Booking an entry

This is the manual side of the ledger: booking something by hand, and reviewing, posting or reversing any entry — automatic or manual — afterwards.

Book an entry

Opened from the header's New entry button, from the receipt inbox's Book, or from a mapping suspense item's reference.

Book an entry dialog

To book an entry:

1. Choose Type — Income or Expense.
2. Pick the Booking date. The Document no. field is read-only — it's assigned automatically when you save.
3. Enter a Description and, optionally, a Counterparty.
4. Pick the Account (filtered to accounts of the chosen type) and a Department. Account and department are filterable pickers: click the field and start typing to narrow the list — an account matches on its code as well as its name, so typing 5100 and typing fuel both find 5100 · Boat fuel.
5. Pick how it's Paid via — the field beneath it shows the contra account this method resolves to (for example, Bank Transfer → 1200 Bank — operating account).
6. Enter the Gross amount and pick a VAT rate (or a custom one, if none of the presets fit).
7. Check the summary strip — gross, net, the VAT amount, and whether the period is open or locked.
8. Attach a receipt if you have one, or leave it — see the note on Receipt? below.
9. Review the posting lines. The account picker on a manual split line covers the whole chart of accounts, so it is grouped under Fixed assets / Current assets / Equity / Liabilities / Income / Expenses headings — type to filter across all of them. By default these are derived — read-only, computed from the account, the contra account, the amount and the VAT rate, and always balanced. Click Edit lines if you need a different split (for example, spreading an amount across more than two accounts); click Use derived to go back to the automatic split. The lines show a Balanced chip, or how far out of balance they are. A manual split has to add up to the Gross amount as well as balance — a split whose debits total less or more than the gross is rejected on save, whether you are creating the entry or editing a draft.
10. Save as draft to keep it for later without posting it, or Post entry to post it straight to the ledger. Both are disabled — with the hint underneath explaining why — until the amount is entered, an account is chosen, and the lines balance.

Note — the "Receipt?" flag. Posting an expense with no receipt attached is allowed — the hint tells you so before you click — but the entry lands with a Receipt? status rather than plain Posted, so it's flagged for review until someone attaches the document. An automatic posting that had to be parked on the 1900 Suspense account — on either of its sides — is flagged the same way, and attaching a receipt does not clear that flag: assigning it a real account from the Mapping tab does.

Click Make recurring in the footer to hand this form straight over to a new recurring template instead of saving it as a one-off entry.

Tip: Closing the dialog with unsaved changes asks you to confirm first — see Rules you should understand.

Entry details

Click any reference in the Journal, a Chart of accounts row, or a suspense item to open the entry it's attached to.

Entry details dialog

The dialog shows the entry's reference and status, the gross/net/VAT breakdown, six meta rows (Booking date, Account, Department, Paid via with its resolved contra account, Counterparty, Period), the entry's own stored posting lines (never re-derived — if it was booked with a manual split, that split is exactly what you see here), and an audit trail: when it was created, whether it was posted / saved as a draft / flagged for review, its VAT treatment, and its source (for example "Booking and package sales"). If the posting arrived after its month was locked, a note states the date it actually belongs to.

If a sale charged more than one tax at once (see One band per tax), the strip shows one chip per tax instead of a single VAT figure — Service Tax 10% €4.55, VAT 11% €5.50 — and the posting line each tax landed on names it too, next to the account: 3300 Output VAT — Service Tax 10%. Single-tax entries carry the same marker on their VAT line — 3300 VAT payable — VAT 10% — so every tax leg says which tax it books; transfers and untaxed entries show none. A reversal or a reversed entry from before the per-tax breakdown keeps its one VAT line, so that line names all of its taxes at once — 3300 VAT payable — Service Tax 10% + VAT 11%.

A reversal chain shows here too: if this entry reversed another one, or was itself reversed, a link takes you straight to the other half of the pair. Neither half of a reversal pair is nagged for a missing receipt — the pair exists to correct a posting, not to document one — though the document card still shows if one is actually attached.

The footer's actions depend on the entry's status:

Status	Available actions
Draft	Edit, Attach receipt, Delete draft, Post entry.
Posted or Receipt?, not yet reversed	Attach receipt (if none yet), Reverse, Duplicate.
Posted or Receipt?, already reversed	Duplicate only — an entry can only be reversed once; open the existing reversal from the reversal chain link instead.

Close is always available.

Warning: A posted entry can never be edited directly — see Rules you should understand for how to correct one instead.

To reverse an entry: click Reverse, optionally type a reason, and confirm. A new reversing entry is posted with the legs swapped; the original stays exactly as it was, permanently, with a link to its reversal.

To duplicate a posted entry: click Duplicate to open a new Book an entry dialog pre-filled from this one, ready to adjust and save as a fresh entry.

Related chapters

• The Journal — the list every entry reference opens from.
• Supplier invoices and payroll runs — the two other forms on the New entry menu.
• Rules you should understand — immutability, locked months, and the unsaved-changes prompt.