Recurring Journals have features that you may not be using but can be helpful. I just finished two blogs, one on Balance by Dimension and one on Reverse Date Calculation.
Let’s review Allocations and Expiration Dates; two features that can be very useful even if used often.
A scenario where you an amount to writeoff for the next 4 months and the amount per department will change each month based on sales volumes. You can setup a Fixed Recurring Method for the amount to be written off each month. Set your expiration date for 4 months from now and set the allocations for the first month. Because your allocations are going to change each month, you will have one edit to do monthly.
This screenshot shows the allocated amount and the expiration date fields populated.
Don’t forget that the quantity can be anything this you use to determine your allocation percent. Square feet of office space for utility bills by department, Sales dollars to allocate charges to marketing and research and development or anything else…. And if it’s a standard percent that you determine periodically, you can enter that directly into the Allocation % column.
If you try to post your journal and the posting date is greater than the expiration date you will get an error. This error simply says ‘there is nothing to post.’ However, it really means that you’ve hit the expiration date.
Recommendation, try all the fields and variations and find what works best to save you time and improve your closing process.