How to create a journal

What is it for?

A journal groups journal entries of the same type (purchases, sales, bank, cash, miscellaneous operations) and gives them their own numbering, with the prefix you choose. The Create a journal assistant creates it in three steps and fills in what depends on the type.

Creating a journal creates no journal entries: the ledger only moves when a document is posted in that journal.

When to use it?

• You want to separate one type of purchases or sales from the others, for example purchases of services.
• You opened a new bank account, cash register or credit card and need the matching journal.
• You want a separate miscellaneous operations journal, for example for year-end accruals and deferrals.

For the journal of a series of certified invoices, do not use this assistant: series have their own article (How to create a series and communicate it to the AT).

Where to find it?

Accounting › Configure › General › Create a journal.

Before you start

• Your profile is Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager, Fiscal officer or Accounting Administrator. With the Accountant profile the Create a journal item does not appear in Configure: ask one of these profiles.
• Choose the short code before you start: it cannot repeat that of another journal in the company (see “Common problems”).

How to use it

1. Open Accounting › Configure › General › Create a journal. The window opens at Step 1 of 3: what is the journal for?.

2. Choose one of the six options: Sales (customer invoices), Purchases (supplier invoices), Bank, Cash, Credit card or Miscellaneous operations (“Everything else: depreciation, accruals, payroll postings, adjustments”). Click Next.

3. In Step 2 of 3: name and code, type the Journal name, for example “Compras de serviços” (purchases of services). The Short code is suggested by the type (“BILL1” for purchases, “INV1” for sales, “BNK2”, “CSH1”, “CCD1” and “MISC1” for the others): replace it with a code of your own, for example CSV. The field accepts at most 5 characters. The Currency is only filled in for a journal in a foreign currency. Click Next.

4. In Step 3 of 3: accounts, the window shows the accounts for the chosen type. For banks and cash it says “Leave the main account empty and it is created for you in the chart of accounts”; for sales and purchases it shows a warning (see below). All of them can be left empty; what fiscaldoo then fills in is in the section “What fiscaldoo fills in on its own for banks and cash”:

   Type	Accounts asked for
   Sales, Purchases, Miscellaneous operations	Main account
   Bank, Credit card	Main account and Pending account
   Cash	Main account, Pending account, Cash difference gain account and Cash difference loss account

   For purchases, leaving the Main account empty gives the journal the default expense account (in the example 6228 Outros), and the assistant warns: “No main account chosen: the journal will use the default account of the company, 311 Mercadorias. Choose another one here if the entries of this journal belong to a different account.” For sales it gives the default income account (in the example 721 Serviço A), with the same warning. The account named in the warning (311 Mercadorias, 711 Mercadorias) is not the one the journal gets: always check the Default Expense Account on the journal record and, if it is not the one you want, choose the account here, in step 3.

5. Click Create journal. The record of the new journal opens.

Expected result

The record of the Compras de serviços journal opens, with Type “Purchases”, Sequence Prefix CSV and Default SAF-T transaction type “N — Normal”. In the Journal entries tab, the Default Expense Account is 6228 Outros and Dedicated Credit Note Sequence is ticked: supplier credit notes have their own numbering. The journal already appears when you record a supplier bill.

Important notes

What fiscaldoo fills in on its own for banks and cash

If you leave the accounts empty in step 3, fiscaldoo fills them in, with accounting effect:

Journal	Main account	Pending account	Difference gains / losses
Bank (example “Banco Poupança”, code BPO)	creates 122 Banco Poupança, named after the journal	120001 Conta Transitória	7888 Outros não especificados (gains) and 6888 Outros não especificados (losses)
Cash (example “Caixa da loja”, code CXL)	creates 112 Caixa da loja	120001 Conta Transitória	the same 7888 and 6888

So if you do not choose accounts, you get a new account in the chart (one per journal) and “Outros não especificados” (other, not specified) accounts for cash and bank differences. Before you start posting, confirm with the certified accountant whether those accounts suit the company; the accounts are in the Journal entries tab of the journal record. Pending validation by a certified accountant: pending and difference accounts suitable for bank and cash journals.

The code is the journal's numbering

The Sequence Prefix on the record is the short code you chose. Choose it with the reading of the journal entries and the SAF-T in mind: the Default SAF-T transaction type (“N — Normal”) comes from the assistant and can be changed on the record. Pending validation by a certified accountant: SAF-T transaction type suitable for each journal.

Common problems

“Some required fields are empty”

• Symptom: in Step 2, when you click Next with the name empty, “Some required fields are empty. Fill in the fields marked in red to be able to save.” appears.
• Cause: the Journal name is mandatory.
• What to do: type the name and click Next.

“There is already a journal with the code”

• Symptom: Invalid Operation window with “There is already a journal with the code “CSV” in Empresa Demonstração, Lda. Journal codes cannot repeat: choose another one.” The message appears straight away in Step 2, when you click Next.
• Cause: the code is unique in each company.
• What to do: click Close, change the code in Step 2 and click Next again.

The code only accepts 5 characters

• Symptom: in Step 2, the Short code field stops accepting letters at the fifth character.
• What to do: choose a code with at most 5 characters (for example BPO or CSV).