Custom Journal – Dillner's Accounting Tools

The Custom Journal window is often used to record cash in and cash out for each day; however, it can also be used to reconcile cash on a per-shift, weekly or other basis. It can also be used for a variety of other processing applications.

Each Custom Journal template consists of Titles, Accounts, and Totals. Once a template is set up, the appropriate value just needs to be entered on each line. All items recorded are automatically posted to the correct ledger account. The amount showing at the bottom right of the window is the over, or short, for the page and will post to the Auto Balance Account that is defined for the template.

For Options, see the Custom Journal Options at the end of this article.

For additional examples, see the Commonly Used Custom Journal Examples further down in this article.

Define a New Template

With the Custom Journal window open, select Edit>Commands>New Item. The following dialog box will open.
Enter the Name for the template.
Select the Auto Balance Account. The Auto Balance Account is the account to which the Total amount at the bottom right of the window will post. It is important to note what the natural balance of the Classification of the Auto Balance Account is (i.e., Current Assets have a Debit natural balance while Current Liabilities have a Credit natural balance). All amounts added to the page Total will be added to the natural balance side.
If this Custom Journal will be one that always needs to be reversed in some future period, set the Reverse here. The Reverse setting may be changed, if desired, during data entry. Some examples of Custom Journal transactions that need to reverse are:
- Ending Inventory Balances
- Accounts Payable Balances
Enter a Default Memo, if desired. The Memo field on the Custom Journal page will display this description by default.
Enter a Default Batch, if desired. Batches are used to group transactions together. For example, several Daily Cash Checkout pages will be entered into a Custom Journal Template each month with each day being a separate page. Give them all a Batch name of something like "Daily Checkout." By entering "Daily Checkout" as the Default Batch in this dialog box, when a new page is created using the Daily Cash Checkout Template, the Batch field will already be filled in with "Daily Checkout." This Batch name may be kept, changed or deleted. Many of the Custom Journal reports (Reports>Report List window) Report Options may be set to sort and group by Batch.
Decide if you want to start with a blank template, or one based on another that was already created.
- Click OK to create a blank template, OR
- Use the Load From button to copy a template that is already set up in another file. The Load From function copies all items in a template from another client file, except when the template being copied from has an account in the template that does not exist in the file being copied to. In that case, the item(s) will be skipped.

If a Custom Journal Template was loaded from an existing file:

The program will prompt you to close the new Custom Journal window.
To reopen, select Write Up>Custom Journal and then select the template that was just created in the Template field of the Custom Journal window.
Delete any unneeded account rows by highlighting the row and clicking the Remove Row icon at the top of the window.
To insert an additional row, place the cursor on the row which will be below the new row, then click on the Insert Row icon at the top of the window. Use the Action on a similar row in the same section as a guide for setting the Action on the new row. More information about inserting Title, Total, and Account rows can be found in the following section.

If a Custom Journal Template was not loaded from another company:

The first items that need to be set up are totals. Total items must be inserted before Account items. Title items can be inserted at any time. Before entering Total items, determine what totals are required and create them in a bottom-up order.

To create Total items for the Daily checkout template shown in the screenshot from the earlier section:

Click the Insert Row icon in the toolbar for the Template Item Editor dialog box (shown in the screenshot below). If it is necessary to edit the item later, use the Edit Row icon.
Select Total for the Type. In the Description field, type in the label desired for the Total item and select the Action for the row.

It is necessary to create Total items before creating subtotal items (items that add to or subtract from a Total item) or Account items. Since some of the Total items add to another Total item, the item being "added to" or "subtracted from" needs to be available before the item can be created. Items can be rearranged in the window any time after they have been inserted. Following is the order that the Total items were inserted in the example above, and the Action that was selected for each Total item:
- Total to account for—Adds to Total
- Total accounted for—Subtracts from Total
- Total sales—Adds to Total to account for
- Total cash paid outs—Adds to Total accounted for
- Total taxable sales—Adds to Total sales
  
