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Allocation journals distribute a source pool of GL activity across target accounts and dimensions on a recurring basis. You configure a schedule once, and DualEntry generates the allocation journal on your chosen frequency: monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. Typical uses are pushing shared costs (facilities, IT, corporate overhead) out to the departments or projects that consume them, or reallocating a clearing account to its intended targets each period.

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Source

Every allocation schedule draws from a source: a single GL account whose posted activity is the pool being distributed. Each period, DualEntry sums the activity on that account and distributes the total across the target lines. Bank and credit-card accounts cannot be used as the source account. This is the standard pattern for corporate overhead: post overhead to a clearing account throughout the period, then allocate the balance out at close. You can narrow the source pool by classification/dimension so that only a slice of the account’s activity is allocated. This is useful when a single account is shared across dimensions but only one dimension’s activity should be redistributed. The available filters are the standard classifications:
  • Department
  • Class
  • Location
  • Project
Attach one or more classification values to the schedule, and DualEntry limits the source pool to the activity tagged with those values. Leave the filters empty to allocate the full balance of the source account.

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Targets: percentage or fixed, dimensions, and the 100% rule

Every schedule has one or more target lines that describe where the source pool goes. Each target line specifies:
  • Destination account (required) - the GL account that receives its share of the pool. Cannot be the same as the source account.
  • Destination company (optional) - for multi-entity organizations, the legal entity that receives the allocation. Defaults to the source company.
  • Classifications (optional) - the department, class, location, or project the target line is tagged with. Set these to route the allocated amount to a specific dimension on the receiving account. Defaults to untagged.
  • Amount rule (required) - either a percentage (0-100) or a fixed amount, depending on the schedule’s allocation type.
  • Customer or vendor (optional) - if the destination account is a sub-ledger control account, tag the line so the allocation flows into the correct sub-ledger. Defaults to none.
For percentage-type schedules, the sum of the target percentages must equal 100%. DualEntry blocks activation of a schedule where the targets don’t total 100. Fixed-amount schedules are validated on the total against the source pool at generation time.

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Frequency, status, and generation

Allocation schedules run on a recurrence you set at creation: On each scheduled date, DualEntry generates an allocation journal, a balanced journal entry that debits and credits the source account and target accounts to move the pool. Review the generated entry the same way you would any journal entry (see Journal entries); allocation journals feed the audit trail and can be reversed if a schedule was configured incorrectly. If you deactivate a schedule mid-year, no journals are generated after that point. Reactivating the schedule resumes generation from the next scheduled date; DualEntry does not backfill missed periods automatically.

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Where to go next

Allocation journals are one form of recurring GL activity. For fixed-amount recurring postings that are not source-and-target allocations, see recurring journal entries. For contract-driven revenue allocations under ASC 606, see Allocations and SSP, a different concept that shares the “allocation” name but is scoped to revenue recognition on multi-obligation contracts.
Last modified on July 25, 2026