This document provides a step-by-step guide to setting up journal controls in the general ledger, including journal sources, categories, automatic reversals, automatic posting, and journal approvals. It describes the key setups needed for each of these areas, such as defining journal sources and categories, setting categories up for automatic reversals, and enabling journal approvals for specific sources. The summary also notes that setting up journal approvals requires completing six main setup steps, like enabling approvals for the ledger, selecting sources to require approval, and defining employee hierarchies and approval limits.

1. Step by step Guide
Step 3
General Ledger
Setup & Maintenance
Journal Controls
Mohammed Raouf

2.  Journal Controls
o
o
o
o
o
Journal Sources
Journal Categories
Automatic Reversals
Automatic Posting
Journal Approvals
In this step some setups required Ledgers/Ledger Set to be done.
Well, Ledgers & Legal Entities are the next Step, so be ready !
2

3. Journal Controls
3

4. Journal Sources
Journal Sources identify the source of the journal entries. EBS comes with a large number of journal sources already
seeded, which are used by the subledgers that integrate into the General Ledger, as well as Manual for journals keyed
directly into the GL, and Spreadsheet, used for journal entries loaded from Web ADI (Application Desktop Wizard, also
known as Journal Wizard). Additional sources can be added for journals imported from third-party systems or for any
type of transaction.
SOURCE and SOURCE KEY should not be updated. Use this form to add a new
Source, by entering a meaningful name in the SOURCE field. SOURCE KEY is an
alternative name that can be assigned to a specific source or groups of sources,
making the names consistent across instances and/or languages. This field is
ignored if the IMPORT USING KEY box is not checked.
Setup | Journal | Sources
Will prevent users from changing a journal after it has been successfully imported, and this setting is recommended
for all EBS subledgers, such as Payables or Assets.
There are times that a manual update is needed on an imported journal entry from the subledgers, such as changing
a period. This check box can be unchecked to make these changes, but it should be rechecked as soon as it is
completed, and in busy systems, it is best to do this during non-peak accounting hours.
4

5. Required if you want to use the drill-down
functionality on journal and account inquiry
screens, and it should be checked for most of the
EBS-seeded SOURCES. This functionality allows
users to drill down on a summarized entry created
from a subledger, like Payables, to see the invoices
or payments that originated the journal entry.
For third-party journal entries, drill-down can only
be used if the transactions are first run through
Subledger Accounting.
Tells EBS if this journal will require an approval prior to posting. In order
for Journal Approvals to be enforced, the LEDGER must also have
ENABLE JOURNAL APPROVAL turned on, in addition a few more steps
will be discussed in this chapter in DETAIL.
Appears only if Average Balancing is enabled in this ledger, and it allows the
system to decide if Journal Entries that are imported for not valid business days,
should ROLL back to the nearest valid business day within the same period. If
there is no prior valid business day within the same period, the effective date is
rolled forward, FAIL, or LEAVE ALONE Journal import will accept all transactions
regardless of the effective date.

6. Journal Categories
Journal Categories are another way of segregating journal entries, and when combined with Sources, it can make
finding all the journals that pertain to specific transactions, such as Accruals or Payments, much easier.
Categories that come seeded with EBS cannot be deleted or disabled, nor can the CATEGORY KEY be changed.
Manually added categories can be modified or deleted at any time. And the Existing data should be left alone.
As with SOURCE KEY, this requires IMPORT USING KEY to be selected on the
source to be used. When this is selected, both the CATEGORY and SOURCE
KEYS will be used, as opposed to the SOURCE and CATEGORY during imports.
The DESCRIPTION will assist in understanding why this is used or added.
Setup | Journal | Categories
6

7. AutoReverse
Journal entries are reversed for a few main reasons: either a journal was posted in error or posted incorrectly, or an
accrual needs to be reversed when the actual expenses are recognized. AutoReverse is most useful for reversals of
accruals, and when you know what month it needs to be reversed in.
Select each
category you want
to set up
AutoReverse for,
and enter the
REVERSAL PERIOD
to default as Next
period or Next nonadjusting period,
[Next day only for
The maximum is one CRITERIA SET can be assigned to each LEDGER,
If you have multiple LEDGERS, selecting ENABLE SECURITY will
prevent others from accessing a specific autoreversal rule that does
not pertain to them. At this point the data needs to be saved, which
will populate all the Categories in the system for this set.
You cannot use this
feature to automate
budget or encumbrance
journal reversals, only
Actuals.
average balance
ledgers], or Same
Period, or else use
No Default to
require the users to
identify the period.
Setup | Journal | AutoReverse
7

8. Remember you can reverse only posted journals
Automatically post
the generated
reversing journals
when Program –
Automatic Posting is
run.
If you want these
reversing entries to be
generated when
Program – Automatic
Reversal is run.
There is one profile option, GL: Launch AutoReverse After Open Period, that determines if the
autoreverse process will automatically generate reversing entries when a period is open.
Switch DR/CR: reverses
journals by changing the
debits and credits of your
journals.
Change Sign: reverses
journals by changing the
sign of your journals.
Once an AutoReverse
Criteria Set is saved, it
can be assigned to
specific Ledgers in the
Ledger Option Setups.

