Journal Entries

This is your opportunity to copy someone you want to know what status the ticket is in. Please do not copy the FM unless you and they are working on a transfer together. You can notify multiple people, if you like.

Here I usually select yes to update that person in every notification from Accounting Ops.

This selection appears once you select “Expense Movement”. If yes, they will ask for the upload form. If you answer “No”, which should be the majority of the time, you move to the next question.

Five on one eForm seems to be the maximum. If you submit multiple lines, Accounting Ops could contact you and ask you to fill out the upload form. It is doubtful that they would ask, but work with the FM if your errors have multiple rows to correct.

Here is where you write the shortcode where the errors are. One wrong number listed here could put your credits in someone else’s school or unit. Triple check this number from official sources like, SMTD’s BMR report (spreadsheet format or online) that have the shortcode listed for every account with a balance and/or transactions posted in the current fiscal year. If there is no balance, that does not mean the shortcode was closed. Work with the FM to verify whether the shortcode is active. You can also use the ITS Chartfield Converter to see whether a shortcode is active or not.

You should provide the shortcode instead of either the P/G alone or chartfield.

• Entering just the project/grant, P/G, alone is not enough information. Never just use the P/G.
• The only times you would enter the chartfield string are those times where a requisition or PO is created and the wrong program or P/G was entered for a voucher or invoice.
• You would enter the full string where the expense is posted.
  • You can find that on the SOA.
  • In these cases, you would enter the information that is wrong from the SOA.
  • The format you would enter for the wrong chartfield is: fund code, department id, program, class code, P/G.
  • When the program was wrong, or the department was wrong, enter the wrong information in the “From”.

“To” means what shortcode are you moving the expenses to. This is just a shortcode, always. Be sure you have the permissions from the shortcode owner (Project Director), manager (FM’s or Finance Director’s peers from other units), or the SAPOC. Don’t be shy to ask the unit whether the person you are communicating with “owns” or “oversees” the shortcode. When your transactions are audited, you will have plausible deniability since you have it in writing that the person you were communicating with was empowered by the “owner” to give you approval. Oftentimes you are working with your peer who will need to obtain or verify whether they have the ability to approve spending on that shortcode.

The amount is straight forward. You enter the total amount you are moving per SOA line on that eForm. You will add a comments below that further explains your amounts so don’t worry about this field not capturing nuance.
Depending upon how many lines you listed above, you will see another set of the fields “From, To, Amount” so that you can capture each line.

These are the shortcodes that begin with a 9. If “Yes,” there are extra rules; please partner with the FM to get those Agency shortcode transfers completed. The FM will be able to spot instances where funding a project is the real purpose of the transfer. The FM will need to review those transfers, but the solution will be simple. It really is all about the wording in your comments. If “No,” proceed to the next question.

At this time, you are not allowed to process sponsored programs transfers. There are extra rules and extra contract specific language that must be entered. Please forward that request or your investigation notes to the FM to process the transfer.

Please use “NEXT”. Don’t enter a journal entry number here.

Use the date of when you are filling out the eForm. If there are any issues, work with the FM to resolve them.

Start typing your unique name in this field for it to find you. If you can’t find your name, please contact ITS at 4-HELP so they can make sure you appear. This may only impact new faculty or staff. If another unit or school tells you about the error, you may be tempted to enter them on this line. However, this field populates the journal entry in M-Pathways, and we want to see your name there for statistics, at a minimum. You may be tempted to put the Director of Finance as the requestor, but you should not. The Director of Finance has to approve in the system for amounts meeting or exceeding Procurement’s target amount. If you enter the Director’s name as the requestor, the Director will have to get someone of higher authority to approve the transfer.

This description is what tells SMTD administration why you had to do the transfer. This is the place that you answer who, what, when, where, why, and how. If you are correcting an error so that the expense goes to another unit, be sure to include the name of the shortcode owner who authorized you to move the expense onto their shortcode.

This is where you select your PDFs for backup. There should be approval email with amounts listed with clear details and the highlighted SOA. The Accounting Ops person who enters the journal entry will upload your attachments to M-Pathways on the journal. If the form does not allow you to upload multiple at this time, once you create the ticket you will be able to open the ticket you just created to add additional attachments.

Lastly, this is where you explain to SSC and Accounting Ops what happened. You also must give them specific instructions as to what descriptions you want on the journal entry line.

• Accounting Ops will default to the standard naming convention which would look like this on your SOA line description (example): TSF AP0000152358 022223 FixP/G
  • This is the standard. If you provide no specific wording (30 characters max), the format of above is what will be on your SOA. See below.

You have an option to tell them what you want to see on your SOA as the transaction description.

• On the new transaction, most of the information you see on your SOA will not be populated on the receiving shortcodes’ SOA.
  • The supplier or PCard holder name will not populate on the new transaction line. Example: Your “From” shortcode’s transaction has a supplier, a voucher number that maps to your invoice in M-Pathways, and/or the PCard holder’s name.
  • Those will not carry over to the “To” shortcode’s new transaction.
• I recommend that your comment regarding the shortcode where the error is “From” uses the standard description above.
  • When you review the SOA later, you will quickly identify your transfer.
• Your comment regarding the “To” shortcode would say something like, “Please use the current expense’s transaction description (type out the current description) for the “To” shortcode (include the “To” shortcode in your comment).
  • When the receiving shortcode owner reviews their SOA, they should recognize the expense as what they expected.
  • For correcting journal entries, you may want to include the old transaction number or the voucher in the new transaction description.
• Accounting Ops has the purview to insist on the standard format. If you don’t mind the standard format, you don’t have to include comments specifying the transaction description.
  • Feel free to tell them that your FM allows nonstandard transaction descriptions. That might help you get wording that tells the receiving unit or department what the expense really is.
• Hit Submit
• Account Ops will confirm that the transfer has been posted and give you the new transaction number.
  • You should close out the communication circle letting the stakeholders know the transaction id number. The stakeholders can be:
    • Your peer in the other unit or the person who notified you of the error
    • SMTD faculty or staff person you are working with
    • The Dean, Director, and/or shortcode owners
    • Your direct supervisor, if that is your department’s standard operating procedure
• The last action item is the reconciliation.
  • Once you get the transaction id, you will be able to see that transaction in your reporting the next business day.
  • Run your report that gives you transaction details, like the PGSR, M-Reports, or through M-Pathways.
  • Confirm with your own eyes that the transaction is in the right shortcode, the right amount, and any other stipulations you gave on the eForm.
  • If everything looks like you intended, you have completed the journal entry process.
  • If there are any errors with the Fund, Department id, and/or Program code, please be sure to comment on your original ticket what the error is and ask Accounting Ops to correct the error.