A journal is a manual, free-form accounting entry: you choose the accounts yourself and type the debit and credit amounts by hand. It is the most direct way to post to your ledger, with no invoice, receipt, or stock behind it. The accountant or owner usually writes journals; a cashier rarely needs one.

Reach for a journal when no purpose-built transaction fits the job, for example recording depreciation, an accrual or a prepayment, a bank charge, a correction between two accounts, or an adjustment your accountant asks for at year end. When a dedicated transaction does exist (receiving money, paying a supplier, billing a customer), use that instead: it handles the accounts, tax, and balances for you. A journal leaves all of that to you.

Find journals under Finance → Journals.

Before you start

  • The accounts you want to debit and credit must already exist in your Chart of Accounts.
  • To post to the Accounts Receivable account you need a customer to attach the line to (see Customers); to post to Accounts Payable you need a supplier (see Suppliers).
  • You need the Create Journal Entries permission, granted per user under Permissions. List Journal Entries lets you open the screen, and Edit, Delete, and Print Journal Entries cover the rest. See Users, seats & permissions.

Write a journal

  1. Open a new journal

    Go to Finance → Journals and select New Journal. The journal form opens.

  2. Check the template

    The Template picker sits at the top of the form. ZyncLedger pre-selects your default journal template, so you can usually leave it. The template you choose decides which fields the form shows and how the printed journal looks; switch it here if you keep more than one layout. See Print templates for how these are set up.

  3. Set the journal date

    Enter the Journal Date (required). This is the date the entry posts to the ledger, so it decides which period the amounts fall in.

  4. Set the transaction number

    The Txn Number identifies the journal. How you fill it depends on the number mode for journals:

    • Automatic (the default): the field shows Auto-generated and ZyncLedger assigns the next number when you save. Leave it alone.
    • Manual: you type the number yourself. It is required and must be unique across all transactions.

    See Document numbering to change the mode or set up a multi-series numbering scheme.

  5. Add a reference and dimensions (optional)

    Fill any of these if they help you find or report on the entry later:

    FieldWhat it does
    Reference NoYour own reference for the entry, such as a document or voucher number.
    BranchTags the whole journal to a branch for reporting.
    LocationTags the whole journal to a location for reporting.

    Branch and Location can also be set per line in the table below, which overrides the header value for that line.

  6. Enter the debit and credit lines

    Each row of the table is one account and one amount. Fill the row in:

    • Account (required) — the account this line posts to. Select it from your Chart of Accounts.
    • Name — the customer or supplier the line belongs to. This is required when the account is Accounts Receivable (pick a customer) or Accounts Payable (pick a supplier), and ignored for other accounts.
    • Description — a note for this line. ZyncLedger fills it from the account name if you leave it blank.
    • Debit or Credit (required) — enter the amount in one column only. A line cannot hold both; typing a debit clears the credit on that row, and the reverse.
    • Branch and Location — optional per-line tags.

    A blank row is always waiting at the bottom, so a new line appears as soon as you start filling the last one. A journal needs at least two lines. To remove a line, select the trash icon at the end of its row.

  7. Check that it balances

    The footer shows Total Debit, Total Credit, and Balance. A journal must balance: total debits must equal total credits. While the two sides differ, an out-of-balance message shows how far off you are, and ZyncLedger will not let you save until the Balance reaches zero.

  8. Add a description (optional)

    Use the Description at the foot of the form to explain what the whole journal is for. If you keep standard wording for recurring entries, you can pull it in from a saved note.

  9. Save

    Select Save & Close to save and return to the list, Save & New to save and start another, or Save & Print to save and print. The journal posts the moment you save.

Let ZyncLedger balance the last line

Enter your first line's amount, then pick the account on the next empty line. ZyncLedger fills that line with the exact amount needed to balance the journal, so a simple two-line entry is one figure and two accounts.

What it posts

A journal posts exactly what you typed, nothing more. Every line is written to the general ledger as a debit or credit against the account you chose, for the amount you entered. Because the debits equal the credits, your ledger stays balanced, and the entry flows straight through to the Trial Balance, the General Ledger, and, depending on the accounts you used, the Profit & Loss or the Balance Sheet.

Two account types do more than post to the ledger:

  • A line on the Accounts Receivable account with a customer attached also moves that customer's balance (their AR).
  • A line on the Accounts Payable account with a supplier attached also moves that supplier's balance (their AP).

The journal is saved with a status of Posted.

Journals are the engine behind AR / AP Settlement

When you net a customer balance against a supplier balance for the same party, ZyncLedger builds that settlement on a journal (debit Accounts Payable, credit Accounts Receivable) behind the scenes. You do not write that journal yourself; the AR / AP Settlement screen does it for you.

Tips & gotchas

One amount per line, and it must balance

Put the amount in either the debit or the credit column, never both. Every line needs an amount, and the totals must match to the cent before ZyncLedger will save the journal.

Each customer or supplier once per journal

You cannot use the same customer on two Accounts Receivable lines in one journal, or the same supplier on two Accounts Payable lines. Combine them onto a single line instead, or write separate journals.

Deleting a journal removes its postings

There is no reversing entry. Deleting a journal sets its status to Deleted and removes its lines from the ledger, then recalculates the affected balances. ZyncLedger blocks the deletion if any of the journal's ledger lines have already been reconciled on a bank reconciliation, or if the journal date falls in a closed period, so that settled and locked history stays intact.

Related

  • Chart of Accounts defines the accounts a journal posts to.
  • AR / AP Settlement uses a journal to offset a customer against a supplier.
  • Bank Reconciliation marks journal lines as reconciled, which then protects them from deletion.
  • Document numbering controls the journal's transaction number.