Recurring Entries
A recurring entry is a journal entry that repeats on a schedule: rent on the last day of every month, insurance every quarter, a loan payment every two weeks. You enter the lines once; on each date Al-Mohaseb creates the journal entry for you, either as a draft for you to check and post, or posted straight into the books.
| Menu | Books > Recurring entries |
| Permission | View journal entries and the trial balance (to see them); Enter, post and reverse journal entries (to add, change, pause and delete them) |
| Feature | Accounting |
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.
Set up a recurring entry
- Open Books > Recurring entries and select New recurring entry.
- Enter a Name, such as Monthly rent. The entries get this name as their memo, unless you type a Memo of the entries.
- Under Schedule, choose how often it repeats in Repeat (weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly) and Every (for example, every 2 months), and enter the First date.
- Optionally enter an End date (optional), or a Number of entries (optional) after which it stops, such as 12 for a one-year lease.
- Under On each date, choose:
- Save a draft to check and post, when the amount changes or you want to look at it first.
- Post the entry, when the amount is always the same.
- Enter the lines as in the journal entry editor. The debits and the credits must be equal.
- Select Save. The page confirms the date of the next entry.
How the dates are counted
The dates are always counted from the first date, not from the previous entry:
- A first date on the 15th keeps every entry on the 15th.
- A first date on the 30th puts the February entry on the 28th (or 29th), and goes back to the 30th in March.
- A first date on the last day of a month, such as January 31 or April 30, keeps every entry on the last day of its month.
- A weekly schedule keeps the weekday of the first date.
When the entries are created
Al-Mohaseb checks for due recurring entries every 15 minutes and creates them in a background job named Create recurring journal entries. When an entry is due, Books > Recurring entries says so; select Create them now to start the job right away.
If a recurring entry missed some dates, for example because it was paused or its first date is in the past, every missed date gets its own entry, oldest first. An entry is never created twice for the same date.
When an entry is set to be posted but cannot be, for example because its date is in a closed period or one of its accounts is inactive, it is saved as a draft instead. The list shows Not posted next to that recurring entry, and its page says why. Fix the problem, then open the draft in Books > Journal entries and post it, or delete it.
Follow and change a recurring entry
The list shows each recurring entry with its schedule and amount, its Next date, and its status: Active, Paused or Ended (its end date or number of entries has been reached). Search the list by name, or with these terms:
| Term | Shows | Example |
|---|---|---|
status: | active, paused, ended, or due (has an entry to create today) | status:due |
frequency: | weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly | frequency:monthly |
action: | Entries that are posted (post) or saved as drafts (draft) | action:post |
sort: | By name (the default) or by next date | sort:next |
Select Edit to open a recurring entry. The top of the page shows its schedule, its next date and how many entries it has created; Latest entries lists the last 24 with links to them.
- Change it: edit the fields and select Save. The change applies to the next entries; entries already created do not change. When you change the schedule, the next date becomes the first date of the new schedule after the last entry created.
- Pause it: select Pause. Nothing is created until you select Resume; then the missed dates are created on the next run.
- Delete it: select Delete. The entries it created stay in the journal.
Entries created by a recurring entry show Ledger.Recurring in the journal, and you can find them with kind:recurring. You can reverse them like any entry you entered yourself.
See also Journal entries and Periods.