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Journal Entries

Balanced entries, approval controls, linked-source limits, retained reversals and how journals affect financial reports.

AccountantFinance ManagerSuper AdminLast reviewed 11 Sept 2026

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Journal entries are the building blocks of double-entry bookkeeping. Every entry has at least two lines — debits and credits that must balance exactly. The ledger lives at Accounting > Transactions > Ledger, and the page itself is headed Journal Entries.

Debits and Credits

A debit increases asset and expense accounts and decreases liability, equity and revenue accounts. A credit does the opposite. When a customer pays you, for example, you debit the bank account and credit accounts receivable.

Creating an Entry

Click New Entry to open the New Transaction form. Choose the transaction type Journal Entry for a manual entry, then complete:

  1. Date — the transaction date. It must fall inside an accounting period that is open.
  2. Reference — optional. If you leave it blank the generated entry number is used.
  3. Description — required; the save is refused without it.
  4. Line items — pick an account code per line and enter either a debit or a credit amount.

Saving validates the actual line amounts: debits and credits must be valid whole-cent amounts, balance exactly and agree with the journal totals. A balanced total alone does not make an incorrectly classified entry correct. Check the accounts and supporting evidence.

Open period required: the entry date needs an open accounting period. Missing, closed or locked periods prevent posting. Do not change a transaction date just to bypass a closed period; ask your finance manager to review it. See the Period Close article.

Statuses

An entry has one of four statuses:

  • Draft — created with Save as Draft instead of Post Transaction. Drafts can be edited.
  • Pending approval — what a plain Accountant's entry becomes when they submit it. It still needs a Finance Manager to approve it.
  • Posted — approved and stamped with a posting time.
  • Void — cancelled. The entry stays in the list for the audit trail.

There is no separate “approved but not posted” state. Approval sets the entry straight to posted.

Check the saved status: submitting as an Accountant shows “Transaction submitted for approval”, not a completed posting. Accountant Admin and Super Admin can post directly through the New Transaction form. The separate approval action prevents a Finance Manager approving their own entry; Super Admin can approve their own entry. Direct posting and approval are distinct controls. For linked income or expense entries, read the source-workflow limitation below.

Viewing, Editing, Duplicating and Voiding

Rows offer View and Duplicate, with Edit for draft or pending-approval entries. Void requires finance-manager permission. There is no delete control on this screen. Duplicating prepares a new entry; it is not a correction of the original, so avoid recording the same event twice.

For an eligible ordinary posted journal, voiding stores the reason, actor and time and creates a linked posted reversal by swapping the original debits and credits. The void stamp and reversal save together. The reversal uses the current date, which must have an open accounting period; the original remains for the audit trail. Do not add a second manual reversal.

Draft or pending entries have no ledger effect, so voiding them does not create a posted reversal. Voiding a journal does not transfer or refund money. A failed or uncertain response is not permission to create a replacement: reload and review the original and any linked reversal.

Entries Linked to Another Document

Invoice, credit note, payment, deposit, refund and JE-TXN income/expense journals cannot be changed independently through general journal actions. Use the supported source workflow so its document, balances and journal remain consistent. For JE-TXN entries, paired draft or pending editing is available. Save any changes, then choose “Review saved transaction for approval” in the transaction editor. The read-only review shows the saved amounts and both sides of the journal. An eligible approver must confirm that evidence before approval posts both records together. Changed records, unavailable accounts or a closed original period require a fresh review; an uncertain response requires checking the saved status, not recording the event again. For cancellation, choose Void on the journal row. The paired review shows the saved source, journal and cancellation effect. A Finance Manager provides a reason and confirms both records. Unposted pairs cancel without a reversal; posted pairs retain their original dates and gain one linked reversal on the current South African day in an open period, never before the original posting day. Actual saved amounts are reversed without recalculating the original tax. If the records or posting day change during review, reload and check them again. Do not add another reversal or assume that a bank refund has occurred. The linked reversal is also source-owned: it cannot be voided independently to restore the income or expense. Request accounting reconciliation if that cancellation was wrong. Where no supported source action exists, request accounting reconciliation; do not create a separate journal to bypass the restriction.

Journal Entries and the Financial Reports

Posted manual journals contribute to the financial reports through the ledger, within the selected organization and reporting dates. Trial balance and balance sheet use the account movements; income statement uses income and expense accounts; cash flow only includes movements involving cash or bank, with the applicable activity allocation. Do not enter the same event again as Income or Expense just to make it appear in a report.

Reports retain a voided original with its linked reversal, using each entry's own date. They cancel when both are included; a reversal in a later period does not erase the earlier period's original movement. Draft and pending-approval entries do not affect ledger balances. Missing or inconsistent source data can prevent a report from being generated; do not treat an error as a zero balance. The calculation and journal register explains the implemented rules, evidence and recorded changes.

Exporting

Export in the page header downloads only the loaded entries that match the current filters, one row per line item. The file name includes “loaded”: it is not a completeness certificate for the entire ledger. Load any remaining entries and check the filters before using it for a review.