Information Technology Services

The custom NAU Departmental Journal pages were designed to allow departments to record internal revenue to expense and expense to expense transactions. The NAU customization simplifies the delivered journal pages by hiding unneeded fields and disabling others inferred from other values.  In addition, the customizations limit the types of transactions and functions allowed, and enforce the workflow approval routing for the journals.

The NAU Departmental Journals can take one of two forms, an Internal Departmental Transfer (IDT) or Internal Service Center Transfer (IST).  These Journal types are determined by selecting the appropriate Journal Source (IDT or IST) on the journal Header page (user preferences will default the value to IDT). The Journal Source determines the initial workflow approval path. See Appendix A for a diagram of the IDT and IST workflow process

Approvals: IDT journals require approval for the debit journal lines by the appropriate department or project manager.  IST journals require approval by the service center department manager.  Additional approvals are required for the types of transactions below:

1. IDT journal lines against voluntary fund transfer Accounts (Accounts beginning with an 8*) require approval by Financial Accounting Services (FAS).  Journals with total debits greater than $5,000 also must be approved by the Budget Office. 
2. IDT journal lines against non-internal revenue codes require approval by FAS.
3. IDT journals against grant projects require approval by Sponsored Project Services when transferring expenses in an amount greater than $1,000, or certain non-lab supplies/material Accounts are used, or transfers are made from a state or local department.

Service Centers may request that only their department be required to approve journals for services center charges on journals with a journal source of IST.  Service center charges are presumed to be pre-approved by departments/project requesting the service, and thus do not require approval when the charges recorded.  Service Centers are defined through Comptroller Policy CMP401-02:NAU Service Center Policy, however, departments don’t necessarily have to meet the policy requirements to request the ability to process journals using the IST journal source. To request Service Center IST journal approval department managers must submit an e-mail to Ask-FAS@nau.edu with the following information:

Department ID:
Department Name:
Description of services provided:
How are services authorized (e.g., e-mail, request form - attach request form):
Does CMP Policy 401-02 apply to Department (Yes or No): 

The IDT journal entry page defaults to the “Add a New Value” page below.  Click the “Find an Existing Value” to edit or find previously created IDT journals.

Business Unit:  Defaults to NAUBU based on user preferences.
Journal ID:  Defaults to next sequential number
Journal Date: Defaults to current day.  To backdate at month end or year-end, you must change the date here as it cannot be edited once you are in the journal 

The Header page defines the accounting period (from journal date).  Several options on this page have been disabled. 

Long Description:  Optional field, however, it is recommended that a meaningful description be entered as it appears on the “Find an Existing Value” search page and on other inquiry pages.

*Source:  Default value is “IDT” from user preferences.  Service Centers will need to change this value to “IST” to bypass the normal IDT workflow routing.   Note:  Service Centers will be required to submit a request for IST workflow approval.

Attachments:  Attachment functionality is to be used only for journals that route to the Post Award office for approval.  See the Departmental Journal Workflow Diagram for conditions under which the journal is routed to the Post Award Office.  Guidance for required documentation can be found at: http://nau.edu/postaward/policies/Cost-Transfer-Guidelines/ . See guidelines and procedures for journal attachments in PS Financials Training Guide named: "Journal Attachments".

The Journal Lines page is the primary data entry page.  Enter individual lines from this page, then edit and submit the journal for approval.

*Unit:  Defaults to NAUBU from user preferences.
SpeedType: Enter SpeedType value or lookup value using magnifying glass.  The SpeedType value will blank out the Account field, so enter the SpeedType before entering an Account value.
Fund:  Inferred from SpeedType.  Available for edit, however, most users would never need to change the value.
Dept: Inferred from SpeedType.  Edit disabled to force use of SpeedType
Account:  Enter Account value or lookup value using magnifying glass.
Prog: Inferred from SpeedType. Available for edit, however, most users would never need to change the value.
Project Costing Chartfields: PC  Bus Unit, Project and Activity are inferred from the SpeedType and are disabled for edit to force use of the SpeedType.

