Allocating Transactions During Ledger Entry

As you enter a journal using Ledger Entry you can choose to match the unposted journal transactions against other posted transactions on the same account. See 'Accessing Online Allocation from Ledger Entry'.

When you select online allocation from Ledger Entry (LEN), the Online Allocation form is displayed. This window displays two groups of transactions for the account referenced on the current journal line in Ledger Entry. The two groups of transactions appear in different parts of the form:

The current, unposted journal line you have entered for the account in Ledger Entry appears in the Journal Transactions section at the top of the form and is automatically marked for allocation.

Note: If you have entered other transactions for the same account in the journal, these are also extracted for allocation.

All unallocated transactions posted to the account are extracted for possible matching and listed in the Extracted Transactions section at the bottom of the form.

Moving Between the Two Transaction Grids

When you first access the form, the Extracted Transactions section of the form is active to enable you to begin marking transactions for allocation.

You can switch between the two sections of the window by clicking in the relevant area, or from the Action menu by selecting Switch Grid Focus. For example, you may need to switch to the Journal Transactions section to split a transaction or reset the allocation marker.

Allocating the Transactions

The journal transactions entered using Ledger Entry are automatically marked To Be Allocated.

In the Extracted Transactions section you must identify the transactions you want to allocate against these journal transactions and set the allocation marker on these transactions accordingly. All of the matching options are available, for example:

To fully allocate a posted transaction in the Extracted Transactions section you would set the marker to To Be Allocated. See 'Fully Matching Transactions'.
To allocate only part of the transaction you can assign an Allocation Marker of Split, enter the amount to be allocated and create another transaction for the remaining, unallocated amount. See 'Understanding Transaction Splitting'.

Balancing the Allocations

The transactions marked for allocation must balance before the allocations can be saved.

The total debit and credit amounts marked for allocation and any difference between them is displayed at the top of the form in a particular currency. You can vary this currency using Action > Currency Totals. Alternatively, you can view the allocation totals in all of the currencies by choosing the Allocation Totals action.

Additional journal transactions may be generated to balance the allocations:

Settlement discount transactions and any associated tax adjustment transactions. See 'How is Settlement Discount Treated During Allocation'.
Exchange gain or loss adjustment transactions. See 'Posting Exchange Differences During Allocation'.

Saving the Allocations

When you have completed the online allocations and they balance, you must save them to return to Ledger Entry. The save option you select determines the currency that is used to check that allocations balance correctly. See 'Balancing the Allocations in a Single Currency Environment' or 'Balancing Allocations in a Multi-Currency Environment'.

To save the allocations, from the Action menu select Save and select the appropriate Save By currency option:

Select Save By Base to save the allocations balancing by the base currency. Using this option, any currency exchange differences are calculated on the transaction currency amount, and on the Value 4 amount if you are using fourth currency.
Select Save By Transaction to save the allocations balancing by the transaction currency. Using this option, any currency exchange differences are calculated on the base amount, and on the Value 4 amount if you are using fourth currency.
Select Save By Fourth Currency to save the allocations balancing by the fourth currency. Using this option, any currency exchange differences are calculated on the base amount and on the transaction currency amount.

See 'Choosing the Allocations Balancing Currency'.

Holding a Journal with Online Allocations

If a journal that contains online allocations is not posted immediately but is placed on hold, the allocations are also held. Because these unposted journal transactions have been allocated against existing posted transactions, it is important that no other allocations are made against these transactions until the held journal is posted or deleted.

To ensure this, the status of each transaction with held allocations is set to Allocation in Progress. This status is reset when the held journal is posted. If the held journal is cancelled, the allocations are also cancelled and the status reset.

Note: In some exceptional circumstances this status may not be reset correctly, for example as a result of computer failure. In this case a user with the appropriate data access group authorization can use the option from the menu to reset this status for a transaction. See 'Enabling the Clear Allocation in Progress Action'.