Journal EntryGuidelines

General Accounting

Financial & Accounting Services

May 08, 2013

Purpose

Purpose:

To provide guidance to the campus community on the steps necessary to prepare, support, approve, and submit the entries.

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Agenda

• Introduction

• C-FOAPAL

• Journal Entry Form

• Supporting Documentation

• Approvals

• Submission to FAS

• Deadlines

• Questions

• Additional Information

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Introduction

Types of journals entries:

Standard

Recurring

Reversal

Correction

Allocation

Transfer

Journal entries are used to record financial transactions into the general ledger. Transactions are summarized to create the financial statements for WFU.

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Introduction

Most common types of manual journal entries:

Corrections - Used to correct amounts and/or reclassify errors.

- Amount posted to GL $132.25. Correct amount $123.25.

- Reclass from Supplies (53010) to Housekeeping Supplies (53018).

Transfers – Move available funds from one fund/org to another.

- Physics gives funds to Chemistry to co-sponsor guest speaker.

Allocations - Services provided by one department to another department.

- Copy Center allocates charges to departments.

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C-FOAPAL

C = CHART CODE

F = FUND CODE

O = ORGANIZATION CODE

A = ACCOUNT CODE

P = PROGRAM CODE

A = ACTIVITY CODE (OPTIONAL)

L = LOCATION CODE (OPTIONAL)

C-FOAPAL is the acronym representing each element of the

chart of accounts.

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Chart Code

• One character (alpha).

• WFU has four charts to organize financial information.

- Chart R – Reynolda Campus

- Chart H - Reynolda House Museum of American Art

- Chart F – WFU Development Foundation (Where gifts of real property are held until sold)

- Chart X – WFU Foundation (Transactions related to property on and in the vicinity of Deacon Boulevard)

• Each entity has its own tax ID number.• Individual entities also needed for separate internal and external financial reporting.

Activity Location

OptionalRequired*

Chart Fund Org Account Program

C-FOAPAL

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C-FOAPAL

Fund Code

• 6 characters (alpha-numeric).

• The source of the funding. “Where” the money is coming from.

Activity Location

OptionalRequired*

Chart Fund Org Account Program

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Grants

Investment Income

Tuition and Fees

Gifts

C-FOAPAL

Examples:

Activity Location

OptionalRequired*

Chart Fund Org Account Program

Fund Description

111111 Unrestricted

PXXXXX Plant Fund

RGXXXX Grants

ERXXXX Endowment Restricted

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C-FOAPAL

Activity Location

OptionalRequired*

Chart Fund Org Account Program

Organization Code

• 6 characters (numeric).

• Designates a department or a unit of budgetary responsibility. “Who” pays the expenses or receives the revenue of a transaction.

Org Description

112201 Human Resources

500005 Provost’s Office

703001 Athletics: Football

713002 Stores: Deacon Shop

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C-FOAPAL

Account Code

• 5 characters (numeric). “What” type of transaction.

Activity Location

OptionalRequired*

Chart Fund Org Account Program

Classification AccountRange

AccountExample

Account DescriptionExample

Asset 1XXXX 10010 Cash Deposits

Liability 2XXXX 20010 A/P - Trade

Revenue 4XXXX 40010 Tuition

Expense 5XXXX 53010 Supplies

Allocation 7XXXX 70011 Allocation General

Transfer 9XXXX 98010 Trsfr in from Dept/Rest Funds

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C-FOAPAL

Program Code

• 2 characters (numeric).

• Not included on journal entry form. Located in Banner tables maintained by FAS.

• Used by FAS for required external reporting. Identifies the “purpose” or “function” of revenue and expenditures.

• The following are examples of the functional classifications: Instruction (10), Academic Support (25), Student Services (35)

Activity Location

OptionalRequired*

Chart Fund Org Account Program

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C-FOAPAL

Activity Code

• 6 characters (alpha-numeric).

• Optional FOAPAL element typically used to track revenue and expenses for a special program or event.

