Journal Entries are just hashtags, as are we. Don’t believe me? Read the data from an automated employment application. You will be sliced and diced into many categories.

As I was giving a demo to a prospective customer, she inquired about the use of Journals and the need for them.

Journal entries are nothing more than an adjective for a type of transaction. They are nothing more than a hashtag, a device to segregate types of transactions or discussions as in a hashtag to a Tweet or the subject of a LinkedIn article, as in this one. Journals lump like transactions together.

This particular person was using QBs and, according to her, she needed adult-level accounting software. I mentioned that QBs uses hashtags as a way to add info to a financial transaction. And I informed her, she has been using a “special” Journal every time she entered a Sales Invoice or an invoice for payment in QBs.

By using the Sales Invoicing system, the entry went directly to the Accounts Receivable as a debit entry and to the respective Revenue account(s) as a credit entry. All those movements were made courtesy of a Special Journal, and all the movements were hidden behind the scenes. I asked her to recall the last time she set up a new Asset account and how QBs was very particular about if she was setting up a new, regular Current Asset vs an Account Receivable account. If you are setting up an Account Receivable account, then you will have to give the bank account information so that when the cash does get received, it will automatically go into the proper Cash Account.

In Plus & Minus, we use the 1X numbered Journal entries to show in what format your collections were received. For example, if your A/R were paid in Cash, you use Journal 10 to record the receipt; if paid in Check, you would use Journal 11; paid in ACH, you use Journal 12, etc. Journal 9 is reserved for cryptocurrencies just in case you want to accept that form of payment.

The overall objective of these Journals is to show how your money is received from your customers and to segregate your operating expenses. For example, you have a variety of ways to spend your money on advertising. There are print periodical media, newspapers, TV, radio, Facebook, Twitter, Google pop-ups, Yelp, etc. Instead of using a sub account to define each type of advertising, you can record the type of advertising expense to the type of Journal established for that expense.

If you know where your revenue is coming from, you could establish Journals for the different sources of Revenue with the numbering sequence as the Expense Journals but with a different first digit to indicate it’s a Revenue-type Journal. That way you could compare the revenue from a specific form of advertising to the revenue generated from that specific advertising expense. Have you ever heard or seen “Enter Code: Jolly” for your immediate discounts? Big brother is tracking you.

Journals are a device to help you capture more data so you have more knowledge in order to make better decisions. When you establish your chart of accounts, you should pay attention to the system of Journals you will use.

Happy recording!