Changes to Accounting Journal business process and controls

To strengthen internal controls, enhance compliance, and reduce the risk of error in financial transactions, some changes and enhancements have been made to the Accounting Journal business process in Workday.

The first change was effective in January 2023 and prevented certain journal sources for non-University Service Providers from charging grants. A targeted communication was sent to those affected prior to the change rolling out in Workday. 

Additional changes and enhancements to come the week of May 8, 2023, serve to restrict the journal sources that can use the following Chart of Account segments in a journal entry:

• Ledger Account  - 81038 – Equipment Expense
• Fund - FD13 – Plant Gifts
• Fund – FD15 – Student Loan – UR
• Fund – FD16 – Student Loan - PR
• Year-end Close Project – PJ103072

A targeted communication will be sent to all impacted journal source owners the week of April 24, 2023.

The rules for segment usage have not changed, but the methods for preventing or detecting errors have. Prior to this change, most journal sources using the above segments were routed to special approval steps in the Controller’s Office. This review step required the approver to decide whether the segment usage was appropriate and send back anything that was not correct or required action by a central department. In addition, certain auto-posting journal sources bypassed these controls review steps, meaning that errors were not caught up front. Both of these conditions caused a lot of rework for both central and distributed users.

Most journal entries from department business offices use the journal source called Manual Journal. There are no changes related to the behavior and permissions for the Manual Journal source. It will retain access to the same COA segments and continue to route consistently through the business process approvals. More information about journal sources can be found in the online Accounting Manual.

Any questions, concerns, or system errors should be sent to askfinance@yale.edu.