An Type:  Analysis Type required for project (grant and capital projects).  Values are GLE = Expense, GLR = Revenue, and CGE = Cost Share Expense.  Note:  values will self-correct when the journal is edited.
SubDept: Optional field.  Enter valid SubDept value or use lookup to find value.
Amount: Enter line amount.  Negative numbers are credits (reduce expense or increase revenue) and positive numbers are debits (increase expense or decrease revenue).
Reference: Optional field to reference other journal ID, etc.
Journal Line Description: Defaults to Account description.  Enter meaningful description if additional detail is required (field length is 30 characters).

Journal lines can be added by clicking the “+” button in the “Lines to add:” section

Lines to add section:  Click the “+” button to add a single line or enter the number of additional lines you wish to enter in the lines to add box.  Use the Template List to select which fields you wish to copy down from the previous line. 

Delete Lines:  Select the checkbox next to the line numbers you wish to delete, then click the “-“ button to delete.

Once all journal lines have been entered, select the “Edit Journal” process and click the “Process” button.  The journal edit will validate the journal against certain journal edits, and if it passes those edits, it will budget check the journal (Budget warning message “Budget Checking Warnings Exist (18021,90)” can be ignored).  After the journal passes budget check, select “Submit Journal” then the “Process” button to submit the journal for approval.  

Budget Check Journal:  Users can only select this option if the journal has passed journal edits.  Select Edit Journal. 

Copy Journal:  Use to copy journal to a new journal or copy to reverse journal.

Delete Journal:  Only journals that have not been posted can be deleted (journal status not equal to P).  Use to delete unneeded journals or journals in error for closed period. Journals cannot be recovered after deleting.  If a journal that is in error because it’s in a closed period is needed, copy it first to a new journal before deleting the journal in error

Edit/Pre-Check:  Use to pre-check budget.

Edit Chartfield:  Use to run chartfield edits.

Edit Journal:  Select to run journal edits and budget check. Budget warning message “Budget Checking Warnings Exist (18021,90)” can be ignored.  Editing the journal will create system generated fund balancing entries to account 101400 – Equity in Pooled Cash.  The system generated lines cannot be edited and can be ignored.

Refresh Journal:  Select to refresh journal values.

Submit Journal:  Select to submit journal for approval. 

At anytime you may save the journal in incomplete status.  Once a journal is saved, a Journal ID will be assigned.  By running the Edit Journal process, the journal will automatically be saved.  To review journal errors, click the Journal Status link or to review budget errors click the Budget Status link.

Journal Status: If the journal contains errors, you can click the status to go directly to the Journal Entry - Error page. The cursor is positioned on the journal header error.
        

         D: Deleted - Anchor Journal Unposted.
         I: Posting Incomplete - Repost ASAP.
         M: Valid SJE Model - Do not Post.
         E: Journal has Errors.
         N: No Status - Needs to be Edited.
         P: Posted to Ledgers.
         T: Journal Entry Incomplete.
         U: Unposted.
         V: Valid journal - Edits completed.
         Z: Upgrade Journal - Can't Unpost.

Budget Status: Click this link if the budget status is Error or Valid (with warning), to access the Commitment Control page, where you can view the error or warning messages. You can also flag the journal to make it pass budget checking, even though it exceeds the budgeted amount. Values include:
         E: Error - The entry failed budget checking.
         N: Not Processed - The Budget Processor has not processed the entry.
         P: Provisionally Valid - The entry passed budget checking but the Budget Processor has not committed the changes to the control budget (LEDGER_KK). This results          when selecting the Budget Check Only option when processing the journal.
         V: Valid - The entry passed budget checking with or without warnings and the Budget Processor has updated the control budget (LEDGER_KK).

Review the Totals page to identify out-of-balance conditions.   The “Edit Journal” process will create equity balancing entries between funds, so it is unlikely that balancing errors would occur.

Review the errors page to view journal edit errors.  Clicking the Journal Status link on the lines page will take you to this page when the journal status is “E”.  Click the “Errors Only” checkbox on the Lines page to view only the lines with journal errors.

After submitting the journal for approval from the Lines page through the Submit Journal process, click the Approval page to view approval status and history.  See approval screenshots and routing flowchart below:

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