Copy Company Journals between Periods

Select the Company/Copy/Company Journals Between Periods menu.

You can use this function to copy company journals for a company or companies included in a group between different periods. You can also select:

  • Which type of journal and currency you want to copy.
  • If you want to copy only fixed and reversed journals, or if you want to copy all journals.
  • If you want to copy the journals without year-end rules, that is, perform a simple copying procedure without the general CB/OB rules when copying to the next year.
  • If you should clear existing journals before copying.
  • If you would like to have a log report.

Rules for Copying Company Journals over the Year-End

When you copy company journals over a year-end, the from period must be the last month or week of the year. You define the last period of the fiscal year in the General Configuration function, General 1 tab. The period to which you choose to copy determines whether the rules for copying over the year-end will apply or not. When you copy company journals between periods in the same fiscal year, each account/journal is copied with exactly the same content. As soon as you copy to a period that is later than the last period of the fiscal year, the rules for copying over the year-end will apply. The same rules apply to the copying of group journals.

If company and group journals are copied over a year-end, there are built-in rules in IBM® Cognos Controller defining how this copying process is performed and which accounts are affected. There are two kinds of rules:

  • basic rules
  • alternative rules - the alternative rules only affect Steps 3 and 4 in the copying process.

The following list shows which steps are involved in the basic rules for copying over the year-end:

  1. Values summed to a closing balance are moved to the account defined as opening balance. The automatic account changes depending on which reconciliation rules that are defined in the account structure for opening balances.

    Example: A company journal in the Investment in Buildings account is automatically moved to Opening Balance of Buildings.

  2. Values that add up to produce Net Income in the profit and loss account are copied (not added) to the Previous Year account for Net Income or are copied/added to the Retained Earnings in the Balance Sheet account, depending on how this is defined in the general configuration - Reconciliation.

    Values that add up to produce Net Income in the profit and loss account are also copied to the Transfer to Retained Earnings account and the Transfer Previous Year Net Income account (the latter with a reversed sign) in the analysis of reserves, if these accounts are defined in the general configuration - Reconciliation:

    • If the account Previous Year Net Income in the Balance Sheet is defined in the general configuration, then the value is always copied (not added) to the Previous Year Net Income in the Balance Sheet.
    • If the account Previous Year Net Income in the Balance Sheet is not defined in the general configuration, then the value is added to Retained Earnings in the Balance Sheet.
    • If the account Previous Year Net Income in the Balance Sheet includes a value at the end of the year, then the original value for Previous Year Net Income in the Balance Sheet is added to Retained Earnings in the Balance Sheet.
    • If the account Transfer to Retained Earnings in the Analysis of Reserves and the Transfer Previous Year Net Income account in the Analysis of Reserves is defined in the general configuration, then the value is copied to the Transfer to Retained Earnings account in the Analysis of Reserves. The value is also copied to the Transfer Previous Year Net Income account in the Analysis of Reserves with a reversed sign.
    Note: After this step no values may be left in the account for Net Income in the P & L account, the Balance Sheet or the Analysis of Reserves.
  3. This step only applies to company journals as journal entries.

    If you have defined the copy rule as F=Fixed or T=Temporary, the various account types are copied as described in the following summary:

    Account types A, L and E: All values from the original journal entry are always added to the values created in Steps 1 and 2.

    Exception 1: Accounts that have received new values in Steps 1 and 2 will not be changed.

    Exception 2: Values from accounts that have been involved in a summation for a CB of account type A, L or E will not be added.

    Account types R and S:

    Method 1 - all values from the original journal entry that were not copied using the OB/CB rules in Steps 1 and 2 are added to values created in Steps 1 and 2.

    Method 2 - values from account types R and S, which are also used to generate movement accounts, are added to the values created in Steps 1 and 2. An account that falls within both frameworks as described previously is processed using the first method.

    Exception: Accounts that have received new values in Steps 1 and 2 will not be changed.

    Account types T and U: Values in the original journal entry for these accounts are never added to the values created in Steps 1 and 2.

  4. This step only applies to company journals as journal entries.

    If the copy rule is defined as R=Reversing, all original transactions of the various account types are given the reversed sign and are added to the values created in Steps 1 and 2. The copy rule for reversed verifications will be changed from R (Reversed) to F (Fixed).

    Exception 1: Values from the original journal entry for accounts of types A, L and E are never added to the values created in Steps 1 and 2.

    Exception 2: The main account used to create movement accounts will not be added. However, this does not affect main accounts used to create movement accounts manually.

  5. If you define a journal type so that an opening balance will obtain another journal type when you copy it to the next fiscal year, the journal type will change.

    For more information, see Define Journal Types and Copy Journal Type to Reported Value.

  6. This step only applies to company journals as journal entries.

    If you select the Journal Update According to Reconciliation between Accounts check box using the General Configuration, General 3 tab, the accounts will be updated in accordance with the reconciliation rules defined in the account structure.

    Note: Values calculated using this step will replace values for the same account created using earlier steps.

    For more information, see General Configuration Settings.

Copy Without Year-Ending Rules

When you copy over a year-end, you normally copy the CB value to the OB, using the rules mentioned previously. There is, however, the option of not using this principle. If you want to copy company journals temporarily over a year-end without activating the year-end rules, select Copy Without Year-End Rules in the Company/Copy/Company Journals Between Periods menu. Then an account-to-account copy procedure is run without intelligent rules.

This means that:

  • There is no copying from CB to OB accounts.
  • There is no transfer from profit accounts to the accounts according to the general configuration.
  • All account types are processed in the same way and retain the same account type after copying.
  • There is no change of journal type according to the rules defined in the configuration of journal types. For more information, see Define Journal Types.

Copy Copy Rules

When you copy company journals, you can choose to copy only fixed/reversing journals or to copy all journals.

The default setting allows you to copy only fixed/reversing journals. This setting will change if you want to copy all journals.

When you copy reversing (R) company journals over a year-end, the copy rule is changed to fixed (F).

Copy Journal Type to Reported Value

If you are copying company journals over the year-end, you can define the journal type so that it changes to another journal type the following year or carry it forward to reported values the following year.

For more information, see Define Journal Types.

If you want to copy the journal type to reported values the following year, you have to run the Copy Opening Balances for Reported Values function. The rules for copying opening balances for reported values will then take over for the journal types that you want to move forward to a reported value.

The more intelligent rules for copying company journals over a year-end will then not apply. It is, of course, only the sum of all journal entries for the company journals that can be copied, as reported values are not stored in a journal entry. If the routine is followed during the copying of company journals, these journal types will not be present, as journal entries the following year.

Note: This applies to company journals created as journal entries.

Copy Without Changing Journal Number

When you copy fixed/reversing journal entries, the numbering of the copied journal entries can change. This can be due to the fact that there are some temporary company journals in between the fixed/reversing company journals in the period you are copying from.

If you do not want the numerical order of the company journals to change after copying, select Copy Journals Without Changing the Journal Number in the general configuration using the General 3 tab.

Always place the temporary journals after the fixed and reversing journals at the end of the journal number order, so that there are no gaps in the numerical series when copying fixed and reversing journal types.

For more information, see Define General Configuration - the General 2 Tab.