Batch journals

A batch journal uses journal logic that permits one journal for each post date. A batch journal is beneficial if, for example, your company has a high volume of transactions that are initiated from third-party retail management, shipping, or point of sale (POS) systems. The specific batch name distinguishes the journal from journals opened for typical transactions in a function, such as order entry or cash receipts postings. API logic finds an open GL journal with the specific batch name and uses that journal if the transaction date is the same as the journal posting date and the journal open date is today.

Batch journals are created for these workflows:

  • Receive of payments through ION API: oeetapi
  • Sales Order Entry tendering: oeetapi
  • Cash drawer management by an external retail management system (such as Infor Rhythm for Commerce): oeedapi
  • Third-party AR journal transactions: aretapi
  • Third-party shipping: batch code of 3pship

Receipt of payments through ION API

Any tendering journals opened by an API process have a Batch Name of oeetapi. This applies to ION API calls such as sxapiOEReceiveOnAccount, sxapiOEFullOrderMntV6, or sxapiOEOrderChange. A batch journal uses journal logic that permits one journal per day for each post date. A new Set # is created for each order transaction, enabling you to view or group payments by order in Sales Order Inquiry and GL Journal Inquiry. In the GL Journal Inquiry-Journal view, the Batch Name is displayed as oeetapi-warehouse, where <warehouse> is the actual warehouse value; for example, oeetapi-Main. If an open batch oeetapi-warehouse journal is found that is not the current day [previous day], then that previous day batch journal is automatically closed by the system.

Cash drawer management

If you use a third-party retail management system or a counter environment, you can integrate your system with Distribution SX.e to manage a cash drawer and petty cash. If this feature is activated, specific API calls capture the Drawer ID: sxapiOEFullOrderMaintV6, sxapiOEOrderChange, and sxapiOEReceiveOnAccount. Another API call, sxapiOECashDrawer, mimics the Sales Drawer Transaction Entry function to add cash petty transactions to the drawer. The Drawer ID flows through the API to the General Ledger transactions.

A batch journal is created for each new warehouse, post date, open date combination. All batch journals with open dates preceding the current date are automatically closed. Any tendering journals opened by an API process have a Batch Name of oeetapi-warehouse. The cash drawer update has a Batch Name of oeedapi-warehouse, where <warehouse> is the actual warehouse value; for example, oeedapi-Main.

Third-party shipping

For batch journals created during Sales Shipping Feedback Entry for a third-party shipping integration, the journal remains open until a new journal is opened on a subsequent day. This allows all orders entered throughout the day to be included in that journal. When orders are shipped on a subsequent day, either the next day or days later, this process is followed to create a new batch journal and close the current one:

  • Search for an open journal for the current date, which there is not one, and so a new journal is created.
  • Close any open journals for batch code 3pship with a previous date.

This may result in a lag of one or more days, such as over a weekend, where the current journal remains open. The current journal is closed when orders are created and shipped on a later date. If your company requires that all journals be closed nightly, you can schedule the Sales Cash Drawer Balance Report to run after all processing is complete to close batch journals.

Note: Zero amount journals may be created for third-party shipping, if no tendering occurs. Also, if an order is tendered with a SALE credit card transaction and freight is added to the order, a batch journal is opened during shipping, but no amount is posted to the journal for the transaction.

Closing batch journals

Normally, batch journals remain open until a new transaction is created the next day, or if business is closed over a weekend, days later. These open journals may create a problem if you are attempting to balance your GL control accounts, especially during month end. If you require all batch journals be closed daily, or prior to month-end processing, run Sales Cash Drawer Balance Report after all other scheduled processes are complete. This report closes all batch journals that are open. We recommend you set up this report as a stored report to run nightly, or at end of month, as needed.