustments. At the closing of a financial year, accountants can use the General Journal to check any discrepancy in the company accounts and make adjustment entries. You can also use it to transfer amounts between income and expense accounts. Typically, only accountants who prefer traditional methods of accounting use a general journal. Click here to watch a video on creating journal entries in BQE CORE:

general_journal_thumbnail.png

In a general journal, you must enter the accounts and amounts to be debited and credited. You can also associate projects to the line items. The General Journal screen allows you to debit and credit accounts as needed with the additional ability to designate the cash basis of accounting, accrual basis, or both. The debits and credits must balance (Total Debit - Total Credit = 0). You can create a single journal entry with multiple A/P or A/R lines. This is useful when recording opening balances in BQE CORE for companies with hundreds of clients and vendors, where you might have to make multiple journal entries to load the balances into the A/R and A/P accounts. You might need to set up a new company with beginning balances from a previous set of books or post year-end journal entries provided by an accountant or allocate daily automated clearing house (ACH) deposits. Using General Journal is essential for you if your company is switching to CORE without migrating your complete historical data for reference.

CORE allows general journal entries for trust funds also without affecting the balance shown in payments. After a transaction is recorded here, the amounts are then posted to the appropriate accounts.

Field Descriptions

How To

Create Journal Entries from Scratch

Create Journal Entries from CSV

Edit General Journal

Add Custom Fields

Add Documents

Clone Journal Entries

Reverse Journal Entries

View Journal

Show/Hide Columns in Grid

Export Journal Entries

Apply Filters

Mark Screen as Favorite

Field Descriptions

Field Name Field Description
General Journal > Create General Journal >
Date Journal entry date, which is different from the transaction date. As the purpose of a journal entry is to make an adjustment for a certain period, so this date is used when creating new transactions.
Entry Number

A number assigned to the journal entry for reference. CORE automatically assigns an entry number to your journal though you can change it. It does not allow duplicate numbers. This number allows CORE to preserve the order in which journal entries were made.  

If you clone a journal entry, CORE adds a 'C' as a prefix to the entry number. Similarly, if you reverse a journal entry, CORE adds an 'R' as a prefix to that number.
Entry Type

Type of general journal transaction:

  • Accrual
    Accrual basis of accounting involves recording income when it is earned and recording expense when it is incurred. It recognizes revenue and expenses in the period transactions occur and so tracks outstanding receivables and payable, respectively. Accrual entry type is used when the transaction is between virtual accounts (that do not involve the actual transfer of cash).
  • Cash Only
    Cash basis of accounting is a method of recording transactions for income and expense only when actual cash is received or payments are made. So you record revenue only when a client actually pays for a product or service, and you record an expense only when it is actually paid by the company. Cash Only entry type is used when the transaction is between cash accounts (bank and credit card accounts).
  • Accrual and Cash
    Accrual and Cash entry type is used when the transaction is between a cash account and a virtual account, say expense account.

The entry type also affects the reports such as General Ledger – Cash Basis vs. General Ledger – Accrual Basis. While making a journal entry of type cash only to adjust cash accounting balances, you can choose not only bank or credit card accounts, but any balance sheet or profit & loss accounts.
Account Account that gets posted when a transaction takes place—credited or debited—depending upon the type of transaction. It does not include non-posting accounts (for transactions such as purchase orders or pending invoices). While making a journal entry of type cash only to adjust cash accounting balances, you can choose not only bank or credit card accounts, but any balance sheet or profit & loss accounts.
Debit Amount

Depending upon the type of transaction and account, debit represents an increase to an asset or expense account, and a decrease to a liability, income and equity account.  

When you create a journal entry, you specify the account to be debited. The total of the credits and debits must be balanced. Credit or debit amount cannot be zero.
Credit Amount

Depending upon the type of transaction and account, credit represents a decrease to an asset or expense account, and an increase to a liability, income and equity account.  

When you create a journal entry, you specify the account to be credited. The total of the credits and debits must be balanced. Credit or debit amount cannot be zero.
Class Class is a transaction entity that allows you to track items, and view statements and reports for that entity. You can select a class here for a transaction or journal entry.
Linked Record Person or payee involved in the transaction. It can be client, vendor, employee or even project. For A/R, you have to select a client while for A/P, you have to select a vendor as a payee.
General Journal > List View >
Debit/Credit It displays the debit or credit amount on the last account line in the journal entry, which is the parent account. This is the first account line when creating a journal entry.
Amount This represents the sum total of the debits or credits from all the account line items in the journal entry. Credit or debit amount cannot be zero.
General Journal > Import General Journal from CSV >
CSV (UTF-8) CSV (UTF-8) encoded UTF stands for Unicode Transformation Format. It is a character encoding format that can be as compact as ASCII (if the file is plain English text), but can contain Unicode characters as well. It uses 8-bit blocks to represent each character that is encoded. UTF supports many languages and can accommodate pages and forms in any of those languages. 

