What Is a Journal Book?

Note: You can restrict a journal book's use to specific systems, journal entry operators, accounts, or accounting units.

A journal book represents a group of similar transactions. You define a journal book to include a set of transactions that is meaningful to you for reporting. A journal book can be assigned to:

  • a journal entry,

  • a recurring journal entry,

  • an allocation,

  • a source code,

  • a group of Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, or Cash Management transactions.

Journal Book Sequence Numbers

Automatic journal book number sequencing is an option that you can define for a general ledger company. If you use automatic sequence numbers, the General Ledger application assigns numbers sequentially to journal book transactions as they are added. Auditors can use journal book sequence numbers to trace an internal or interfaced transaction to its origin.

Transaction Sequence Numbers

Transaction sequence numbering is an option that attaches a unique number to each transaction line interfaced to General Ledger at the time the transaction is posted. You can choose to have the system assign sequence numbers in a company, in a journal book, or both. If you choose both, the last sequence number on Company (GL10.1) represents the transaction number by company and the last sequence number on Journal Book (JB00.1) represents the transaction number by journal book. If you choose company, the last sequence number displays on Company (GL10.1).

Example

LGE Corporation has three employees responsible for posting transactions to General Ledger. They defined three journal books, using the names of the employees: TOM, MARY, and MARK. One of these journal books is assigned to each transaction. This provides LGE with another method of grouping and reporting on transactions. For example, if Mark were a new employee and they wanted to review journal entries he had entered, they could filter out just his transactions using Journal Control (GL45.1).

LGE also uses automatic sequence numbers for journal book transactions. When Mark posts transactions, each transaction line is assigned a sequential transaction number within the MARK journal book.