BATCHES AND JOURNALS
Which one?

Any business issues source documents and hands the original documents to its customers or debtors or other parties with whom a transaction is concluded. These source documents are generated internally and the copies of such source documents are used to enter the transactions in the journals or batch types.

On the other hand a business receives original source documents from its suppliers or creditors or any other party with whom a transaction is concluded. These source documents are generated externally and the business would usually receive the original source documents, which are used to enter the transactions in the journals or batch types. Batch types or journals are used to enter the details of the transactions and to summarise the details into

In any business the transaction data on source documents are entered in the following subsidiary journals or books of first entry:

For each of these subsidiary journals or books of prime entry, you would debit specific accounts and credit specific accounts applicable to the specific subsidiary journal. This will definitely help to eliminate or significantly reduce the errors that may occur when recording and summarising the transactions or when the transactions are posted to the ledger.

The entries for each of these subsidiary journals or books of prime entry is as follows:

The general journal is used for other transactions, which cannot be classified into any of the transactions that are entered into the subsidiary journals listed above.

Other journals, which may be required, are:

• Payroll Journal or Salary Journal
• Depreciation Journal
• Cost of Sales Journal (if you are a trader)
• Credit Card Journal

You would normally record your depreciation transactions and payroll transactions with a general journal. If you open separate journals for these transactions, you could easily reconcile your depreciation and payroll transactions with your ledger accounts or asset registers. You need to assess the volume and complexity of your transactions to decide for yourself, which transactions you wish to enter into separate journals or batch types.

To Select a Batch Type:

Click on the Input - Batch Entry menu option or the Batch Entry icon or Speed button. You may also press the <F2> key on your keyboard. The Batch Type screen will be displayed listing all the available batch types.

Select the Batch Type in which you wish to enter your transactions. (Note: there are two payments and receipts batches in the above example - this is necessary when you have more than one bank account).

Click on the OPEN button. The selected Batch Type screen will be displayed.

Click on the F10:Setup speed button or press the <F10> key on your keyboard to set the defaults for the batch.

Start to enter your transactions in the batch.

Click on the F9:Process speed button or icon or press the <F9> key on your keyboard to change the alias. This will help you if you wish to identify a specific batch, if you wish to generate a batch type report or if you wish to export posted batches to a file. Then click on theF8:List speed button or icon or press the <F8> key on your keyboard to list the batch. It is a good idea to list the batch and check the entries on the batch thoroughly. If there are any errors, you may edit the batch before posting the batch.

Click on the F6:Post speed button or icon or press the <F6> key on your keyboard to post the batch. This will update all ledger accounts including the individual accounts for debtors and creditors and the VAT amount to the selected Output or Input VAT accounts.