Recurring Journals
Recurring Journals in Business Central
Recurring Journals are general journals that are used to post regular transactions with minimal or no changes.
Recurring Journals have the following features:
- the ability to allocate a single entry to multiple general ledger accounts and dimensions when posting based on quantity, fixed rate or allocation percentage
- the ability to set automatic reversals of entries which can be used for accrual journals that are reversed in the following month
- amounts can be fixed or variable
- the journal line information such as G/L accounts and dimensions and even amount can remain after posting, saving you having to enter the journal each month
- an expiration date can be set on the journal to prevent posting beyond a certain date.
Recurring Methods
The Recurring Method field determines how the amount on the journal line is treated after posting. There are six recurring methods that can be selected from in Business Central.
| Recurring | Description |
| Balance | The balance of the account on the line is allocated among the accounts and dimensions specified for the line on the Allocation page. For example, the allocation of an expense account across departments. |
| Fixed | Use when the journal amount is the same each period. The amount in the journal line remains unchanged after posting. For example, monthly fixed expenses such as rent. |
| Variable | Use when the journal amount is different each period. The amount on the journal line is cleared to zero after posting. For example, monthly variable expenses such as salaries and wages. |
| Reversing Balance | Balance of the account on the line is allocated among the accounts and dimensions specified for the line on the Allocation page. The balance on the account is set to zero and a reversing entry posts on the following day. Same example as Balance method but the allocation is only provisional (i.e. temporary allocation as it is only an estimate for periodic reporting). |
| Reversing Fixed | Amount of the journal line remains unchanged after posting and a reversing entry posts on the following day. For example, monthly accrual of a fixed amount invoice not received until the following month. |
| Reversing Variable | Amount on the journal line is cleared to zero after posting and a reversing entry is posted the next day. For example, monthly accrual of an invoice (i.e. utilities bill) not received until the following month. |
Recurring Frequency
The posting date recurrence is defined in the Recurring Frequency field. Entering a formula in this field determines how frequently the entry will be posted.
For example, if the formula 1M is entered with a posting date of 1/02/21, after the journal is posted the date changes to 1/03/21.
To post the journal on the last day of a month, enter the formula 1D+1M-1D (1 day + 1 month -1 day). With this formula Business Central calculates the date correctly regardless of how many days are in the month.
Document Number and Description Field Formulas
Business Central provides an option to enter formulas in the Document No. field to create a number series for each posted entry instead of using the standard Business Central number series to determine the value. This field supports up to 20 alphanumeric characters so consider this limitation when you are creating formulas.
For example, if you want the document number for the current months rent journal to be RENTJANUARY then enter Rent%4 in the field.
Simple text can be combined with the following text codes to form a number series:
• %1 – current day number eg. posting on the 10th day of the month would return 10
• %2 – current week number eg. posting on the 5th week of the year would return 5
• %3 – current month number eg. posting in April would return 4
• %4 – current month name eg. a posting date of 01/04/21 would return April
The text codes can also be used in the Description field of the journal to enter a meaningful description eg. Rent Accrual %3/21 would become Rent Accrual 1/21 if the recurring journal was posted with a posting date in January 2021. Using these text codes saves having to manually update the document date and description each month on your recurring journals.
Allocations
Allocations are used to allocate the amount on the recurring journal line to several G/L accounts and dimensions. As the balancing field is not available on recurring journal lines, the allocation itself is the balancing account line.
Allocations can be done based on quantity, amount or percentage. Once an allocation is setup it remains in the recurring journal after posting for future posting.
Expiration Date
You can set Expiration Dates on the recurring journal lines. This field is used to limit the posting period by specifying the last date of the recurring entries, The journal lines will not be posted after the date entered in the field.
The benefit of using this field is that the line will not be deleted from the journal instantly once the expiration date is reached and the expiration date can be extended if needed.
if this field is left blank then the journals lines will be posted until they are deleted from the journal.
Benefits
Working with Recurring Journals provides more options than using standard General Journals. Entries that are posted regularly only need to be entered once in the journal and then will remain until the journal lines are deleted. This saves time on data entry as well as minimises entry mistakes.