Reading a Journal Entry
Everything on a journal's page — its status, its lines, its audit totals, and which actions are offered on which kind of journal.
Every journal in Trabalance — typed by hand, produced by a document, or generated on a schedule — opens onto the same page. What differs is which actions it offers, and that is decided entirely by two things: the journal's status, and whether a document produced it.
Navigate to: Finance → Journals → click any row
The Header
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved but not posted. No financial effect — absent from the ledger, the trial balance and every report. Draft numbers are prefixed DRFJN so they can never be mistaken for a posting. |
| Posted | In the books. Affects every report from its date. |
| Reversed | Voided. Its lines drop out of every report; it stays visible on the Reversed tab. |
Which Actions Appear
| Action | Offered on | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Edit and post | Draft only, and not on auto journals | Reopens the form with the journal filled in, ready to post |
| Delete | Draft only, and not on auto journals | Removes the draft. Nothing was posted, so nothing is reversed |
| Reverse | Posted, not already reversed | Voids the journal — see Reversing a Journal |
| Update | Posted manual journals only | Re-posts the journal under a new number; the original is voided and linked |
| New Journal | Always | A blank New Journal Entry form |
| Duplicate | Always | Opens the form filled in from this journal, to post as a new one |
| Always | A Journal Voucher — number, date, reference, created by, the lines, totals and the narration |
Duplicate opens the form with this journal's contents and the heading still reads "Edit Draft". Despite the heading it posts a new journal and leaves this one untouched — check the date and reference before posting, since both are carried over.
Metadata
| Card | Shows |
|---|---|
| Journal No. | The sequential number — JN000412 posted, DRFJN000412 draft |
| Date | The accounting date, which decides the period the entry falls in |
| Reference | Whatever you typed, or what the producing document carried |
| Entries | "N lines (X Dr, Y Cr)" |
The Lines
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Account | The account posted to — opens its ledger |
| Description | The line-level description |
| Center | The center the line belongs to, when you use centers — opens the center |
| Memo/Reference | The reference carried on the line |
| Debit / Credit | The amount on its side |
Beneath, two audit cards restate Total Debits and Total Credits with their line counts. On a correctly posted journal these agree exactly.
The Total row under the lines currently prints the same figure in both the Debit and the Credit column. The two audit cards below it are computed separately and are the ones to read if you are checking the two sides against each other.
Narration, Schedule and Related Journals
Narration / Note carries why the entry exists — on a manual journal it is what you typed, and it is what appears in audit reports.
Recurring Schedule appears on a posted manual journal that has not been reversed. With no schedule attached it offers Make Recurring; with one attached it shows the cadence, the next run, the end date and the occurrence count, plus View runs, Generate now, Edit, Pause / Resume and Stop. See Recurring Journals.
Related Journals shows "This is a reversal of" with a link, and appears when this journal replaced an earlier one — an edited posted journal, or a reclassification such as a Move to or a categorisation. An ordinary voided journal creates no counter-entry, so most reversals show nothing here.
Attachments
Files attached when the journal was created are listed at the foot of the page — .pdf, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx.
Related
- Journal Entries — the Journals page and its tabs
- Manual journals — the form this page is created from
- Reversing a journal — what Reverse actually does
- Auto-generated journals — what a Source badge means
- Recurring journals — the schedule card in full