1. 2016 Financial Forum Journal Entries: The Scene of the Crime…

2. Agenda Your Presenters What’s the Big Deal? Header Descriptions
Line Entry Descriptions
Natural Balances of Accounts
Fund Type
Attachments
Dating
Accruals & Cut-off
Reversing, Deleting & Copying Entries
Other Tips & Tricks 2 2

3. Your Presenters Dennis Tavares, CPA, CA
Senior Accountant, Financial Services
or x
George Hamilton, CPA, CMA
Manager, Health Sciences Finance
or x 3 3

4. Fiscal 2016 (May 1, 2015 to April 30, 2016) Statistics* for MAC01:
What’s the Big Deal?
Fiscal 2016 (May 1, 2015 to April 30, 2016) Statistics* for MAC01:
619 unique users with entries
34,270 journal entries
1,001,600 total lines
$12,026,307,434 of journal entries
*Does not include system-generated entries 4 4

5. The Journal Entry Header5 5

6. Header Description The most important part of the journal entry
Explains what is being recorded
Best practice: Description should be as clear as possible and avoid the use of short-hand or vernacular
Consider the following:
“AVTEK 30221” versus
“To record charge for use of AVTEK services.
See attached invoice #30221 for details.” 6 6

7. Header Description Cont’d
Consider using the following to begin the description:
To record…
To accrue…
To reverse…
To reallocate…
To charge or refund… 7 7

8. Other Header Considerations
If a header is MAC01 and does not contain any lines with MAC01 as the BU, then the JE gets stuck in work-flow limbo. 8 8

9. Line Entry Reference & Descriptions9 9

10. Line Entry Reference & Descriptions
These are the two most often neglected areas of all journal entries
Can be used for better data analysis using Pivot Tables or filters
Used in conjunction with Queries such as: 10 10

11. Line Entry Reference & Descriptions11 11

12. Natural Balances of Accounts
What do we mean by “natural balance”?
Simply put, what position (i.e. debit or credit) should the account rest in
1XXXXX – Asset Accounts (Debits)
2XXXXX – Liability Accounts (Credits)
4XXXXX – Revenue Accounts (Credits)
5XXXXX – Salary & Benefits Accounts (Debits)
6&7XXXXX – Other Expenses (Debits) 12 12

13. Fund Type 20 – Operating Fund 30 – Ancillaries
45 – Specifically Externally Funded
50 & 80 – Internal Research
55 & 85 – External Research
60 – Capital Fund
70, 75, 77 – Trusts & Endowments
72 & 78 – Medical Practices & Clinical Trusts 13 13

14. Fund Type - Research 50 & 80 – Internal Research
McMaster Funded or Unrestricted Residuals
55 & 85 – External Research
Externally Funded (grants & contracts)
Activity in these funds is used to report our total research revenues! 14 14

15. Attachments
Attachments of supporting documents assists with the understanding of the entry
Need to know that anyone with G/L access can view the attachment
Consider using PDF copies of files to reduce size and facilitate forward compatibility
Use a PDF printer option to save time & space
CutePDF, FoxIt, Adobe, PDF X-change
Watch license usage for free versions! 15 15

16. Dating (of the Entry) 16 16

17. Accruals & Cut-off
Cut-off is a very important concept at three key points:
April 30 – University Year-End
March 31 – Research Year-End
June 30 – Specifically Funded, Alternate Funding Plan (AFP) & Clinical Practise Plan (CPP) Year-Ends 17 17

18. Reversing Entries
If you want to accrue an item but don’t want to double-count it. Have the system take care of it for you! 18 18

19. Reversing Entries Cont’d19 19

20. Deleting Entries
If an entry contains an error or has not made it through work-flow before a period closes, it should be deleted. 20 20

21. Copying Entries

22. Copying Entries

23. Other Tips & Tricks GL Work Centre Query & Drilling URLs 23 23
Add more re: other queries. 23 23

24. Other Tips & Tricks
GL Work Centre Query & Drilling URLs 24 24

25. Other Tips & Tricks
GL Work Centre Query & Drilling URLs 25 25

26. Other Tips & Tricks FHS Query:
similar to G/L Activity Inquiry with Drill query
does not have hyperlink
shows department, program, & account names

27. Other Tips & Tricks
FHS Query (con’t): 27 27

28. Questions? 28 28