Journal Entries

A journal entry records one event in the books as a set of debits and credits on accounts of the chart of accounts. The debits and the credits of an entry are always equal. Most entries are written for you when a sale, a bill or a paycheck is saved; use this screen to see them, and to enter the adjustments that have no screen of their own, such as an owner's investment, a correction or a year-end adjustment.

Menu	Books > Journal entries
Permission	View journal entries and the trial balance (to see entries); Enter, post and reverse journal entries (to enter, post, reverse and delete drafts)
Feature	Accounting

Can't find it?

What you see depends on your role. If the menu, a button or a setting on this page is missing, ask your administrator to give you the permission listed above or to turn on the feature. Only administrators can turn features on and change site settings.

tip

Many entries from another program or a spreadsheet can be imported from a CSV file: see Import files.

Posted entries never change

An entry is either a draft or posted.

• A draft is a work in progress. It does not affect any balance, it does not have to balance yet, and you can change it or delete it.
• A posted entry is in the books. It gets a number, such as JE-12, and it never changes again. To correct it, you reverse it: a new entry with the debits and credits swapped cancels it, so the books keep both the mistake and the correction.

The journal

Open Books > Journal entries. The newest entries come first. Each row shows:

• the business date of the entry;
• the entry number and its memo, and for entries written from a document, the kind of document;
• a status badge: Draft, Posted or Reversed, and a Reversal badge on entries that cancel another;
• the amount: the total of the debits;
• an Edit button for drafts, or a View button for posted entries.

When your site offers the layout buttons above the list, you can show the journal as a grid with the columns Date, Entry, Status, Amount and Actions.

Find entries

Type in the search box and press Enter. Text on its own searches the memo and the entry number. You can also type terms; select the ? button next to the search box to see them all.

Term	Shows	Example
date:	Entries of a day, a month, a year or a range of dates, or of today, this month, last month, this quarter or this year	date:2026-10, date:2026-01..2026-03, date:this-month
amount:	Entries whose total is an amount, above or below an amount, or in a range	amount:>500, amount:100..200
account:	Entries with a line on an account, by the account's number or its exact name	account:6100
status:	Draft, posted or reversed entries	status:draft
kind:	Entries you entered (manual), entries written from documents (source), entries created by recurring entries (recurring), or reversals	kind:manual
source:	Entries written from a kind of document	source:Sales
sort:	The order: newest (the default), oldest or amount	sort:oldest

You can combine terms, for example account:6400 date:this-year. The address of the page keeps your search, so you can bookmark it.

Enter a journal entry

1. Open Books > Journal entries and select New journal entry.
2. Check the Date. It starts as today's business date. The entry belongs to the fiscal period of this date.
3. Type a Memo that says what the entry is for.
4. On each line, choose an Account and type the amount under Debit or under Credit, never both. You can add a Line memo.
5. Watch the line under the table: it shows the Totals and either Balanced or Out of balance by the difference.
6. Select Post to put the entry in the books, or Save draft to finish it later.

If something is wrong, the entry is not saved and a message above the form says what to fix, with the line number, for example Line 2: Choose an account.

Working with the lines

To...	Do this
Add a line	Select Add line, or press Enter on the last line.
Remove a line	Select the red × at the end of the line, or press Ctrl+Delete on it.
Move between lines	Press the up and down arrow keys in an amount or memo box.

Empty lines are ignored when you save. Inactive accounts are not offered for new lines.

Fields

Field	What it does
Date	The business date of the entry.
Memo	What the entry is for. It is shown in the journal and searched by the search box.
Account	The account of the line. The list is grouped by account type.
Debit	The amount that increases an asset or an expense, or decreases a liability, equity or income.
Credit	The amount that increases a liability, equity or income, or decreases an asset or an expense.
Line memo	A note for that line.

Finish a draft

1. In the journal, find the draft (for example with status:draft) and select Edit.
2. Change what you need, then select Post, or Save draft again.

To throw a draft away, select Delete draft in the editor. Posted entries cannot be deleted.

View an entry

Select View on a posted entry. The page shows the date, the memo, the kind of entry, its status, when and by whom it was posted, and every line with its account, debit, credit and line memo. When the entry was reversed, or when it is a reversal, the page links to the other entry.

Reverse an entry

Reverse an entry to cancel it, for example when it was posted with the wrong amount or on the wrong account.

1. Open the entry with View.
2. Under Reverse this entry, set the Reversal date. It starts as today's business date; pick the date the correction belongs to.
3. Optionally type the Reason, such as wrong amount. It becomes the memo of the reversal.
4. Select Reverse.

The reversal is posted with its own number, and the original entry shows Reversed. Then enter the correct entry. An entry can be reversed only once, and a reversal cannot itself be reversed.

The reversal date must be in an open period; see Periods.

Entries written from a document, such as a daily sale or the opening balances, are reversed and written again for you when the document changes, so their page has no Reverse this entry. Change or void the document instead.

Troubleshooting

Message	What to do
The debits and the credits must be equal.	Check the amounts until the line under the table says Balanced.
Line n: Enter a debit or a credit.	Type an amount on that line, or remove the line.
Line n: A line has a debit or a credit, not both.	Clear one of the two amounts.
Line n: The account is inactive.	Choose an active account, or ask your administrator to make the account active again.
The date is in a closed period.	The books for that date are closed. Post the entry on a date in an open period, or ask your administrator.
The entry is posted and cannot change. Reverse it instead.	Reverse the entry and enter the correct one.

See also Trial balance and Searching and filtering.