Figure 7.1 — The Journal Entry form. Drawing to be produced after the UI/UX pass: the batch header (code, date, currency and rate, period, narrative) above the journal lines, with the live Total Debit / Total Credit / Difference readouts and one line opened to show account, subledger, dimensions, debit/credit and the bank-amount field.
A journal is written on the GL batch form — you will find it as GL Batches in the menu; the batch is the journal.
- Code — the batch's number (JV-…), suggested automatically and unique in your company.
- Date — the posting date; changing it re-suggests the period and the exchange rate.
- Currency / Exchange rate — the journal's own currency, with the rate for its date filled in from the stored rates (7.11). The lines are typed in this currency.
- Period — an open period, required; the date usually chooses it.
- Narrative — what this journal is, in words your successor will thank you for.
- Total Debit / Total Credit / Difference — the live arithmetic of the lines below; the difference must reach zero before the batch can post.
The lines — one per account touched:
- Account — any postable account except a control account (7.5).
- Subledger — offered where the chosen account keeps named subdivisions.
- Department / Branch — shown when your company tracks them; they are how the Trial Balance and Profit & Loss can later be read by division (7.10).
- Debit / Credit — one or the other on each line, never both, never neither.
- Bank amount — appears, and is required, only when the account belongs to a foreign-currency bank: the amount in the bank's own currency, while debit and credit stay in the journal's currency (7.6).
- Note — the line's own explanation.