Voucher Templates vs Periodic Journals in Dynamics 365

Maybe you have read all the documentation and all the manuals but still, it seems that voucher templates and periodic journals serve the same purpose. Both may have similar functionality, and both can aid in consistency and speed, but today’s blog post will explore the differences between voucher templates and periodic journals in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance.

In the General ledger module, you can create and use Voucher templates. Personally, I like to utilize this function for accrual entries or vendor invoices. First, create the journal you intend to save as a template. Open the General journal lines and navigate to Functions > Save voucher template to save the journal.

Here lies the greatest difference between the two. After the Voucher template is saved, there will be a prompt to save the template with either a Percent or Amount parameter.

Choose the option that best applies:

• Choose Percent, if the allocation needs to be divided by the percentage of amount of the voucher
• Choose Amount, if the amount of the voucher is fixed for the allocation.

To use the newly saved Voucher template, create a new General journal, like how we did to save the Voucher template, and navigate to Functions > Select voucher template to select the desired Voucher template and all the saved journal lines will be copied to the newly created General journal lines.

As an alternative to Voucher templates, there is the option to utilize Periodic journals. I find them most handy for longer entries that also recur at a user specified interval with same amount, description, and financial dimensions. There are multiple ways to save a Periodic journal. I prefer to use the Periodic journal form, accessible through General ledger > Periodic tasks > Periodic journals. Create a new Periodic journal with a description and open the lines.

Here, enter the complete journal lines and the recurring frequency can be customized, whether that be days, months, years, etc. as well as the frequency of the Periodic journal. This option is unique to Periodic journals. For example, if a journal needs to be posted every other month, the Unit would be Months and the Number of units would be 2. Also, unique (and quite neat!) to the Periodic journal, you can  view the date the journal was last used in the Last date field.

To use a saved Periodic journal, create a new General journal, similarly to how we did for the Voucher template but instead we will copy it from the Period journal tab > Retrieve journal. There will be a prompt to select the appropriate journal. Select Copy and the journal lines will populate in the General journal.

As I mentioned, both of these functions can save tremendous amounts of time and are nice options for larger, recurring journal entries!

This blog post is also applicable to Microsoft AX 2012 and you can find more information here and here.

If you liked this blog and would like to explore additional automation opportunities, check out Automatic Charges in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations!