Journal Entries
Guidelines and reference materials to assist you in making journal entries and correcting entries.
Documentation guidelines
To ensure prompt and accurate processing of your journal entry request, please follow these guidelines.
- Park the entry in SAP with the backup attached. Valid documentation includes:
- A copy of the actual invoice with SAP cost center and G/L noted.
- SAP print screen circling item to be moved.
- Letter or email with specific funding instructions.
- Other documentation supporting the movement of funds.
- For revenue, approval from person responsible for Cost Center transferring the funds.
- Required for parking a document related to restricted accounts (Grant, Gifts, Endowment Spendable):
- Original SAP posting
- Principal Investigator approval to move expenses to project
- All receipts related to expenses being moved
- P.O. or contract – if applicable
- If it’s over 90 days from original posting date, a Cost Transfer Justification Form
- Invoice number or other reference numbers in the description line.
- NOTE: Transactions must have previously been processed in SAP and appear in the cost center and/or G/L being impacted by the journal entry request.
- Explanations must be no more than 50 characters. If you want to repeat the explanation, you can use the + sign in the following explanation line.
- Posting key: must be either (40) for debits or (50) for credits, do not use DR and CR.
- See the list of General Ledger Field Descriptions.
Correcting entries
Repost line items, change internal order numbers, redistribute expense or reverse an entry
To reduce the number of keying errors, be sure to use the latest revised departmental forms. Unfortunately, no matter how much care is taken, errors will occur.
How a transaction is corrected depends upon how it was entered and the type of error made.
| Type of Error | Solution | Responsible Party | Change FM Reports |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incorrect cost center keyed | Reverse the entry and re-key | Administrative Dept. (Payable Accounting, Accounting Services) | Yes |
| Incorrect G/L account keyed | Reverse the entry and re-key | Administrative Dept. | Yes |
| Incorrect internal order keyed | Use re-post line item to correct | User Department | No |
| No internal order keyed | Use re-post line item to correct | User Department | No |
| Transaction where internal order cannot be updated. (Telecom, Payroll, convenience copiers) | Use re-post line item to correct | User Department | No |
| Purchase order commitment appears in cost center and not on the internal order and there has been no activity (no internal order referenced) | Purchasing should correct the account assignment information | User Department communicates information to Purchasing | Yes |
| Purchase order commitment appears in the incorrect internal order and there has been no activity | Purchasing should correct the account assignment information | User Department communicates information to Purchasing | Yes |
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Last Updated 5/13/26