Journal entries

What this does

Accounting → Ledger → Journal Entries lists every entry in the ledger, most of them posted automatically by invoices, payments, deposits, and bills. It's also where you post a manual entry for anything without its own screen: an owner's contribution, a correction, depreciation before the fixed-asset run, an accrual.

Before you start

journal_entry.create: Owner, General Manager, Accountant. Know both sides of the entry; the app won't guess the other side.

Steps

1. Create an entry: Date and Description.
2. Add lines: account, debit or credit, memo. Debits must equal credits; the entry won't post otherwise.
3. Save as draft, or Post Entry. A draft can be edited or deleted; a posted entry can't be.
4. To undo a posted entry, void it. Voiding posts a reversing entry dated today (or the date you give) and marks the original void, so the audit trail keeps both. Nothing is deleted.

The list shows each entry's source (invoice, payment, deposit, manual, and so on) and the reference it came from; click through to the originating record.

What to use instead

Most corrections have a better path. A wrong invoice: void and re-issue, or a credit memo. A wrong payment: delete it (which reverses its entry) or refund. A wrong check or card charge: edit it in place. A journal entry that re-does what one of those screens does is a second set of books nobody will reconcile.

Common problems

"Entry does not balance." Debits and credits differ. Check for a line with the amount on the wrong side.

Posting refused by the lock date. See Period locking.

I need the same entry every month. Memorize it; see Memorized transactions.