Post a Journal Entry
An entry posts when debits equal credits, and not before. Nothing is ever deleted from the ledger — a correction is a void and a fresh post.
Before you start
A Journal Entry is a balanced double-entry posting: at least two lines, each line a debit or a credit, and the two sides equal. There is no draft. An entry that does not balance cannot be saved, so there is no half-written entry sitting in your books waiting to be noticed.
Its date decides which Period it belongs to, which is the field worth checking twice.
Nothing is deleted from the ledger. Correcting an entry voids the original and posts a fresh one, and the voided entry stays where it is, excluded from reports. What your books said, and when, remains recoverable.
Steps
- Open Accounting › Journal Entries and choose New journal entry.
- Enter the date and a memo.
- Add a line per account. Each line takes a debit or a credit, never both.
- Watch the indicator beside the button. It reads Off $120.00 until the two sides agree, then Balanced.
- Choose Post entry. It is disabled until the entry balances.
- Press ⌘N in Journal Entries.
- Fill the sheet: date, memo, then one line per account.
- The indicator beside the button says how far out it is until it balances.
- Post.
Good to know
Posted into a closed Period? You cannot edit it and you cannot void it — a closed Period refuses to change what it has already said. The correction is an Adjusting Entry, which needs a Role holding the adjusting-entries permission. CPA has it; Staff does not.
A closed Period does accept new entries dated into it. A February Bill that arrives in March belongs in February, and refusing it would force exactly the misstatement accrual accounting exists to prevent. What the close protects is figures already reported from changing without anyone noticing.
A finalized year refuses everything, new entries included.