  Note: Since the Total of the Custom Journal transaction will post to the natural balance of the Auto Balance Account, all accounts that eventually add to the Total (Adds to Total) will post to the other side. For example: If the Auto Balance Account is an Expense account, then the Total will be a Debit entry. Therefore, all accounts that add directly or eventually add to Total (Adds to Total) will be posted as Credit entries. In this case, use Subtracts from Total if the desired posting is to be a Debit.
After the Total items have been inserted, insert the Accounts.
Select the desired Account.
Enter a Description if you want to display something other than the Account Name in the Description field on the input grid. The entered description only appears on the input window and can be used to identify labels on the source documents.
Enter a Memo, if desired. The Memo entered here will be saved in the detail record of the entry and will print in the General Ledger report if the show more detail option is set to yes. It will also be displayed in the Outstanding grid of the Bank Reconciliation window if the account is a reconciled account.
Select the Action.
- Any row can be moved up or down as desired. Use the Move icons in the toolbar to move the selected row up or down. Items can also be moved up and down by holding the Shift key while pressing the up or down arrow keys on keyboard.
- Hide or skip any columns that are not required for data entry using the Column Configuration tool.

Enter Data in the Custom Journal

Select Write Up>Custom Journal and select the desired Template from the drop-down list.
Enter a Batch number, if the transaction (Custom Journal page) is to be associated with a Batch. Many of the Custom Journal reports (Reports/Report List window) Report Options may be set to sort and group by Batch. Verify the selection in the Reverse In field.
Enter a Number to identify the page. This could be the day of the month.
Enter the Date that the page relates to.
Enter a Memo for the page, if desired.
When all amounts are entered in the Custom Journal Template illustrated here, you will have a reconciliation of cash for the day. The remainder (unaccounted for amount) will display as the Total and will post to the account selected as the Auto Balance Account for the template.

Display All Pages—When selected, a window will open showing the amounts (and quantities) from each page of the active template.

Print or Export from the new display.

Double-click in a column to open that page in the Custom Journal.

Accumulate Detail

To use the Detail Grid to process random items, such as a shoebox of receipts, click on the Accum Detail button at the bottom of the window, or press Shift+F4. The first time the Accumulate Detail grid is used for a client, remove unneeded columns using the Column Configuration.

Enter each item on a separate line in the right detail grid. When the window is saved, all items will be combined into the appropriate row of the left Custom Journal grid.
If an account is listed more than once in the left Custom Journal grid, the detail amounts will be applied to the first row for the account in the left grid.
If a value for an account has been entered in the left grid and additional amounts for the account are entered in the right grid, when the window is saved, the sum of the amounts for the account will be added to the amount on the left.

Summarize Detail

When Summarize Detail is selected, a confirmation dialog box asking to Summarize, Print & Summarize, or Don't Summarize will be presented when the window is saved.

Summarize—All details will be summarized into the left grid and detail records will be deleted. This will keep the General Ledger clean of the detail records; however, there is no ability to see what detail items were entered after the summarization. To keep the detail out of the GL, consider doing the summarization after all input is complete.
Print and Summarize—Before all details are summarized, the information entered into the right grid will print.
Don't Summarize—All detail will be summarized into the left grid; however, the detail records (where more than one record for an account exists) will remain in the right grid and will be included in the General Ledger.

Calculate Book Amounts

When selected, the Book Totals (accumulated total of all pages for the template) will calculate when a page is saved or a new page is started.
When not selected, the Book Totals will not calculate until the Calculate box is checked.

Note: It is much faster to not calculate Book Totals until all pages have been entered when there are multiple pages.

Running Total

The running total of all the amounts in the Accumulate Detail grid.

Print Custom Journal

Click Print Custom Journal to print the left Custom Journal grid as it appears. The printout from this page is designed for internal office use and is not the same as the formal print format through Reports>Report List reports. Set the Print Offset option (Options icon at the top of the Custom Journal window) to a higher number to increase the printed column width compared to what you see on the screen and decrease the number to decrease the width.

Print Detail

Click Print Detail (when right detail grid is open) to print the detail grid as it appears. Set the Print Offset option (Options icon at the top of the Custom Journal window) to a higher number to increase the printed column width compared to what you see on the screen and decrease the number to decrease the width.

