Describe use cases for periodic journals
Some organizations have requirements to create similar journals with the same amount, accounts, dimensions, and other information on a regular interval. You use the Periodic journal to fulfill this requirement. Periodic journals, often called recurring journals, need to specify the period interval for the recurrence, such as days, months, or years.
To create a periodic journal, the first step is to create a journal name of type Periodic under the Journal setup menu in the General ledger module.
You can set up other configurations of journal name, such as voucher setup or approval, according to business requirements.
The next step is to go to Periodic journal under the Periodic tasks menu in the General ledger module. Create a new journal and then select the Lines button on the Action pane. This action takes you to the Journal lines page, where you can create multiple journal lines that you expect to generate at a regular interval.
In the Date column, you can enter a date, or you can leave it blank.
In the Unit column, you can define the time unit (such as days, months, or year). The system generates journal lines based on the selected unit.
In the Number of units column, you can define a number that helps determine the frequency of the journal lines that are generated.
For example, if you select Days in Unit and enter 7 in Number of units, the journal lines are created on every seventh day, starting from January 1, 2023.
Select General journal under the Journal entries menu of the General ledger module. Create a new journal and then open the Journal lines page. Select the Retrieve journal button under Period journal in the Action pane.
The Period journal dialog appears, where you need to select the previously created periodic journal in the Periodic journal number lookup.
In the To date field, enter the date up to which journal lines should be created, for example 2/2/2023.
The default value of the Copy or move journal field is Copy. It will ensure that, after you've created new journal lines on the General journal page, the periodic journal page will retain the journal lines. If you change the value to Move, after the journal lines have been created in the general journal page, the journal lines are removed from the periodic journal.
After you've selected the OK button in the dialog, 15 journal lines are created. The selected date in the periodic journal lines was 1/2/2023. Based on the To date selection (2/2/2023), journals are created on five dates, as follows:
- 1/2/2023
- 1/9/2023
- 1/16/2023
- 1/23/2023
- 1/30/2023
Because three journal lines are in the periodic journal, a total of 15 journal lines are in the newly created general journal.
After you've created the general journal, the Date field of the periodic journal is updated with the next journal line creation date of 2/6/2023. The Last date column of the periodic journal line updates with today’s date.
If the date fields in the periodic journal lines are blank, then you can select a date in the From date for lines without a date field from the Period journal dialog.
Three sets of general journals are created, dated 1/15/2023, 1/22/2023, and 1/29/2023. The Date field of the periodic journal remains blank, and the Last date field updates with today’s date.
In the last scenario, consider a situation where the Date column of the periodic journal is blank and the From date for lines without a date field of the Period journal dialog is also blank. In this case, only a single set of journal lines are created in the General journal line page, and the dates are the same as the To date.