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Journal Entry Policy

Policy:

Journal entries are used to transfer or adjust charges and credits posted from one FOAPAL to another.

All journal entries must be submitted electronically. All back-up support for entries should be retained for future reference at the department and should not be sent to the Controller’s Office unless specifically requested. Support for journal entries will be requested from the Controller’s Office as needed but must be kept on file at the department level for at least 5 fiscal years.

Journal entries must be submitted or approved by an authorized individual of the FOAPAL to be charged. The Controller’s Office will consider a form submitted from an authorized signer’s email account as “signed.” If you are debiting another department and crediting your own, you are required to copy an authorized signer in that department when you send in the email attachment to verify authorization of the department receiving the charge.

Generally, properly filled out and submitted journal entries will be posted within 2 business days of submission.


Procedure:

Journal entries should be submitted on a Journal Entry form. Please click here for a Journal Entry example and detail instruction on completing the form. The form totals debit and credit entries for you automatically and will be automatically uploaded to Banner which eliminates data entry errors.

To submit the journal entry, the authorized signer should send an email, with the journal entry attached, to the conference Controllers Journals. This is a conference email address, which will be checked daily by staff in the Controller’s Office.

A submitted Journal Entry will be returned for the following errors:

  1. Incorrect or incomplete FOAPAL string - The entire account string or FOAPAL must be submitted for each entry.
  2. Entry is not in balance – Debit entries must equal credit entries. Prior to submittal, it is recommended that you check the bottom of the Journal entry form to verify that the entry is in balance.
  3. Journal entries will be returned to the originator for correction of errors. When errors have been corrected, the entire corrected journal entry must be resubmitted for posting.

Here are some common errors and tips:

  1. Account Coding Errors - Please make sure to fill out the entire FOAPAL code. It is always a good idea to double check the account code in Banner before submission to ensure accuracy.
  2. Entry does not balance – For an entry to be posted, total debits entries must equal total credit entries.
  3. Unrecognizable symbols in description field - Please limit the description field to alpha-numeric characters.
  4. Spaces in-between entries – It is not necessary to separate transactions on the same form. One form can be used for multiple entries. Please begin the first entry at row 8 of the journal entry form.
  5. Program Code 000 – It is necessary to type an apostrophe (‘) before the three zeros when using Program Code 000.
  6. No Date – If no date is entered, the Controller’s Office will use the date the entry is posted to the system



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