unposted journal entries

Jennifer Kercher
Jennifer Kercher
Second Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT® General Discussions

Hi - - I am new to Blackbaud and subledgers. My previous job we posted directly to the GL and balanced monthly via the trial balance. I am trying to understand the reasoning behind not posting a journal entry. We have several that are not posted and I just want to post everything, but am assuming there is a good reason it wasn't done. Any advice on understanding subledgers and managing them is appreciated, too! Thank you

Comments

  • Christopher Hafer
    Christopher Hafer
    Kudos 3 Second Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @Jennifer Kercher
    There could be many reasons why a journal entry would go unposted for a period of time. Eventually though, all journal entries should be posted. They can’t really do the thing they’re supposed to do without being posted. To my knowledge, there isn’t a good reason to leave a journal entry unposted indefinitely. Without any knowledge of your organization or its internal controls though, I can’t really speak to your organization’s policy on posting journal entries.

    I can give you an example with our organization. For example, our internal controls require that one person creates the journal entry and another reviews and posts the journal entry. If the reviewer is busy and hasn’t had a chance to review, that could delay the posting. Or let’s say I created a journal entry and didn’t provide supporting documents for the entry. The reviewer has nothing to review, so it won’t get posted until there is support attached.

    My advice to you would be to ask your supervisor about your organization’s internal controls and let them know you’re interested in learning about the procedures surrounding journal entries.

  • Jennifer Kercher
    Jennifer Kercher
    Second Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @Christopher Hafer
    Thank you, this is helpful. I think my supervisor and I are on the same page as far as not understanding why an entry wouldn't be posted, but I thought maybe I was missing something.

  • Sylvia Cook
    Sylvia Cook
    Kudos 5 Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper Participant

    @Jennifer Kercher
    As mentioned, unposted JE would arise when an approver hasn't approved and posted yet. In our org. the creator of a JE cannot approve and post (internal control). We also have it that the bookkeeper cannot approve and post JEs.

    What is nice about unposted JE is that it allows us to run reports (so long as you select the filter to include unposted JE) so you can see the impact a JE has before actually posting. Good for complex allocations. Also can run reports and catch posting errors before they are posted. You do need to be diligent in checking that everything is posted eventually.

Categories