How the books work

What this does

Everything under Accounting is a general ledger: every money event is a balanced journal entry, debits equal credits, and every report is derived from those entries. There is no separate "bookkeeping mode"; the invoice you issued at the counter is already in the ledger.

What posts, and when

An invoice is issued (first send, explicit issue, or first payment): Dr Accounts Receivable, Cr revenue by line, Cr Sales Tax Payable. A customer payment is recorded: Dr Undeposited Funds (or the bank, depending on a setting), Cr Accounts Receivable. A deposit is posted: Dr bank, Cr Undeposited Funds. A bill is created from a document or by hand: nothing, until it's approved and paid. A check, card charge, or cash payment is entered: Dr expense, Cr bank/card/cash. Everything else (journal entries, transfers, refunds, credit memos) is covered in its own article.

Estimates and work orders never post. Neither do line edits on a draft invoice. A billing type of No Charge or Internal skips posting; Warranty and Prepaid defer it. See Billing types.

The one idea

A payment and a bank credit are different events. Card money sits with the processor for a day or two; a check sits in the drawer until Friday. The books record the payment when it happens, then a deposit moves that money to the bank. That's why Undeposited Funds exists, why the bank register doesn't move when you take a payment, and why reconciliation works: the deposit you post is the deposit the bank shows. See Undeposited Funds.

Guards you'll run into

Posting refuses without the two required accounts (next article). Nothing posts on or before the lock date. Voiding reverses rather than deletes. Each event posts once; re-sending an invoice or re-running an import doesn't double-post. Every night, checks compare the ledger to the invoices and raise an Exception if they disagree; see Nightly checks.

Common problems

Revenue is on the P&L but the bank balance hasn't changed. Correct. Revenue posts at issue; cash reaches the bank at deposit. Look at Undeposited Funds and Accounts Receivable for where the money is.

I want to fix a posted transaction. Posted bank and card transactions are edited in place, and the ledger follows. Invoices are voided and re-issued, or corrected with a credit memo. Don't delete.