Commonly Used Custom Journal Examples

Daily, Weekly or Monthly Cash Reconciliation

This is a common use for the Custom Journal and is shown in the previous screenshots in this article.

Recording Ending Inventory

Enter the ending inventory from the client into both the Cost (8xx in this example) account and Inventory account (5xx in this example) for each inventory item. By entering the ending inventory balance to both the Cost and the Inventory accounts, the cost of sales will automatically be adjusted by the change in inventory from the last period.

Fuel Invoices

The following illustration shows how a Fuel Invoice can be set up where some taxes (or other fees) are listed separately on the invoice as a total, for all grades of gasoline, at a per gallon rate. For each grade of fuel, insert an extra row with the same Account but with a Description that tells the user what the combined rate of the taxes and other fees is.

In this example, fuel is charged based on net gallons, but the taxes are charged upon gross gallons. The processor will simply enter the gross gallons, followed by *, followed by the total per gallon charge for taxes and other fees, and then press Enter in the Amount field for each Taxes row. For reference, many processors like to record the gross gallons in the Memo field for each grade.

Recurring Entries without dollar amount saved

The following screenshot shows a Recurring Entry for a payroll entry when an outsourced company does the payroll and totals are recorded.

Custom Journal Options

Click the Options icon on the Data Bar or select Edit>Commands>Screen Options when the Custom Journal window is open. The Custom Journal Client tab contains options that apply only to the particular client that is open. The Custom Journal System tab contains options that apply to all clients.

Default Move (System)

Default—The window will always open for a New transaction.
First—The window will always open to the first transaction for the period covered (see Option View Period) in numeric order.
Last—The window will always open to the last transaction for the period covered (see Option View Period) in numeric order.
New—The window will always open for a New transaction.

Always Ask Before Saving (System)

Yes—Presents a dialog box with the options Yes, No, or Cancel before advancing to enter a new page.
No—Saves the page automatically when advancing to enter a new page.

View Period (Both)

This option controls what pages will be displayed in the List, as well as the pages that can be accessed in the window when scrolling through the pages, using the Data Bar commands.

Accounting Year to Date—Includes all pages for the current accounting year.
All—Includes all pages.
Current Accounting Period—Includes all pages within the current accounting period.
Last 30 days—Includes all pages with dates within 30 days up to the current date.
Last 60 days—Includes all pages with dates within 60 days up to the current date.
Last 90 days—Includes all pages with dates within 90 days up to the current date.
Last Year—Includes all pages with dates within the last calendar year.
Year to Date—Includes all pages with dates within current calendar year.

Automatic New Entry (Both)

Default—Uses the setting on the System tab.
Yes—Automatically creates a new Custom Journal page (transaction) when the enter key is used to pass the last row.
No—New pages are not created unless New is selected.

Skip Memo (Both)

Default—Uses the setting on the System tab.
Yes—Causes the cursor to skip over the Memo field, at the top of the window, when using the enter or tab keys to move through the window. The Memo field can be accessed with the mouse.
No—Causes the cursor to stop in the Memo field, at the top of the window, when using the enter or tab keys to move through the window.

Auto Increment Number (Both)

Default—Uses the setting on the System tab.
Yes—Starts the next page with a Number that is one higher than the last page recorded. The Number can be overwritten when breaks in numbering occur.
No—Starts the next page with a blank Number field.

Auto Increment Date (Both)

Default—Uses the setting on the System tab.
Yes—Starts the next page with a Date that is one higher than the last page recorded. The Date can be overwritten when breaks in dates occur.
No—Defaults to the last day of the current accounting peroid.

Remember Date (Both)

Default—Uses the setting on the System tab.
Yes—Defaults to the date of the last page written.
No—Defaults to the last day of the current accounting period.

Autofill Accum Detail Account (Client)

(Applies to the Accum Detail grid.)

Yes— Defaults to the previous Account when a new row is created. If this account is not desired, enter the correct account.
No—Creates new rows without a default Account.

Autofill Accum Detail Memo (Client)