Once you are at the point of needing to make an adjustment to the client’s trial balance i.e. for depreciation, trust distribution, accruals etc, you can perform a journal in the Workpapers.

Hint: Where you are also using Active Ledger & Reporting (AU users only), you will not be able to perform journals in Active Workpapers and will instead be directed to Active Ledger to perform journals.

From your Workpaper binder index, navigate to the Journals screen.

In the Journals tab, click + New Journal

Fill out the particulars within the journal screen, such as memo, account number/name/class and populate with the figures required. If you require a journal to be posted to an account that does not yet exist, just add a new account and it will automatically be added to your binder index once the journal has been posted.

If you want to send the journal back to the client as an adjusting journal, make sure to tick Export Journal to Client File in the journal screen.

Click Add and Close.

Tip: Double clicking on a blank journal line will balance the journal.

Your journal has now been posted to the Active Workpapers trial balance.

If your Workpaper binder is connected to a cloud accounting file and you are allowed to post journals directly, this method can also be used.

Navigate to your cloud accounting file, for example, Xero.

Post a journal using the + New Journal function.

Once the journal has been posted, return to your Active Workpapers binder index screen.

Select the Reimport button. Assuming you have made changes to the current year dataset, select Primary Column. This will refresh your current year trial balance information from the cloud accounting file, taking up the changes from any journals posted.

If you have clicked the Reimport button while completing the job at any stage and wish to compare or reinstate previous data imports, navigate to the Journals screen.

Click on the Import Runs tab to view all import runs.

To compare a previous dataset with the current dataset, click Compare.

This will display the current balances, prior import run balances and the difference between them.

After reviewing this, if you wish to reinstate the prior import run, click Reinstate.

If you wish to reinstate a dataset without comparing, select Reinstate from the Import Runs tab.

Once this is selected, a confirmation message will pop-up. Select Yes to confirm and this will reinstate the previous dataset.