How to post a journal from the report you are reading

You are reading a balance sheet and an amount is in the wrong account. Normally you would stop, sign in to the accounting package, find the client, enter a journal, go back and refresh to see if it did what you meant. Create Journal does that from the report you are already on, and you see the result straight away.

Who can use it

Posting to a client's ledger is a serious thing, so it is off until you say otherwise. An administrator at your firm ticks each person in the Create Journal card in Firm Settings. It works on QuickBooks and MYOB ledgers. It isn't available yet for posting to Xero, and a consolidation has no ledger to post to.

Posting a journal

1. On any report, open Quick actions and choose Create Journal, or press Alt+J.
2. Fill in the journal: Date, an optional Reference, Debit Account, Credit Account, Description and Amount.
3. Click Save Journal, or press F11.
4. Watch the report. The figures move in place at once, and the journal is posted to the accounting package in the background.

Changed your mind?

Undo Journal (Ctrl+Z) steps back through the journals you entered this session, up to 50, asking first each time. It removes the journal from Report Craft and from the ledger, and only ever touches your own. You can also edit or delete a journal you entered from the Journal report, using the icons on its row.

If the package says no

Accounting packages have rules of their own: QuickBooks won't take a journal against an accounts receivable or payable account, for example. If a journal is refused, Report Craft marks it with a red dot on the Journal report so you can see it and deal with it, rather than leaving you to discover it later.

Finding journals later

The Journal report follows the period you have chosen. Its search opens on those dates, with sliders for TranNo and Amount, and on QuickBooks a split journal opens line by line in a sortable panel, flagged if it doesn't balance.

Watch Create Journal in the how-to video, or see the difference between a journal and an elimination entry: eliminations stay in Report Craft and never reach the ledger.