Creating a Manual F&A Journal Entry

Purpose: Use this document as a reference to create a manual Facilities & Administration (also know as Indirect Cost or F&A) Journal entry in ctcLink.

Audience: Finance Staff.

You must have at least one of these local college managed security roles:

  • ZZ GL Journal Entry

You must also set these User Preference Definitions:

If you need assistance with the above security roles or User Preference Definitions, please contact your local college supervisor or IT Admin to request role access.

Have the appropriate backup documentation ready to be attached to the journal. Prior creating the manual F&A Journal, recommend your Grant Admin create an excel spreadsheet of actual Grant Expenses providing the justification of the F&A amounts with appropriate approval. 

It is recommended to use the following Queries to gather your posted expense data:

  • QFS_PC_PROJ_RESOURCE - Query from Project Resource (Analysis Type BLD = billed lines)
  • QFS_GL_ACCT_ANALYSIS - GL Ledger Table/Trial Balance with Summary Totals
  • QFS_GL_ACCOUNT_ANALYSIS - GL Detailed Trial Balance with Activity and Journal ID fields

Optional to use the Journal Import Spreadsheet upload process when handling multiple lines. Please see the following QRG 9.2 Importing a Journal Spreadsheet. 

Please note the SBCTC Accounting GL Account coding requirements throughout this document.

Creating a Manual F & A Journal Entry

Navigation: General Ledger > Journals > Journal Entry > Create/Update Journal Entries

For the following example, $20,000 of Grant salaries was incurred for the month of November with a Grant-defined indirect rate of 5% of salaries. The F&A Expense to be billed for reimbursement is $1,000.

Entering Header Information
  1. The Create/Update Journal Entries search page displays. Select Add a New Value tab to add a new value.
    1. If it did not automatically populate, enter or select the business unit in the Business Unit field.
    2. The Journal Date will auto-fill with the current date.
    3. Select Add.
  2. The Create/Update Journal Entries page displays.  The Header tab displays journal header information that uniquely identifies a journal, such as business unit, journal ID, and journal date.  This page also contains options for setting, adjusting and reversing entries.
    1. Enter an appropriate description in the Long Description field. This field can be useful in identifying information for future auditing purposes.
    2. Enter or select 'ACTUALS' in the Ledger Group field.
    3. Enter 'LOCAL' in the Ledger field.
    4. Enter ‘ONL’ in the Source field.  This is the code used for manual journal entries.
  3. Select the Lines tab.

Use the Attachments link to attach pdf or word doc backup documentation.

Header tab
Entering Line Items

Use the Lines page to record the transaction lines that comprise the journal.

Note: SBCTC requires the presence of a Business Unit (*Unit), Account, Fund, Dept, Class, and State Purpose for every transaction, including journal entry.  Additionally, grant and project related journal entries require a Project Bus Unit, Project Number, Activity, and Analysis Type. During processing of the journal entry (also known as Budget Checking), the system will use this information to check for valid ChartField combinations and sufficient budget.

Analysis Type GLE (General Ledger Expense) will create a Billable Line item when cost collection process runs and marks the line as Billable or BIL ready for Grants Billing. The DNC (Do Not Collect) is for cash balancing the journal and should not be marked as a Billable line item.

  1. The Lines tab displays. Use it to record the transaction lines that comprise the journal.
  2. Enter the journal entry amount in the Amount field.
  3. Enter or select the appropriate Accounting Distribution:
    1. Enter in the Account field the SBCTC accounting rules requires account 5020020 = Indirect Cost.
    2. Enter or select the appropriate operating unit in the Oper Unit field.
    3. Enter or select the appropriate fund in the Fund field.
    4. Enter or select the appropriate department in the Dept field.
    5. Enter or select the appropriate class in the Class field.
    6. Enter or select the appropriate Project Costing Business Unit in the PC Bus Unit field.
  4. Scroll the bar to the right to complete additional ChartFields.

