What are Provisional Transactions?

Provisional transactions are posted to the ledger as temporary, or draft postings. You can amend these transactions and report on them, but they do not form part of the true financial accounts and reports until they are posted as permanent transactions on the ledger. Permanent postings cannot be amended.

This facility is designed to cater for Italian and similar accounting standards and is also known as a rough book or prima nota posting facility.

The ability to post provisional transactions in the ledger is determined by the Provisional Postings field in Ledger Setup (LES). There are three choices available:

  • Prohibited - if this option is set all transactions are treated as permanent postings and provisional postings are not allowed.
  • Mandatory - if this option is set all ledger transactions are posted as provisional postings automatically.
  • Optional - if this option is set you are given the option to post ledger transactions as provisional or permanent when you enter or generate journals.

Your operator group permissions may also restrict the posting options available. These are maintained using Security Console or User Manager. See also Security Console or User Manager Help for more information.

Provisional transactions are entered manually using Ledger Entry (LEN) in the same way as any other journal. The only difference is that the journal transactions are posted as provisional rather than permanent transactions. See 'Entering Provisional Transactions'.

Provisional transactions can be recalled for amendment and permanent posting using Recall Provisional Journals (PRJ) and Ledger Entry (LEN). Once an individual provisional posting is recalled, it can be posted as a permanent entry using the Post option. See 'Amending Provisional Transactions'.

Provisional Transactions can be deleted, using Ledger Entry (LEN). You can either delete an entire provisional journal, or delete ranges or groups of transaction lines within the journal. See 'Deleting Provisional Transactions'.

A range of provisional postings can be posted permanently using Post Provisional Journals (PPT). Only those journals that were posted as provisional can be selected.

Note:  You can also use Daybook Listing (DYL), Tax Reporting (TXR) or Post Provisional Journals (PPT) to permanently post selected transactions.

Sequence Numbering

Another feature associated with provisional postings, but which can be used independently, is the ability to assign sequence numbers to transactions. This is a useful feature which helps to ensure data integrity. Two types of sequence number can be assigned:

  • transaction sequence numbers which are assigned when transactions are posted. These can be assigned to provisional transactions when they are posted as provisional, or only when they are posted as permanent postings. This is determined by the Hard Posting Only option on Ledger Setup (LES).
  • daybook sequence numbers which are assigned when transactions are printed on the Daybook Listing (DBL) and the provisional transactions are changed to permanent postings.

The journal reference on recalled provisional transactions cannot be amended. This ensures that the sequence numbering within registration date is maintained.

You can also record a registration date using Ledger Sequences (LEQ), which overrides the normal entry date for a journal with a 'user defined' date stamp.

Balancing Transactions by Reference

The ability to force transactions to balance by reference is another feature associated with provisional transaction processing, but which can be used independently. This facility is selected by choosing Transaction Reference as the Balance by option in the Ledger Setup (LES).