9. AutoPost
Automatic posting of approved (if required) journal entries not only helps save a few manual steps by the accountants,
but it can also ensure that once a journal entry is approved, it is posted in the system. AutoPost is set up at the source
and category levels, allowing some level of control over what journals are automatically posted and which are not. At
the very least, it is a good idea to set up subledger journals to post automatically to streamline the process and ensure
there are no changes to them.
AutoPost Criteria Sets set up journal
entries, based on the Sources and
Categories, to be posted by EBS when
Program – Automatic Posting is run. If
multiple Ledgers have the same Chart
of Accounts, then a Ledger Set [Later]
can be created for them and AutoPost
can be set up to post all the journals
for the Ledgers assigned to the set.
To post journals in order.
You can use the same priority
number more than once.
9

10. The POSTING SUBMISSION OPTIONS
setting determines if all your criteria
sets are submitted at the same time
(SUBMIT ALL PRIORITIES IN ORDER), or
if only a specific number are submitted
at the same time, based on the
NUMBER OF PRIORITIES entered
(SUBMIT ONLY PRIORITIES WITH
BATCHES IN ORDER), this will decrease
system load on the concurrent
manager and can be useful if
autoposting is happening throughout
the business day on systems with a
large load.
The way this works is that if the
NUMBER OF PRIORITIES is set to 2, EBS
will only post the first two PRIORITIES
that have journals, bypassing any
priorities that have journals available
for posting. The next time AutoPost is
run, it runs the next two PRIORITIES,
and so on until it reaches PRIORITY 99
Determine what criteria of journal entries, based on effective dates, are available for
AutoPost. They serve as a second control to opening and closing periods. Reducing the
time frame here will not prevent manual journal postings, but it will prevent postings
from happening automatically too far in the past and too far in the future.
Before and After Dates means [AutoPost submission date].
ALL / Actual / Budget / Encumbrance.
10

11. Journal Approvals
Journal Approvals can be enabled for some or all of your General Ledger journal sources. This is a nice feature to
replace manual journal approvals, but it is important to understand that EBS does not track who actually approved
the journal entry, only that it was approved. For auditing purposes, this takes a little explaining, and usually proof
that the approval limits and processes are tightly controlled in EBS.
Once the decision to enable Journal Approvals has been made, the following [6] setups must be completed to use
the feature:
(1) SET UP THE LEDGER TO REQUIRE APPROVALS.
Setup | Financials | Accounting Setup Manager | Accounting Setups | Ledger options | Page 2
11

12. (2) SELECT WHICH JOURNAL SOURCES WILL REQUIRE APPROVALS.
Check Journal Approval for every source you want Journal Approvals to be used for. As we mentioned in
this Step, noting new to add here.
(3) OPTIONAL – APPROVAL WORKFLOW
Without completing this step, when any journal entry is submitted where an approver is not in the
employee’s hierarchy or there is no manager set up for a person in the hierarchy, [NOT COMMONLY] the
workflow will error out with a No Performer error. Setting these performers will send notifications to the
system administrator of the actual error, with the journal name and employee with the problem, so that it
can be Resolved by modifying THE APPROVAL WORKFLOW TO SET THE PERFORMERS FOR THE NOTIFY
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR – NO APPROVER AND NO APPROVER MANAGER. See Oracle’s Workflow Guide for
instructions on how to set an approver.
To Download the Last Workflow Builder:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/options/winclient-101059.html
12

13. (4) SET PROFILES OPTIONS FOR APPROVALS.
There are two profile options associated with approvals that need to be set in the System Administrator
| Profile | System at the Site, Application, or Responsibility level.
(A) JOURNALS: ALLOW
PREPARER APPROVAL
determines if the person
submitting the journal entry
has the ability to approve it,
based on that person’s
approval levels, or if it is
required to go to the next
level for approval. Yes will
allow any person entering a
journal with an approval
limit set to potentially
approve his or her own
journal. No requires all
journal entries to be
approved by someone other
than the person entering it.
System Administrator | Profile | System
(B) JOURNALS: FIND APPROVER
METHOD
GO DIRECT find the first person
in the approval hierarchy with
the proper limits and notify that
person that he or she must
approve the journal entry.
GO UP MANAGEMENT CHAIN
will require every person in the
hierarchy of the person who
entered the journal to approve
it. The journal will become
approved for posting after
it finally reaches a person with
the proper authority, as well as
when all the people in the
hierarchy between the submitter
and the final approver have
approved the journal.
ONE STOP THEN GO DIRECT
will require the manager of the
person submitting the journal
to approve it prior to notifying
the person in the hierarchy with
the proper authority and
securing the final approval.
13

14. (5) SET UP EMPLOYEE HIERARCHIES.
It is the Employee form that creates the hierarchies for journal approvals. Oracle Approvals Manager
(AME) is still not available for Journal Approval hierarchies, as it is in many other areas of EBS.
Use the Enter Employee form to create the supervisor hierarchy. To access this form, the Profile
Option HR: User Type will need to be set to HR User for the General Ledger responsibility being used,
General Ledger | Setup | Employees | Enter . BUT if you have the Human Resources application fully
installed you will use this path : Human Resources | People | Enter and Maintain, as we do here.
By the way it’s the same setups but the form in the GL is less required fields.
1
2
14

15. Finally
(6) SET UP APPROVAL LIMITS
set up the actual approval limits for people with final approval authority. If someone has journal approval
authority in more than one ledger, that person will need to be set up multiple times. Journal approval
limits are determined by the largest line item on a journal entry, not the total debits or credits of that
journal.
The theory behind journal approvals is that each person should be set up to be authorized to approve a risk
of up to a specific dollar amount for a given account, not the total of a journal entry.
Setup | Employees | Limits
15

16. Victory Loves Preparation
Always Be Ready