Journals

Workflow Concepts

Reportance lets you support any workflow pattern that you are comfortable with. Generally, this falls into one of two main patterns:

1) Perform changes in the Reportance and export in bulk at the end of the job 

Here, the basic flow is as follows:

1) Import the client accounting file into Reportance at the start of the job

2) Make changes by creating journals inside of Reportance

3) At the end of the job, export a balancing journal

4) You may or may not reimport the client accounting file into Reportance after this process to confirm both are identical

In this system, journals are used to perform all changes. Reportance will let you create these journals, and will provide a balancing journal comprising all these changes after the end of the job.

2) Working with the Live File

In this process you:

1) start by importing the client accounting file into Reportance

2) Make changes directly in the live client file

3) Reimport the client accounting file on a regular basis into Reportance so it reflects changes made

In this system, journals would only be used in Reportance to perform 'Presentation' based changes which do not want to be reflected in the client file. For example, the client file may have an account that represents GST Payable, which moves into positive and negative over multiple years. In Reportance, you could do a 'presentation' journal to move the balance in one year to an equivalent 'GST Receivable' account, without impacting the client file.

In Reportance, you can create a journal in any Dataset, including in Datasets which have no trial balance, which means it is also possible to use the journals as a method of creating an accounting file or trial balance from scratch.

Creating Journals

First, you go to the Dataset screen for the relevant dataset, and click on the Journals tab. To create a new journal, click Add Journal. 

You can edit or delete journal by clicking on the respective buttons against each journal in the Journals list. 

When creating and editing journals, the following fields are relevant:

Journal No

This is automatically created by Reportance and can be edited. You can use this to identify your journals.

Classifications

The Classification is used by Reportance to help automatically link accounts to the master chart of accounts. Once an account is linked to the master chart of accounts the classification loses its relevance.

In the Excel import process, it will automatically link the following text to classifications as shown below:

Memorandum

The memo lets you provide a brief description of the purpose of the journal.

Tick Boxes

The Export Journal to Client File tells Reportance that you want to include this journal in a 'balancing journal' for the client. Untickthis if it is only a 'presentation' journal that you do not wish to be included in the client file.

The Posted to Client File tells Reportance whether or not this journal has already been entered into the client file, and is reflected in the currently imported trial balance in Reportance. Reportance will exclude this journal from calculating the final trial balance because it assumes this journal is already reflected in the data imported from the client.

Journal Lines

Here, you can create the debit and credit transaction that make up the journal.

To use an existing account, simply start typing in the Account No field the name of an existing account or number, and Reportance will provide you with a list of the existing accounts filtered by the text you have entered. If you then select an existing account from this list, Reportance will automatically complete the Account Name and Type fields for that account. 

To create a new account for this client, simply type in a new unique account no and account name. Reportance will automatically create a new Client Accounting System Account for this Source when you type it in. You will also need to select the basic Type.

If you use more than the 5 available lines, simply click Add Lines to see additional lines.

Balancing Journals

Once you are happy with the file, you can prepare a balancing journal in Reportance. To do this, open the Dataset and go to the Balances tab.

From the Display drop down menu, you can select Balancing Journal which will show you the totals of all journals marked as Export Journal to Client File.

You can export this journal to Excel by clicking on the Export to Excel button which you can use to aid in entering this journal into the client file:

If you afterwards decide to reimport the client file into Reportance, you will get a double-up of the journals, as the balancing journal in the client file will exist, and the Reportance file will also have the same journals that made up the balancing journal.

To avoid this double up, you can click the Mark journals as posted button to mark the journals that make up the balancing journal as Posted to Client File. Reportance will now no longer include these journals when calculating the final trial balance and thus giving the correct result.

Process Summary

The following paragraphs summarise the process and settings used when creating journals under the two main workflow methodologies:

1) Perform changes in the Reportance and export in bulk at the end of the job 

a) For each journal created, set

Export Journal to Client File - Tick

Posted to Client File - Untick

b) At the end of the job, get the balancing journal by going to Balances and selecting Balancing Journal from the Display drop-down menu

c) Enter the balancing journal into the client file. Reimport the client trial balance into Reportance if desired.

d) Only after reimporting the trial balance from the client file, go back to  Balances, select Balancing Journal from the Display drop-down menu, and then click on the Mark journals as posted button.

2) Working with the Live File

a) For each journal created in Reportance, set

Export Journal to Client File - Untick

Posted to Client File - Untick

b) Reimport the trial balance from the client file on a regular basis