How Journal Numbers are Assigned and Monitored

A unique journal number is assigned by SunSystems to every journal posted to the Financials ledger. The SunSystems posting function allocates the next available journal number to a journal prior to it being posted. This journal number is held on each of the journal transactions in the journal.

Identifying the Journal Numbers

The Journal Posting Audit Report (REPJNA) lists the journal numbers assigned regardless of whether or not the journal was successfully posted. The Journal Listing reports allow you to print journals in journal number order, and the Journal Inquiry allows you to view journals by journal number.

How is the Next Available Journal Number Assigned?

When a SunSystems function starts the posting process, it retrieves the next available journal number and pre-assigns this number to the journal. Every journal number assigned is recorded and monitored on the Journal Audit Posting table.

When the posting function assigns a journal number it adds details of the journal posting procedure to this table. This includes:

  • journal type
  • journal description
  • the date and time the journal number was assigned
  • the operator id responsible for the journal
  • the provisional posting indicator
  • the current status.

When the journal is posted successfully, the posting function updates the status against the journal number to Posted.

If the journal is not posted, the posting function sets an appropriate posting failure status against the journal number. For example, if it failed the final validation or a hardware or software error occurred. When this happens, the number remains allocated to the invalid journal even though the journal transactions have not been posted to the ledger, thus leaving a gap in the journal numbering. This means that the journals posted to the ledger do not always contain consecutive journal numbers. The missing journal numbers can be identified and verified on the Journal Posting Audit table.

Note: If you do not want to leave gaps in the journal numbering, you can configure SunSystems to use those missing numbers in subsequently posted journals. To do this, select Yes to Use Journal Number Gaps from the Options tab in Ledger Setup (LES)..

The Journal Audit Table Status Codes

The following status codes can be assigned to a journal number on this table to indicate the status of the journal:

Status Status Value Meaning/Example
0 Incomplete Journal The journal is in the process of being posted.
1 Journal Posted OK The journal has been posted successfully.
2 Failed on Budget The journal was not posted because it failed the budget expenditure/commitment checks.
3 Failed on Data Error The journal was not posted because it failed with invalid data. For example, an account code was missing.
4 Failed on Database Error The journal was not posted because of a database or file error.
5 Forced Post - All Rejected The journal was not posted by Ledger Import because all of the journal transactions were rejected.
9 Failed (other) The journal was not posted because of another error.