The Project Business Unit or PC Bus Unit (i.e. WA040) will allow you to enter the Project, Activity, and Analysis Type Chartfields completing a valid Grant/Project Chartstring.

Enter Chartfields
  1. Enter or select the correct state purpose in the State Purpose field.
  2. Enter or select the appropriate project in the Project field.
  3. Use the lookup magnifying glass to select the activity in the Activity field.
  4. Enter or select the appropriate analysis type in the An Type field.
  5. Enter the number of Lines to Add and the plus icon '+' to add the off-setting item using the Copy Down ID functionality.

The GLE Analysis type will create a Billable Line item when the Cost Collection process runs. Please refer to QRG Analysis Types for additional information.

Enter remaining Chartfields

Note:  All  values just entered will be copied to the new line, with the exception of the Account and Amount.  The Amount will be the amount needed to auto-balance the journal.  As you change the Amount and add more lines, the Amount will automatically adjust to the amount necessary to balance the journal.  You will need to provide an Account for each new line.

  1. Enter or select the appropriate amount and account for the second line item for cash balancing the journal in the Account field.
  2. Note: On the second line item, change the Analysis Type field to DNC (Do Not Collect).
  3. Enter the appropriate offset Chartfields for line items 3 and 4 (please check with your local college business practices for the correct coding). Scroll over to review all lines items and enter the State Purpose.

For cash balancing for Line Item 2, be sure to update the Analysis Type to DNC for Do Not Collect so it will not be cost collected as a billable line item.  SBCTC Accounting Rules require GL Account 1000199.

SBCTC Accounting Rules require a debit to GL Account 5020020 (Indirect Cost) and a credit to 1000199 for the Fund 145 Grant Chartstring and a credit to 5020021 (F&A Offset) and a debit to 1000199 for the Fund 146 control account with Class# 182 and a Department of 98219.

The standardized coding is required for the automated calculation process in Grants.

Enter remaining Chartfields

Optional to utilize the Journal Description field to add additional information, such as the month(s) of F&A Expense. This description will be cost collected over into Project Costing and can help identify when Billing for reimbursement.

Optional to add journal line description
  1. Select Save.
  2. A message displays that the Journal number is saved.
  3. Select OK.
Select OK
  1. The Message window disappears.  The updated Lines tab displays.  Note that your newly-created Journal ID displays.

Note: The journal entry is balanced when the value in the Total Debits column is equal to the value in the Total Credits column. When you have a balanced journal, you may begin processing the journal directly from this page.

Journal number is created
Processing the Journal Entry Online & Submitting for Approval
  1. Use the Lines page to process the journal. Begin by verifying that the *Process box reads "Edit Journal", then select Process.
Edit Journal process

Note: The journal is processing. You may get a message asking if you'd like to wait for confirmation (Yes) or not to wait (No) and return later by checking the Process Monitor if ran to success prior accessing the Journal.

Confirmation the journal edit process completed message
  1. The journal page displays with an updated Journal and Budget Status.

Note:  The Journal Status and Budget Status change to ‘V’ (Valid) after the journal is edited. You can only submit a journal for approval that is valid for both statuses.

valid journal and budget status

Note: When you run the Edit Journal process, either on manual or system generated GL journal, the budget check is automatically run to validate the journal against a budget based on the type of account.

Note:  Journal entries which require approval cannot be posted until approved through the ctcLink workflow approval process. Approval requirements vary by college district.

  1. Use the *Process drop-down list button to make a new selection.
  2. Select Submit Journal.
  3. Select Process.
  4. Select the Approval tab to view the status.
Submit journal

Note: The Journal Status is now awaiting approval and posting.

  1. On the Approve tab, you are able to viLLew the status of the journal.
  1. Process complete.

Video Tutorial

The video below demonstrates the process actions described in the steps listed above. This video includes audio and closed captioning.  Select the play button to start the video.

Video Tutorial Via Panopto

View the external link to access the F&A Processes training session. This link will open in a new tab/window.

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