Journal entries and opening balances

Most of your books fill in automatically from invoices, bills, payments, payroll and bank transactions. A journal entry is for everything else: opening balances, year-end adjustments, loans, owner's contributions and corrections.

Enter your opening balances

If you're starting fresh (not importing from other software), record where things stood on your start date:

1. Go to Accounting → Journal entries and click Record opening balances (or New journal entry).
2. Add a line for each balance: what's in the bank, what customers owe, what you owe suppliers, loans and so on.
3. Put the difference against Opening balance equity (or ask your accountant which equity account to use).
4. Total debits must equal total credits. Click Post entry.

Moving from QuickBooks, Xero or Wave? The importer can bring opening balances in for you. See Moving to Ledgri.

Any other entry

Click New journal entry, pick the Date, add a Memo and Reference, then add lines with an Account, Debit or Credit and a Description. Add line for more. Click Post entry when debits and credits match.

Repeat an entry every month

Click Make recurring on an entry, or set one up in Accounting → Recurring journals, for example monthly rent or depreciation.

Fix a mistake

Open the entry and click Void, with a reason. Ledgri reverses it and keeps both in the audit trail. Entries in a closed period can't be changed.