Create Journal Entries From Scratch

To create a general journal entry from scratch, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalAdd.png

  2. Click Create Journal on the top-right and select From Scratch.
  3. On the Create General Journal screen, enter the required information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
    • Date: Journal entry date
    • Entry Number: for reference
    • Entry Type: Accrual, Cash Only, or Accrual and Cash. 

      GeneralJournalCreate.png

  4. Click Add and enter the journal data in the top row of the grid. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
    • Account: that gets posted when a transaction takes place—credited or debited
    • Debit Amount or Credit Amount (for every debit, there has to be a corresponding credit entry)
    • Class
    • Linked Record: Person or payee involved in the transaction
  5. Click Done.
  6. When you have added all the journal entries, click Save & Done or Save & Add Another.

Create Journal Entries From CSV

In CORE, you can import general journal entries from a Comma Separated Values (.csv) file format. CORE imports multiple journal entries from a single General Journal at a time. You can map the relevant fields between CORE and the CSV file and save those mappings for the future.

Note: You can download a sample import file to see how your import file should be and what kind of data it should include.

To import journal entries from a .CSV file:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalCreateExisting.png

  2. Click Create Journal on the top-right and select From CSV.
  3. On the Import General Journal from CSV dialog, choose the CSV (UTF-8) file to be imported. You can drag-and-drop the file or click to browse to its location. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
  4. Click Upload.
  5. On the Map Your General Journal Fields dialog, you can match the relevant CORE Fields with the CSV Headers for each journal entry. Each entry requires an account number, debit amount and credit amount to be mapped. Credit and debit amounts with 0 value are not imported.

    general_journal_import_csv2.png

  6. You can select Saved Mappings from the drop-down, if you have one from a previous import.
  7. Click Continue. The imported entries pre-fill the grid.
  8. On the Review Mapping dialog, review the selected entries and their mappings. Un-check the entries that you do not want to import, making sure that the sum of the credit amount and debit amount is equal.
  9. Click the relevant Import option:
    • Import
    • Import & Update Mapping: Imports the entries and also updates the field mappings. This option is only available when you have selected a saved mapping previously.
    • Import & Save As New Mapping: Imports the entries and also saves the mapping for the future.
  10. The journal entries are imported. You are taken to the Edit General Journal > General screen where you can check the imported data and make changes, as needed.

You can also check the detailed video on importing data into CORE.

Note: As the imported journal entries do not have an entry number, CORE automatically assigns it to them for reference, though you can change it. It does not allow duplicate numbers. This number allows CORE to preserve the order in which journal entries were made. If you clone a journal entry, CORE adds a 'C' as a prefix to the entry number. Similarly, if you reverse a journal entry, CORE adds an 'R' as a prefix to that number.

Edit General Journal

To edit a journal entry:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalRowAction.png

  2. Select all journal entries on the grid that you want to delete and click Actions > Delete. Alternatively, you can use the row-action menu to delete them individually.
  3. Select a journal entry on the grid that you want to edit and click dropdown-caret.png to select View Details.
  4. On the Edit General Journal screen, enter more details or make changes, as needed.

    GeneralJournalEdit.png

  5. Click Save & Done.

Add Custom Fields

Using custom fields, you can track extra characteristics and attributes of your general journals. You can enter any information (up to 50 characters) about the journals. You can even customize these fields in the Custom Labels screen.

To add a custom field, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalRowAction.png

  2. In the list view, click dropdown-caret.png on the journal entry and select View Details.
  3. On the Edit General Journal screen, go to the Custom Fields tab.

    GeneralJournalCustomFields.png

  4. Click Add Custom Field and select the type of field you want depending on the purpose, say Text Box.
  5. On the Add Text Box dialog, enter the required information:
    • Name
    • Type
    • # of Characters
  6. Check Show in List View if you want this field to appear under the Show/Hide Columns list and show up on the grid. Click Save.

Note: You can display a maximum of three custom fields on the list view per screen.

You can also check the detailed video on managing custom fields in CORE.

Add Documents

To add a document to a journal entry:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalRowAction.png

  2. In the list view, click dropdown-caret.png on the journal entry and select View Details.
  3. In the detail view, go to the Documents tab and click Add.

