The GATHER Platform features sophisticated Journal functionality to help you manage, complete and perfect your Consolidated Financial Data.
This article gives an overview of (A) Where to Create and Manage Journals (B) the types of Journal on the GATHER Platform and (C) How Journals are presented and integrated on the GATHER Platform
(A) Creating and Managing Journals
Journals can be created in:
Auto Journals tile
Working Papers tile
Journals tile
Each of these tiles can be found on the main screen in the Group Financial Reporting module.
(B) Types of Journal
There are three core types of Journal available on the GATHER Platform:
Auto Journals
Manual Journals
Auto FX Journals
Auto Journals
These are set up in the Auto Journals tile.
Auto Journals are Elimination journals which the user sets up to eliminate Profit and Loss Account or Balance Sheet ledger codes between Companies.
These elimination journals work on an automated basis (picking up financial data from the underlying Xero/QB ledger codes) and recur until the user chooses to stop them at a specific date.
💡Setup Tip: Configure Auto Journals for recurring intercompany transactions like management fees, royalties, or service charges.
Auto-journals can be edited and amended in the Journals tile.
Manual Journals
The user may add manual journals to their Consolidated Working Papers in addition to – or instead of – auto journals.
Manual journals can be added and managed in the Working Papers environment or in the Journals tile.
Manual Journals can either be:
Balance Sheet Journals (in which both debit and credits relate to Balance Sheet Accounts)
Profit and Loss Account Journals (in which both debits and credits relate to Profit and Loss Accounts)
Linked Journals (in which the debits and credits relate both to Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Accounts)
Profit and Loss Account Journal
There are three types of Profit and Loss Journal:
Journal – this is a standard single entry in a particular profit and loss period
Recurring Journal (with fixed data) – the P&L journal recurs in the period specified by the User. The quantum of the journal does not change.
Recurring Journal (with updated data) – this is the same as the Recurring Journal (with fixed data) except the Journal remains in Draft and is not Published – allowing the User to review and update the Journal before it is Published.
ℹ️ Note: Recurring Journals are not available for Balance Sheet or Linked Journals.
Reversing Journal
- This is a Balance Sheet or Linked Journal which is set up to reverse in the subsequent month.
- This allows, for example, the User to adjust Balance Sheet Stacked Journals in prior months without changing subsequent months Working Papers.
Journals to the 9000 Adjustment Account
In both the P&L and Balance Sheet structures within GATHER, you may notice a special account code called "9000 - Adjustment Account." This account is intentionally designed to capture one-sided journal entries if necessary.
While double-entry accounting is standard, there may cases where a user may choose to post a single-sided adjustment. In such cases, the other side of the entry can be temporarily posted to the 9000 Adjustment Account.
The 9000 Adjustment Account does not appear in Group Reports. This means it won't affect your consolidated P&L or Balance Sheet, which helps prevent reporting distortion from incomplete or placeholder entries.
Originally, this account was introduced to support scenarios where users maintained separate P&L and Balance Sheet GRTs (Group Reporting Templates), and linking them was not automated . In those cases, the Adjustment Account provided a manual workaround for balancing.
While GATHER now supports automated linking between P&L and Balance Sheet structures, the 9000 Adjustment Account remains available as a flexible tool for edge cases where temporary or manual balancing is still needed.
Auto FX Journals
Auto FX 1
- The GATHER Platform automatically generates "AUTO FX 1" journals. AUTO FX 1 journals are calculated on the basis of the difference between:
Current Period Earnings as reported in the Aggregated P&L (translated from local currencies into the Group Reporting Currency at the average rate for the Period)
Current Period Earnings as reported in "Equity and Reserves" in the Aggregated Balance Sheet (translated from local currencies into the Group Reporting Currency at the rate at the Balance Sheet date)
- By posting the Auto FX 1 Journal - the Current Period Earnings reported in the Consolidated Balance Sheet are in line with the Current Period Earnings in the Profit and Loss account - with the other side of the journal entry in the GATHER consolidation being posted to FX Differences in Reserves (1).
- The user can click on the blue link for the AUTO FX 1 Journal and review how the balance for the month has been calculated.
Auto FX 2
- The GATHER Platform can also generate "AUTO FX 2" journals (if the user opts to do so). AUTO FX 2 journals are calculated to adjust for the following such scenarios:
Example scenario:
- In the reporting period, there has been an Intercompany transaction between two entities - each of which has a different local reporting currency (let's assume one company's local books are in GBP and one company's local books are in USD).
- Assume the transaction itself (£1000 GBP) is recorded as an invoice in GBP - raised in the GBP company (and recorded in revenue) and recorded as a bill in the USD company.
- In this example, the GBP denominated bill is initially translated as a cost in the P&L account in the USD local books at the GBP:USD FX rate at the transaction date - let's say this is 1:1.3 on the 1st of January 20XX. The transaction is therefore recorded in the USD P&L for the month of January as $769 USD.
- Now, let's assume the Group Reporting Currency in GATHER for these two companies is GBP.
- For the purposes of the GATHER consolidation, the above transaction recorded in the USD P&L is re-translated back into GBP at the average FX rate for the month.
- Let's assume that the average GBP:USD FX rate for the month of January 20XX is 1.25.
- The $769 reported as a cost in the USD company P&L is now retranslated back to £961 GBP in the GATHER consolidation.
- In the GATHER working papers - you will now see £1000 GBP reported in Sales in the GBP company and £961 GBP reported in Costs in the USD company.
- As can be seen, there is an imbalance of £39 between the two.
- The GATHER Auto FX journal removes this imbalance from Profit After Tax in the GATHER Consolidated P&L (which rolls into Current Period Earnings in the Balance Sheet) - and moves this imbalance below the PAT line in the GATHER Consolidated P&L to FX Differences (2) P&L.
- Similarly in the GATHER Consolidated Balance Sheet, the imbalance is removed from Current Period Earnings (mirroring the P&L treatment) and moved into FX Differences In Reserves (2).
ℹ️ Note: GATHER maintains separate accounts for FX Differences in Reserves (1) and FX Differences in Reserves (2) to maintain a clear audit trail.
(C) How are journals integrated and managed in the Consolidation?
In each case, the Journal is added to the Consolidated Working Papers as an adjusting journal between the Aggregated P&L or Balance Sheet financial data and the Consolidated P&L or Balance Sheet financial data.
Each Consolidation Journal is presented as a Column in the Working Papers. Each journal column can be edited or added to each reporting period to create a Stacked Journal. This means that the Working Papers do not contain too many columns.
Each Stacked Journal acts in a similar way to a standalone company – in the sense that a Balance Sheet Journal entered in month 1 will continue to be included in subsequent months – whilst Profit and Loss Account journals only relate to a specified period – and are not carried forward.
Meanwhile Linked Journals (which impact both the Profit and Loss account and Balance Sheet) act in this same way – with Balance Sheet journals being carried forward into future periods and Profit and Loss account journals impacting only the related P&L period). Any change to earnings for the P&L period will be reflected in Current and Prior Year earnings in the Balance Sheet reserves.