Journal entries
Debits and credits you enter by hand that balance, posted to a book of the general ledger on a date.
A journal entry is debits and credits you enter by hand, such as a payroll charge. Its lines balance and post to ledger accounts in one of an entity's books on a date.
How it works
The general ledger holds what invoices, payments, and journal entries post, in each book, by account and by customer or vendor. It is a ledger: it is only added to, and its balances are sums of its entries.
Invoices and payments post to the general ledger themselves when they are issued and received. You add journal entries for anything else, such as payroll or a depreciation charge:
- Draft a journal entry in a book, with lines that debit and credit accounts and balance.
- Click Post journal entry. Finance checks that the lines balance, numbers the entry, such as JE-12, and makes it final.
A journal entry is a Document. It moves from Draft to Posted, and a posted entry never changes. To correct one, click Reverse journal entry, which posts entries that cancel it line for line and marks it Reversed. Nothing dated on or before a book's Lock date can post. A journal entry never posts to a control account, such as accounts receivable.
The Drafts view lists entries not yet posted.
Document: final once committed; a new document corrects it.
Status
- Draft
- Posted
- Reversed
Fields
- NumberSet by Continual
- Number, such as JE-12
- Open itemSet by Continual
The ledger entry it keeps open on a reconcilable account, such as a receivable, which matches settle.
- Text
- Amount dueSet by Continual
What it still owes on its open item, such as an invoice's receivable, as payments and credits settle it; none before it posts.
- Money
- Book
The book it posts in.
- Link to a book
- Effective date
The accounting date it posts on.
- Date
- Memo
- Text
- LinesEach has Account (link to a ledger account), party (link to a company or person), Amount (money), memo (text).
- List
Actions
- Post journal entry. Posts a draft journal entry's lines to the general ledger in its book, on its effective date, and makes it final. Its lines balance in each currency, and the book is open on that date.
- Reverse journal entry. Reverses a posted journal entry: posts the opposite of each of its entries, dated today or its own date when that is later, and leaves it reversed.