• Can be used with multiple orgs or set up to be used with only one.

Activity Location

OptionalRequired*

Chart Fund Org Account Program

Activity Code Description

U00011 Commencement

U00888 Facilities and Campus

U01103 WFDD Membership

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C-FOAPAL

Activity Location

Location Code

• 6 characters (alpha-numeric).

• Optional FOAPAL element primarily used with fixed assets to identify physical places or sites, such as buildings and room numbers.

• Used by facilities when projects cover multiple rooms in a building to segregate costs by room.

OptionalRequired*

Chart Fund Org Account Program

Location Code Description

L00176 Deacon Tower

1N107A FAS Office Reynolda 1st Fl-107A

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Journal Entry Form

Website: http://finance.wfu.edu/faculty-staff/financial-reporting

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Journal Entry Form

Journal Entry Template 16

Journal Entry Form

Example Journal Entry 17

Journal Entry Form

• Hash Total – Total debits plus total credits (formula). Used by FAS when keying journal entries.

• Preparer – Print name, signature, phone ext., and date.

• Approver - Print name, signature, and date.

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Journal Entry Form

• Sequence No. – General Accounting uses sequence numbers when keying entries into Banner. If possible, do not skip lines when completing form or include lines with FOAPAL elements and zero amounts.

• FOAPAL (highlighted in orange) – Refer back to previous section on C-FOAPAL.

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Journal Entry Form

• Debit/Credit

• Debits increase asset and expenses. Decrease liabilities and revenue.• Credits increase liabilities and revenue. Decrease assets and expenses. • Debits must equal credits.• Enter debits and credits as positive numbers not negative numbers.

Round 2 decimals ($1.334 = $1.33). Rounding formula: =round(A1,2)

• Line Description – Maximum 35 characters (character count formula after description). Should provide enough information for users to understand purpose.

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Supporting Documentation

• All journal entries must be adequately supported by attached documentation that explains the purpose and supports the amount of the journal entry.

 • Documentation may be in the form of a Cognos report , receipt,

invoice, email, or some other record of the transaction.

• Do not include sales tax.

• If JE amount is a portion of invoice amount, show how amount was calculated.

Note: Make sure supporting documentation is sufficient when sending JE form to FAS since it is required by auditors.

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Approvals

FAS will be reviewing approvals on all entries to determine if

satisfactory authority has been established before recording the

entry.  If an approval is in question, FAS will contact the preparer to

gather more information.

In order to prevent delays in the processing of your entries, please

make sure that your entries have sufficient approvals prior to

submission. 

Examples of sufficient approvals include but are not limited to:

• Preparer's Supervisor• Preparer's departmental Budget Officer• Preparer's Department Head

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Submission To FAS

• Journal entries must be approved prior to submission to Financial & Accounting Services (FAS).

• All journal entries should be sent to FAS located at University Corporate Center (UCC), attention to Ruth Smith.

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Deadlines

• Journal entries must be received by Financial & Accounting Services by 5:00 PM on the 2nd business day of the new month.

• All journal entries received after this deadline will only be processed if time permits.

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Questions

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Additional Information

Name Title Phone Email

Jennifer Killingsworth Manager, General Accounting ext. 4088 killinjl@wfu.edu

Terri Tyson Accountant, General Accounting ext. 3205 tysontl@wfu.edu

Ruth Smith Senior. Accounting Coordinator ext. 5977 smithrr@wfu.edu

Freddy Acuna Accounting Coordinator ext. 5186 acunafo@wfu.edu

Kathryn Hackworth Accountant, Fixed Assets ext. 4096 hackwok@wfu.edu

Jessica Gorrell Accountant, Plant Funds ext. 6408 gorrellj@wfu.edu

For more information about Journal Entries, as well as,other useful tools, please visit the Financial Reporting website.

Website: http://finance.wfu.edu/faculty-staff/financial-reporting

General Accounting Contact List:

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