Journals & Bank Transfers

The following bank transfers are discussed below…

• Between two bank accounts in the same set of accounts
• Moving General Insurance commission from the Client Bank A/C to the Office Bank A/C
• Between two bank accounts with different currencies in the same account set
• Between two bank accounts with different currencies in different account sets

Between Two Bank Accounts in the Same Set of Accounts

Create a journal to transfer sums between banks, as illustrated below. Note that the bank account receiving the sum is the “Debit” one. You may choose to click the “Make cashbook entry” tick-boxes so that you end-up with two matching entries in the Cashbook (i.e. one for the cheque out of the “Office” bank and one for the deposit into the “Investment” account) but these Cashbook entries are not required by the system. If you do tick them make sure you then go to the Cashbook and select the “Signpost” option to “Cash-up to Bank(s)”.

Moving General Insurance Commission from the Client Bank A/C to the Office Bank A/C

See “Accounts, Period End, Transferable”.

Between Two Bank Accounts with Different Currencies in the Same Set of Accounts

When transferring from one currency to another you have to make two journals because the sums involved are different (e.g. 1,000.00 Sterling might become 1,400.00 Euros in the receiving bank). To this end you will need to create a “Control” account for each type of currency transaction, e.g.

• Sterling to Euros
• Sterling from Euros
• Euros to Sterling
• Euros from Sterling
• Sterling to Dollars
• Sterling from Dollars, etc

…or…

• Sterling, out of
• Sterling, into
• Euros, out of
• Euros, into
• Dollars, out of
• Dollars, into, etc

The latter set is simpler as it requires less control accounts, but will result in a less precise record of the total movements made, though either set will suffice. To create these control accounts, starting from Durell’s Main Menu…

• Click the “Accounts” button
• Click the “Setup” button (n.b. the red one, not the green one on the Main Menu)
• Click the “Nominal accounts” tab
• In the “Show accounts for” dropdown select “Control”
• Click the “Starburst” or “New” button
• Enter a short name (e.g. “STOE”)
• Enter the long name (e.g. “Sterling to Euros”)
• Set “Include in spreadsheet” to “No” and do not tick “Make available for invoicing”
• Click the red “Save” button
• Repeat this for each type of currency transaction

Now to transfer £1,000.00 OUT of the Sterling Bank A/C, create a journal like the following…

And to transfer £1,400.00 INTO the Euro Bank A/C, create a journal like the following…

Pairs of journals like those described above will keep your Trial Balance in balance and also provide you with a record of how much has been moved from one currency to another, as shown below. However DO NOT include these controls in your Balance Sheet report, or their values will be negated – ONLY include the actual Bank Accounts. Your Profit & Loss report and your Spreadsheet report should not include any of these control or bank accounts, so should not be affected.

Between Two Bank Accounts with Different Currencies in Different Sets of Accounts

This process is identical to that just described above, except you create one half of the pair of journals in one set of accounts (e.g. Transfer £1,000 from the Sterling Bank A/C) and the other half in the other set (e.g. Transfer 1,400 into the Euro Bank A/C).

Shortcut - Use Default Journal Templates

Once you’ve worked-out exactly what ought to be done with a journal, to save it as a template for future re-use simply…

· Highlight it (e.g. the “Transfer into Euros” one, below)

· Click the “Signpost” button

· Select “Use as template”

· Give it a name (e.g. “Transfer into Euros”, “VAT Return”, etc)

· Click the “OK” button

Then the next time you’re starting a new journal to do the same thing just click the “Load default” button and pick the one you want, as shown below.

If you subsequently find the description isn’t quite right (e.g. you wish you’d saved “VAT Return” as “VAT Return for quarter” then just edit the text and click “Save Description”, as shown below, in which case the default template will be renamed AND its title passed to the Description field (see above) of all future journals based on it.