ANS-1673 · ACCOUNTING & FINANCIAL CONFIGURATION
What are the GL Impacts of NetSuite Post Time and Intercompany Adjustments?
This article clarifies the general ledger entries generated by time posting and subsequent intercompany adjustments within NetSuite's project accounting module.
Short answer
The Post Time transaction debits the Project Expense account and credits the Project Cost Variance account. For intercompany scenarios, an advanced intercompany journal reverses the initial entry in the employee's subsidiary and posts corresponding debits and credits in the project's subsidiary, ensuring accurate cross-subsidiary cost allocation.
Scenario
Users often need to understand the specific general ledger impacts generated by time entries posted against projects in NetSuite. This includes both standard time posting transactions and the more complex intercompany adjustments that occur when employees and projects belong to different subsidiaries, affecting how costs are recorded across entities.
Solution
The Project Cost Variance is an Other Current Liability account defined in the accounting preferences. This account can be overridden in the Post Time screen.The Project expense account is the account reference in the Project Expense type defined on the project record.The posting time transaction generates the following General Ledger (GL) impacts:
Debit against the expense account specified on the Project Expense Type defined on the project.
Credit against the project variance account defined on the time posting bulk screen. The default account selected at Setup > Accounting > Accounting Preferences > Items/Transactions automatically populates this field.
Posted against the segments specified on the time entry. If the project is in the same subsidiary as the employee, it will reference the project. If not, the intercompany adjustment will assign the project.An intercompany adjustment (advanced intercompany journal) occurs if the subsidiary of the project is not the same subsidiary as the employee/post time transaction. This adjustment involves:
Reversing the post time entry in the subsidiary of the employee (will credit the expense and debit the project cost variance), following the same segments (department, class, location) as the post time entry.
Debiting the expense account and crediting the project variance account in the subsidiary of the project, following the same segments (department, class, location) as the post time entry.
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