Define Journal Entry Descriptions

Define the elements of a description that appear on the subledger journal header and line. The definition determines both the content and sequence in which the elements of the description appear. For example, an individual segment of an Accounting Flexfield can be included in the description. Use literal strings or a combination of both sources and literals.

Some of the sources can only be used for descriptions applied at the line level. For example, a source associated with invoice line number can only be applied to a line description. Assign journal entry descriptions headers and lines in the Applications Accounting Definition window.

Following are descriptions of selected fields in the Journal Entry Descriptions window:

• Application: Defaults from the application associated with the responsibility

• Owner: Automatically populated. Value is Oracle for seeded components. Value is User for components created on site by users.

• Transaction Chart of Accounts: Chart of accounts used to input and create transactions

• Enabled: Retain the default to make the description available for assignment to application accounting definitions

• Priority: Users can create more than one priority number for a journal entry description, each one with its own conditions and details. Description details are evaluated in ascending priority order, where the highest priority has the lowest number until a condition is met. For performance reasons, use the most commonly met descriptions first. Change the order in which description details are evaluated by updating the priority number instead of deleting and rewriting the descriptions. 

Once the conditions associated with a detail line are satisfied, the value from that line is used and other lines are ignored. If none of the conditions are met, enter a last line with no conditions associated to it. Because Subledger Accounting uses this line as a default, assign the lowest priority to this line. The Journal Entry Description field displays a concatenation of the elements of the description created in the Journal Entry Description Details window.

To Define Journal Entry Description Details

Use the Journal Entry Description Details window to create the journal entry description that users see. Define the description content and the sequence in which it appears. A journal entry description that uses sources that have values which vary by line cannot be assigned as a header level description.

• Seq: Number for ordering the elements of a description Use this field to quickly change the order of appearance of the journal entry description contents

• Constant: If Constant is selected in the Value Type field, enter text to be used in the journal entry description. For example, enter Check Number or Invoice Number. By defining several lines, users can use multiple sets of constant strings in the description definition. These can be concatenated with a source, as described in the Source field, and appear according to the sequence number of the line.

• Source: Note that the source selected serves as a placeholder. When the journal entry is created, this source value is replaced with appropriate source content. For example, the source Supplier Name populates the journal entry description with the actual name of the supplier. The same logic applies if the source is an Accounting Flexfield segment.

• Segment: Define which segment value appears in the accounting description. If a transaction chart of accounts is specified, the list of values for this field displays the name of all the segments. If there is no transaction chart of accounts specified, the list of values displays the flexfield qualifiers available in General Ledger.