General Ledger Journal Entries

A local government employee who makes journal entries can change the entity’s most basic financial records. To prevent abuse, only a small number of employees should be allowed to make entries. Public entities should review this access and decide if each person still needs access.

Entities should also keep supporting documentation for each journal entry. This documentation should show who made the journal entry and why.

A different person should review and approve each journal entry. One way to do this is to give the reviewer a report of all entries from the past week or month. The reviewer should then read the entries, check the documents if needed, and sign the report to show approval.

Date this Avoiding Pitfall was most recently published: 9/25/2026