Journal Entry Support Template (Manual JE, Approvals)

Journal Entry Support: [JE number] [Short description]

Support file for a manual journal entry: header and entry type, business purpose, entry lines, calculation and source documents, accounting basis, segregation of duties, approval limits, post-entry review, reversal plan, audit trail and the journal entry risk factors that management review and external auditors focus on. Control language follows the GAO Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government (Green Book, GAO-25-107721, 2025 revision, US public domain). Auditor journal entry testing is referenced by standard number only (ISA 240 (Revised), PCAOB AS 2401). Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example. This is a document format, not accounting, audit, tax, legal or financial advice. Obtain the standard or law for the normative text.

Document control

Approvals

Revision history

Contents

1. Entry header and type
2. Business purpose
3. Entry lines
4. Calculation and source documents
5. Accounting basis
6. Segregation of duties
7. Approval limits
8. Post-entry review
9. Reversal and clearing plan
10. Audit trail
11. Journal entry risk factors
12. Second example: correction entry
13. Glossary and references

1. Entry header and type

Classify every manual entry before it is prepared. The classification decides who approves it, whether it auto-reverses, and how closely it is looked at in post-entry review. Use the definitions below; if an entry fits more than one type, use the one with the stricter approval route.

Keep the number of manual entries low. Each standard recurring entry is a candidate for automation through a sub-ledger or schedule, and each repeated correction points to a process that should be fixed at the source. Track the count of manual entries per period as a close KPI, as in the close checklist.

The Example header:

2. Business purpose

Write two to five sentences that explain the event behind the entry. Name the counterparty or internal process, the period of the underlying activity, and why the entry is manual. A reviewer reading only this section should understand whether the entry makes sense before looking at any number.

Example: CC-DE runs its webshop and order systems on a public cloud provider that invoices monthly in arrears in USD, usually around the fifth working day of the next month. The March 2027 invoice will arrive after the March close, so the cost of March usage must be accrued to report March expenses in March. The amount is taken from the provider's usage and billing dashboard at month end, which shows usage-based charges for the month. The entry reverses on 2027-04-01 and the actual invoice is posted through accounts payable when received.

3. Entry lines

List each line as it will be posted, with all dimensions required by the chart of accounts. The total of debits must equal the total of credits in the entry currency. If the source amount is in another currency, show the source amount and the rate on the line.

4. Calculation and source documents

Show the calculation step by step with each input traced to an evidence item. When the amount is an estimate, explain the method and show how last period's estimate compared with the actual outcome, because a history of accurate estimates is the best evidence that the method works.

The conversion uses the group rule that month-end accruals in foreign currency are translated at the period-end rate published by treasury. Strictly, the expense is measured at the rate on the transaction dates (or an average that approximates them) and the accrued liability at the closing rate; the group uses the period-end rate for month-end accruals as a practical approximation, because the difference to the monthly average rate is immaterial, and treasury reviews that difference quarterly:

Reasonableness check against prior periods: the February 2027 invoice was USD 194,250.00, so March is up USD 7,350.00 or 3.8% (201,600.00 / 194,250.00 = 1.0378). The Easter campaign increased order traffic in late March, which explains the increase. The February accrual was USD 193,800.00 against the actual USD 194,250.00, a difference of USD 450.00 or 0.2% of the actual, within the 5% estimate accuracy tolerance in the accrual policy.

5. Accounting basis

Name the accounting policy section that governs the entry, using the Accounting Policy Manual (finance/accounting-policy-manual). For routine entries a policy reference is enough. For non-routine or judgemental entries, attach or link a Technical Accounting Memo (finance/technical-accounting-memo) and note who reviewed it. Cite accounting standards by name; the policy manual carries the detailed treatment.

For entities with local statutory rules on accounting documents, such as Vietnam under Circular 99/2025/TT-BTC (applicable from 2026-01-01), check that the support file also meets the local documentation and retention requirements; check local law.

6. Segregation of duties

The Green Book expects management to consider segregation of duties when it designs control activities, and to consider fraud risk, including management override, when it assesses risk (Principle 8). For journal entries, the minimum is that the person who prepares an entry cannot approve it, and that approval happens before posting. Where the ERP workflow enforces this, record the workflow configuration once in the risk and control matrix and refer to it here. Where it is manual, record each role on the entry.

Conflicts to watch for: the same user preparing and approving (blocked in workflow); an approver editing amounts after approval (the workflow must reset approval on any change); administrators with posting rights (review their activity monthly); and shared or generic user IDs (prohibit for posting). Access to post journal entries is part of IT general controls over the ERP, which the Green Book addresses under designing control activities for the information system (Principle 11).

7. Approval limits

Approval limits come from the Delegation of Authority Matrix (finance/delegation-of-authority-matrix). Measure the amount as the total debits of the entry in the functional currency. Treat entries for the same event as one entry for approval purposes, even if they are posted separately, so that splitting cannot avoid a limit.

