To purge journal entries

If you haven’t already read the Month-end Procedures Overview, see Purging information that’s no longer needed for more information.

Please note that this task requires single-user access. See Single-user file locking for more information.

  1. Print all the reports that you wish to keep that show the transactions you’ll be purging. Account inquiry reports contain most of the information you may want to retain.
  2. Make a backup of your data file. Clearly mark this backup and put it in storage as part of your permanent records. (If you’ve just purged closed sales or purchases and made a backup during one of those procedures, it’s not necessary to make another backup for journal entries.)
  3. Open the General Ledger Command Center.
  4. Choose Purge Journal Entries from the File menu to open the Purge Journal Entries window.
  5. From the Purge Journal Entries BEFORE list, choose the first month for which you don’t want to remove journal entries. Be especially careful when you select a month—don’t include an accounting period that isn’t completely closed. All journal entries dated prior to the month you select will be marked for purging.
  6. Click the Continue button. Another Purge Journal Entries window will appear, listing all the accounts in your chart of accounts.
  7. From the list of accounts, select the accounts whose unreconciled journal entries you don’t want to purge. Typically, you should select the accounts you regularly reconcile in the Reconcile Accounts window.
Note: This is different than what you do with sales and purchases!
Be sure to mark the accounts that have unreconciled journal entries you don’t want to be removed. (Don’t make the mistake of marking the accounts you do want to be removed as you do with sales and purchases.) Be careful when you make your selections!
  1. Click the Purge Journal Entries button. The journal entries for the time frame you specified and for the accounts you didn’t select in this window will be purged.

To purge journal entries