Managing journals and transfers - Journal and transfer approval

The approval workflow for general ledger (GL) journals is set up on Oracle Financials; the audit trail for GL journal approvals is maintained on the system.

The general ledger approval workflow operates as follows:

• Every user with access to post general ledger journals is assigned an approval limit from £0p upwards
• Any journal that exceeds their limit is routed to their GL Supervisor for approval

For example: 

1. A user has a £0p GL limit, all their journals will go to their GL supervisor for approval.
2. A user has a £10k GL limit, their journals up to £10k will self-approve, but journals over £10k will go to their GL supervisor for approval. If the journal exceeds the supervisor’s limit it will continue up to their supervisor. 

There is no approval workflow set up in Oracle Financials for the approval of project journals and transfers departments therefore need to implement manual processes. 

1.    Who should approve

It is necessary to consider who will approve project journals and transfers off system. By default, it is assumed that general ledger journal limits and supervisors will operate for project journals and transfers i.e. approvers have the same limits but approval is via a manual process rather than via the system. 

If you do not wish to use the general ledger (GL) journal limits and supervisors for project journals and transfers (for example, you may wish to include different people or assign different limits), this can be done but the delegations must be managed and recorded in line with the guidance on managing delegations of authority. 

2.    How to approve

Journals should be approved in advance wherever possible; however, practically this may be difficult.

When approving journals retrospectively, approvers have the same responsibility for undertaking a thorough check of each individual journal and delivering the same confirmations as if they approved in advance. Evidence of authorisation should be saved with the journal evidence. 

To implement a manual process and maintain an audit trail of approvals, different options are available:

• Email – email approval is acceptable. Details of the journal or transfer can be emailed to an approver. Their approval email should be saved with the evidence of the reason for the journal or transfer; for example, approval of the spreadsheet to be posted via the journal wizard, or approval of details of the transfer to be made.

In this case, the transfers report can be reviewed to confirm that the transfers have been posted as approved.

• Paper-based – the approver signs a paper copy of the journal which is saved with the evidence. This may be approval of the spreadsheet to be posted via the journal wizard.
• System-based (project journals only) – one person prepares and submits the journal on the Oracle forms view, then notifies the relevant approver that it is ready for review. The approvers releases the journal on Oracle. This only applies to project journals (it does not work for the journal wizard or for transfers).