The cloud hosting accrual is an accrual of EUR 186,666.67, in the band above EUR 50,000 up to 500,000, so the group financial controller approves it. The band boundaries are Example values; set your own in the delegation of authority, and review them when the size of the business changes.

7.1 Exceptions to the normal route

Plan for the situations in which the normal route does not work, so that people do not improvise during the close. When the designated approver is absent, approval passes to the named deputy in the delegation of authority, never to a peer of the preparer. When an entry is urgent and posted before full support is ready (for example, to meet a lender reporting deadline), the approver records the reason, the support is completed within two working days, and the entry is flagged for post-entry review. When an entry must be posted after the GL lock, the group financial controller approves the reopening and the entry, and the ERP administrator records the period reopening and closing times. Every exception goes to the close issues log so that the financial controller can see how often the normal route is bypassed, and why.

7.2 What the approver checks

Approval is a control only if the approver looks at the support. Before approving, the approver reads the business purpose and asks whether it makes sense given what they know about the business; recomputes or at least traces the main inputs; checks the accounts and cost centres; confirms the period is right; and checks whether the entry reverses. For estimates, the approver compares the amount with prior periods and asks about any change in method. Questions and answers are recorded in the workflow comments, which become part of the evidence. An approver who never rejects or returns entries should ask whether the review is precise enough.

8. Post-entry review

After the entity GL lock, the entity controller reviews the complete list of manual entries posted in the period (GL-09 in the close checklist). The list comes directly from the ERP, filtered by source "manual", and its total is agreed to the trial balance movement for manual sources so that the reviewer knows it is complete. The reviewer checks every entry above a threshold and a risk-based selection below it, using the risk factors in section 11. The post-entry reviewer must not review an entry they prepared or approved: entries approved by the entity controller go to the group financial controller for post-entry review, so nobody reviews their own approval.

8.1 Common errors found in review

The same errors recur across organisations, and most are cheap to prevent. Entries are posted to the wrong period because the posting date defaulted to the system date; set the ERP to require an explicit posting date during the close window. Accruals are booked but the auto-reversal flag is not set, so the invoice in the next period doubles the expense; include the reversal flag in the approver's checks. Foreign-currency amounts are converted at the wrong rate or with the rate inverted; state the rate convention on every line, as in section 3. Reclassifications move amounts between accounts that belong to different reporting lines without anyone in reporting being told; send reclassifications above the flux threshold to the group reporting lead. Support files contain the calculation but not the source, so the reviewer cannot recompute; require an evidence ID for every input. Finally, recurring entries keep running after the underlying contract has ended; review the recurring entry list every quarter against active contracts and remove entries that no longer apply.

9. Reversal and clearing plan

State how and when the entry clears. For reversing accruals, set the auto-reversal date in the ERP and name the transaction that will replace it. Compare the actual with the estimate when the replacement arrives, and record the result here. The comparison is the evidence that the estimation method remains reliable.

10. Audit trail

Link the support to the system record in both directions: put the support file location in the ERP document header or attachment, and put the ERP document numbers here. Keep the file in the controlled close folder for the retention period required by the strictest jurisdiction in scope.

11. Journal entry risk factors

External auditors test journal entries and other adjustments as part of their response to the risk of management override of controls. ISA 240 (Revised), which applies to audits of periods beginning on or after 2026-12-15, and PCAOB AS 2401 contain the auditor requirements; obtain the standards for the normative text. This section does not restate those requirements. It lists characteristics, written from general practice, that make an entry worth a closer look in management's own review. Fraud risk at the entity level is assessed in Fraud Risk Assessment (compliance/fraud-risk-assessment).

In the example, JE-2027-03-0391 shows none of these factors. The correction in section 12 would match JRF-03 if it were posted after lock; it was posted before lock, so it does not.

Run these filters on the full population of entries for the period, and agree the population to the trial balance before filtering, so that nothing is excluded by the report itself. Record the filters used, the entries selected and the conclusion in the post-entry review file for the period. Where the group runs a formal internal control programme, the review is a key control in Risk and Control Matrix (compliance/risk-control-matrix) and is tested in Control Testing Workpaper (compliance/control-testing-workpaper).

12. Second example: correction entry

Not every entry needs a long file. A small correction found in a reconciliation needs the same elements in a short form: what was wrong, why, the evidence, the entry and the approval.

13. Glossary and references

13.1 Glossary

13.2 References

Standard and licence note

Based on the GAO Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government (Green Book, GAO-25-107721, 2025) and SEC Release 33-8810 (2007), both US government works in the public domain; they are cited and the text here is original. The support file layout, approval limits and risk factor list are original practitioner writing; no standard prescribes them, and the limits are examples, not requirements. IAASB (ISA 240), PCAOB (AS 2401), IFRS Foundation (IAS 8, IAS 21, IFRS 18) and COSO materials are cited by name and number only; no text from them is reproduced or paraphrased. Corvid Commerce GmbH and every figure are fictional. Check the current official versions of every cited source and your local law before use. Template licence: MIT.