    GeneralJournalDocument.png

  4. On the Add Documents dialog, select the relevant tab, depending on the type of attachment.
    • Computer: To attach files stored on your computer, enter its Description and drag your file or click to browse to that location.
    • Hyperlink: To attach an external link, enter its Description and then insert the hyperlink.
    • Dropbox: To link files stored in your Dropbox account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
    • Google Drive: To link files stored in your Google Drive account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
    • OneDrive: To link files stored in your Microsoft OneDrive account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
    • Box: To link files stored in your Box account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
    • Resource Library: To link company resources, select the resource from the library. This is available in CORE CRM only.
  5. Click Add.

CORE pre-fills some of the information about the attached documents in the grid. You can send the documents to your clients, employees or other contacts for getting their digital or electronic signatures (eSignature via DocuSign) using the eSign option from the dropdown-caret.png row-action menu. CORE automatically adds the signed documents to the Documents folder of the entity (record) as separate attachments. It displays the status of the document, whether it has been delivered via DocuSign, viewed by the recipients, declined or completed by the recipients, etc. This column does not show up if you are not connected via the DocuSign integration. You can also check the detailed video on managing documents in CORE.

Clone Journal Entries

You can clone transactions based on a historical general ledger entry. All appropriate fields get copied to the new transaction. However, cloning a general journal replaces the date of the original entry with today's date. If you clone a journal entry, CORE adds a 'C' as a prefix to the entry number.

To clone a journal entry, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalRowAction.png

  2. Select a journal entry on the grid that you want to copy and click dropdown-caret.png to select Clone.
  3. CORE makes a copy of the selected journal entry and displays it on the grid. You can go into its detail view and edit the cloned record.

Reverse Journal Entries

You can create a reverse transaction in CORE based on a historical general journal. This process of reversing a journal entry involves taking the debit amount and putting it under credits, and taking the credit amount and putting it under debits. This creates a negating transaction to cancel out the effect of a previous journal entry. The reverse transaction is created with the source general journal entry number having an 'R' as a prefix and it maintains a record of both transactions.

To reverse a journal entry:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalRowAction.png

  2. Select a journal entry on the grid that you want to reverse and click dropdown-caret.png to select Reverse.

The journal entry is reversed and appears in the grid with an R tag.

View Journal

You can understand the accounting behind a transaction by looking at its journal entries. In CORE, you can open the Journal report to view the transaction details, including the accounts being credited or debited.

To view a journal report, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalRowAction.png

  2. In the list view, select a journal entry on the grid and click dropdown-caret.png on that row to select View Journal.
  3. The journal opens in the viewer. Preview the journal and then choose to export or print it.

Show/Hide Columns in Grid

You can configure the fields or columns that appear on the grid in the list view. You can hide or show columns and sort the order of columns according to your requirements.

To do so, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalMoreMenu.png

  2. In the list view, click More > Show/Hide Columns on the action bar.
  3. Select or un-select the column names in the drop-down list, say Entry Number.
  4. Next, click the column name you want to sort the data by, say Amount.
  5. Click once for ascending order (A-Z) and twice for descending order (Z-A).

Note: You can resize the column widths on the grid and then reset them, if needed (More > Reset Column Widths).

You can also check the detailed video on navigation and customizing grids in CORE.

Export Journal Entries

In CORE, you can export journal entries to the Comma Separated Values file format. CORE exports data from all available columns and not just the columns visible in the grid.

To export the general journal to a .CSV file, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalMoreMenu.png

  2. In the list view, click More > Export as CSV.
  3. A .csv export file is created and saved on your system at the default download location, say your desktop. Click to open the spreadsheet.

You can also check the detailed video on exporting data in CORE.

Apply Filters

To view selective data on the grid, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalFilter.png

  2. In the list view, click filters-01.png on the right.
  3. On the Filters panel, select a filter from the drop-down and specify individual records or range.
  4. Click Add Filters to specify more filters.
  5. When you have finished, click Apply Filter. You can see selective data now.
  6. In the list view, you can remove the individual filters by clicking remove-01.png on each.  To disable applied filters temporarily or remove all filters, click filter_icon.png next to the Filters icon and select Disable Filters or Clear All, respectively.

You can also check the detailed video on applying filters in CORE.

Mark Screen as Favorite

You can mark or flag the most-often used and important screens in CORE as your favorites up to a maximum of ten. These favorite screens then display separately on the side menu under the Favorites list. You can manage all your favorite screens in CORE from User Settings.

To mark this screen as your favorite, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the General Journal screen from the side menu > Accounting > Chart of Accounts.

    GeneralJournalFavorite.png

  2. In the list view, click favorites.png on the top-right.
  3. You can access this screen from the side menu under Favorites.

You can also check the detailed video on marking screens as favorite in CORE.

Related to:

Related articles