Journals Entries

Journals are created by various campus departments for reasons such as transferring expense and budget or to chargeback departments for services received.

Journal Entry Upload Requests

Some journal transactions cannot be performed in Financial Transaction Services. In those instances, Accounting Services will enter transactions in the system for you.

If your department needs to collect funds from other departments (Chargebacks), make revenue corrections, or make any other journal entries that you cannot perform yourself, then submit a Journal Entry Upload Request [xlsx].

For assistance, see the Accounting Services Directory by Fund and contact the appropriate Accountant.

Journal Transfers

There are four types of transfers which can be performed in FTS:

• Budget Journal

  • Purpose: Used for moving budget money from one chartfield (other than Fund) to another. Transfers of budget should not be used to reimburse expenditures. For more information, contact the Budget and Financial Management.

    Guidelines:

    • Transfer can only be between same Fund.
    • Only expense Account Codes can be used (6xxxxx).
    • Transfer of Salaries (601xxx) and Work Study (602xxx) budget is allowed, but not Benefits (603xxx).
    • DeptID selection for the debit side (From) is limited to the Requestor’s access, while DeptID selection for the credit side (To) can be outside of Requestor’s access.

    
    Journal ID: WB

• Expense Journal

  • Purpose: Used to move expense that has been posted or in the process of being posted from one chartfield to another when both are under your control.

    Guidelines:

    • Transfer can be between different Funds.
    • Only expense Account Codes can be used (6xxxxx).
    • Not to be used for the transfer of Salaries (601xxx), Work Study (602xxx) or Benefits (603xxx).
    • DeptID selection for the credit side (From) and debit side (To) is limited by the Requestor’s system access.

    
    Journal ID: WE

• Interdepartmental Expense Journal

  • Purpose: Used for transferring expenses from chartfields within your control to chartfields outside of your control.

    Guidelines:

    • Only expense Account Codes can be used (6xxxxx).
    • Not to be used for the transfer of Salaries (601xxx), Work Study (602xxx), or Benefits (603xxx).
    • DeptID selection for the debit side (Payor) is limited to Requestor’s access and credit side (Payee) can be outside of Requestor’s acces

    
    Journal ID: WI

• Hospitality Payment

  • Purpose: Used to pay another department for products and/or services you received. You would be the Payor and the department you are paying would be the Payee. Also see Chargebacks. 

    Note: Hospitality payments are not to be confused with SJSU Hospitality Guidelines regarding what can and cannot be paid with state funds when hosting an SJSU event or entertaining guests of SJSU.

    Guidelines:

    • Hospitality payment should not be used to pay an auxiliary (Associated Students, Research Foundation, Spartan Shops, Student Union or Tower Foundation).
    • Payment can be between different Funds.
    • Only an expense Account Code (6xxxxx) can be used for Payor (department paying).
    • Payment of Salary (601xxx), Work Study (602001), or Benefit (603xxx) is not allowed.
    • DeptID selection for the debit side (Payor) is limited to Requestor’s access and credit side (Payee) can be outside of Requestor’s access.
    • The default Account Code is 580094 (Other Operating Revenue-Cost Recovery CSU) for Payee.

    
    Journal ID: WH

Each type of transfer allows a department the ability to move an expense or budget from one chartfield string to another and pay another campus department for services/products received. Transfers are reviewed and approved by an Approving Official in FTS.

Some reasons why a budget or expense transfer journals are entered: 

1. Correct an expense paid of out the wrong chartfield string.
2. Move budget to cover a future or pending expense that will occur within the same fiscal year.
3. Obtain a reimbursement from an auxiliary for an expense paid out of university funds.
4. Transfer all or a portion of an expense or a budget to another department (see also Auxiliary Organization Billing.)
5. Pay another department for services received.

Submitting a Journal

Journals are entered, submitted, and approved in FTS.  You can request access to our Finance Systems after the required course(s) are completed. See Training and Tutorials for more information about access and training.

All journal entries must follow certain rules:

• Transfers are created and approved by the department who is paying or being charged the expense.
• Must have a debit side and a credit side.
• Total debits must equal total credits.

Backup Documentation

Unlike the Travel and Purchasing/Payment modules in FTS, there is no upload feature in Transfers to attach support backup documentation. Departments are to maintain backup documentation pertaining to the transfer in their office.

FTS Email Notifications

When a transfer has been submitted for approval by the Requestor, an email notification is sent to the Approving Official for the DeptID being charged (debit side). The Requestor will receive notification when the transfer has been approved or cancelled by the Approving Official.

Accounting Services

There may be instances when a journal transaction cannot be performed in FTS by the department (e.g. specific Account Codes are not available) or when there are many entries to be made. Accounting Services can assist in posting the transfers for you through a journal upload. For more information see Journal Entry Upload Requests.

Journal Prefixes

All journals have a numeric Journal ID preceded with a prefix. The table below provides information on journal prefixes commonly found in CFS Data Warehouse reports including description, source of data and contact information for any questions you may have.