Set up for GAAP or tax adjustments

At the end of the fiscal year, companies reconcile their accounting for reporting compliance requirements. As a result of these reconciliations, adjustments are often made for GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and tax purposes.

You can post these adjustments without changing historical monthly amounts to maintain the integrity of the operational reporting. Examples of these adjustments are depreciation, amortization, and tax liability.

You can configure General Ledger to include GAAP adjustment journals, tax adjustment journals, or both. By setting up GAAP and tax adjustment journals, you can:

  • Post GAAP and tax adjusting entries
  • Report on adjustments as needed in financial reports and other General Ledger reports

Because Sage Intacct treats GAAP and tax adjustments as separate reporting books, you can report on adjustments separately or in combination with other books, such as your Accrual book.

Subscription

General Ledger

Regional availability

All regions

User type

Business user with admin privileges
Permissions

GAAP adjustment journals: List, View, Add, Edit, Delete

Tax adjustment journals: List, View, Add, Edit, Delete

Set up GAAP and tax adjustment journals

If your company has not already enabled GAAP or tax adjustment journals, you can set them up in 3 steps.

1. Enable journals in General Ledger

When you enable GAAP and tax adjustment journals, Intacct adds separate lists for the journals to the General Ledger menu. The journals that you add to the lists are treated as part of separate reporting books.

  1. Go to General Ledger > Setup > Configuration.
  2. In the Accounting settings section, under GAAP and Tax, enable the type of adjustment journals you need.

    You can Enable GAAP adjustment journals, Enable tax adjustment journals, or enable both types of journals.

  3. Review the options for how adjustments are treated at the end of the fiscal year.

    We recommend that you leave Keep adjustments separate from accrual or cash selected.

Learn more about the options for GAAP and tax in General Ledger.

2. Grant permissions to access the journals

You and other users can work with the journals only if you've been granted the corresponding permissions. There are separate permissions for managing the journals and adding entries to them.

  1. Display the user's permissions for the General Ledger.

    If you're using role-based permissions, edit the user's role and then edit the permissions for the General Ledger.

  2. In the General Ledger permissions page, grant permissions related to GAAP and tax adjustments.

    The list of activities and lists includes:

    • Tax adjustment journals
    • GAAP adjustment journals

    • Tax adjusting entries

    • GAAP adjusting entries

Granting permission for GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), tax, and user-defined books enable users to enter transactions into these books. However, all users with access to General Ledger reports are able to see the data in the books, even if they are not granted specific permissions for them.

There's no user access restriction to data for user-defined, GAAP, or tax books. Users with General Ledger reporting permissions are allowed to see data in journals or books in the reports.

3. Add GAAP and tax adjustment journals

To enter adjustments, you must add at least 1 GAAP adjustment journal and 1 tax adjustment journal.

  1. Display the list of journals.
    • For GAAP adjustment journals, go to General Ledger > Setup >  GAAP adjustment.
    • For tax adjustment journals, go to General Ledger > Setup > Tax adjustment.
  2. Select Create.

  3. Enter an abbreviation for the journal in the Symbol field. After you've saved the journal, you can no longer edit the symbol.

    In most places in Intacct, the symbol appears along with the title of the journal, as in GAAP--GAAP Adjustment Journal.

  4. In the Title field, enter the full name of the journal, as it will appear in reports and other places.
  5. Select Save.
  1. Display the list of journals.
    • For GAAP adjustment journals, go to General Ledger > Setup >  GAAP adjustment.
    • For tax adjustment journals, go to General Ledger > Setup > Tax adjustment.
  2. Select Add.

  3. Enter an abbreviation for the journal in the Symbol field. After you've saved the journal, you can no longer edit the symbol.

    In most places in Intacct, the symbol appears along with the title of the journal, as in GAAP--GAAP Adjustment Journal.

  4. In the Title field, enter the full name of the journal, as it will appear in reports and other places.
  5. Select Save.
For multi-entity, shared companies Journals are master objects, which can either be accessible to all entities, or exclusive (private) to a specific entity.

Delete or deactivate an adjustment journal

If you no longer need a journal, you can delete it or deactivate it.

  • Deleting a journal removes it from the corresponding list. You can delete a journal only if there are no transactions in it.
  • Deactivating a journal hides it from the corresponding list. You can deactivate a journal as long as it's not being used in the configuration page of a service or application and there are no open (draft) transactions.
    • To deactivate a journal, edit the journal and change the Status to Inactive.
    • You can still display inactive journals by selecting the Include inactive checkbox at the top of the journals list.