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Journal Entries

The allotment of funds within the university’s chartfield structure (i.e. fund, account, cost centre, activity, time, location) occurs via journal entries. Journal entries are the means to transfer dollars within the financial system. It is used to correct actual cost charges or to re-distribute or re-align actual costs. For a complete instruction on completing journal entries refer to Preparing Journal Entries at York University Manual.

Any staff member in a department can prepare journals, but journals can only be approved by certain individuals.

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Journal Approvers

Journal TypeApproved by:
Research Journals
(Fund 400 and/or 500)
Cost centre manager; or
Primary/delegated signee
All Other Journals
including budget allocation journals.
Cost Centre Manager; or
Primary/Delegated Signer; or
Executive Officer; or equivalent; or
Financial Officer; or equivalent of the cost centres that is included in the journal; or
Supervisor/Manager of journal preparer

Approvers cannot authorize someone else to approve on his/her behalf. Finance will not process a journal if the journal has been approved by an individual who does not meet one of the four (4) criteria listed above.

Common use of Journal Entries

  • record revenues received
  • charge other departments for goods and/or services
  • correct errors in chartfields (account, cost centre, activity, time and location)
  • transfer funding support within and between departments and/or faculties
  • reallocate revenues, expenses, assets and/or liabilities

Where to send the Journal

The type of journal will determine the Finance group that will be responsible for processing the journal. Since each area has its own email address for journals, it is important that the approved journals are sent to the correct area to avoid any delays.

Type of JournalEmail
Budget Allocation Journals
(Contain 099xxx accounts)
budjrnls@yorku.ca
Research Journals
(Contain Fund 400 and/or Fund 500 entries)
resjrnls@yorku.ca
Other Journalsjournals@yorku.ca