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 Transfers

There are four types of transfers which can be performed in FTS. Each type of transfer allows a department to move an expense or budget from one chartfield string to another or pay another campus department for services/products received. Transfers are reviewed and approved by an Approving Official in FTS.

Budget Journal [WB]

Purpose: Used for moving budget money [not expenses] from one chartfield to another. Budget transfers should not be used to reimburse expenditures. For more information, contact the Budget and Financial Management.

Guidelines:

  • Transfer can only be between same Fund.
  • DeptID selection for the debit side [From] is limited to the Requestor’s access.
  • DeptID selection for the credit side [To] can be outside of Requestor’s access.
Expense Journal [WE]

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.
  • DeptID selection for the credit side [From] and debit side [To] is limited by the Requestor’s system access.
Interdepartmental Expense Journal [WI]

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

Guidelines:

  • You may only credit the Payee, not charge it.
  • The Payee and Payor funds can be different.
  • DeptID selection for the debit side [Payor] is limited to Requestor’s access and credit side [Payee] can be outside of Requestor’s access.
Hospitality Payment [WH]

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: This module pertains to inter-campus products and/or services and is not related to the SJSU Hospitality Guidelines.

For example, you could pay for an SJSU-sponsored training and pay the host department using Hospitality Payments.

Guidelines:

  • You may only credit the Payee, not charge it.
  • 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.
  • DeptID selection for the debit side [Payor] is limited to Requestor’s access.
  • Credit side [Payee] can be outside of Requestor’s access.
  • The default Account Code is 580094 [Other Operating Revenue-Cost Recovery CSU] for Payee.

When do I submit journal transfers in FTS?

Some reasons why a budget or expense transfer journal would be processed:

  1. To correct an expense paid of out the wrong chartfield string.
  2. To move budget to cover a future or pending expense that will occur within the same fiscal year.
  3. To pay another department for services received.
  4. To obtain a reimbursement from an auxiliary for an expense paid out of university funds [see Cost Recovery Funds]

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.

Manual Journal Uploads

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.