# Manual journals

> Post ad-hoc double-entry adjustments — accruals, corrections, owner drawings — with balanced debits and credits.

Source: https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/manual-journals/

A **manual journal** is a double-entry adjustment you post by hand. Use it for anything that doesn’t have a dedicated flow: accruals and prepayments, period-end corrections, owner drawings or contributions, depreciation tweaks, or opening balances when setting up.

Menu: **Accounting → Manual Journals**. Manual journals need the **Manual Journals** permission (Admin and Accountant by default); voiding one also needs **Void Documents**. See [Roles & permissions](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/roles/).

When not to use one

If a transaction fits a dedicated feature — paying an [invoice](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/invoices/), recording a [bill](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/bills/), moving money between banks ([Transfer Money](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/bank-reconciliation/)), or depreciating an [asset](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/fixed-assets/) — use that instead. It posts the right journal automatically and stays reconcilable. Reach for a manual journal only when no feature covers the entry.

## Create a journal

**Manual Journals → New Manual Journal.**

1. Set the **Date** and a **Description** (required — explain *why* the entry is being posted).
2. Add an optional **Reference**.
3. In **Journal Lines**, for each line pick an **Account** and enter either a **Debit** or a **Credit** (entering one zeroes the other). Add a per-line description and tracking categories if needed.
4. The footer shows **Totals** and a live **Balanced / Difference** indicator. Total debits must equal total credits.
5. **Save as Draft** or **Save & Record** (disabled while unbalanced).

A journal needs **at least two lines**, can’t post negative amounts, and a single line can’t have both a debit and a credit. **Most system accounts can’t be posted to manually** — they’re driven by automated flows. A small housekeeping set is permitted for year-end and correction entries: **Tax Payable**, **Realized FX**, **Retained Earnings**, and **Custom Adjustments** (see [when you’d post to a system account](#when-youd-post-to-a-system-account) below).

## The workflow

```text
DRAFT ──Record──▶ RECORDED ──Void──▶ VOIDED
```

| Status       | Meaning                                | What you can do      |
| ------------ | -------------------------------------- | -------------------- |
| **Draft**    | Saved, not posted                      | Edit, Record, Delete |
| **Recorded** | Posted to the ledger; immutable        | Void                 |
| **Voided**   | Cancelled; a reversal entry was posted | —                    |

**Record** makes the entry balance-effective, sets the posted timestamp, and locks it. The org **lock date** is checked — recording an entry dated on or before the lock date is blocked.

## Fixing up descriptions later

Typos happen, and “accrual q2” isn’t helpful three months later. On a journal’s page, both the journal’s own description and each line’s description are **editable in place** — click the text (or its pencil icon), type, and save. There’s no separate edit screen.

You can tidy descriptions even on **recorded** journals — they’re just the narrative, so amounts, accounts, dates, and balances are never touched. Voided journals and entries posted automatically by other features keep their original wording.

Every description change is written to the journal’s **History & Notes** panel as a “Descriptions Updated” entry showing the before and after — so clarifying the story never rewrites the audit trail.

Two small limits

The journal description can’t be left blank, and description edits still respect the organization’s **lock date**.

## Voiding and reversals

**Void** requires a **reason** (“please explain why this entry is being voided”). AccountFUN keeps the original (now **Voided**) and posts a **reversal entry** on the original date that flips every debit to a credit and vice versa, preserving currency and exchange rate.

Two voiding limits

* A recorded journal with any **bank-reconciled** line can’t be voided directly — unreconcile those lines first.
* **Fixed-asset journals** (depreciation, amortization, capitalization, disposal) can’t be voided here. Use the matching action on the [fixed asset](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/fixed-assets/) — for example **Reverse Depreciation** for depreciation entries.

## Multi-currency lines

Each line can carry its own **currency** and **exchange rate** (the rate is required for foreign-currency lines, and the line currency must match the account’s currency). The shared `{{currency}}` and FX fields keep cross-currency adjustments audit-ready. See [Multi-currency](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/multi-currency/).

## Numbering

Each manual journal gets a sequential number with the `MJ-` prefix (e.g. `MJ-0001`), generated atomically so numbers never collide.

## Worked example: accruing an expense

Your financial year ends June 30. You’ve used electricity in June but won’t get the bill until mid-July. To make June’s expenses accurate, accrue an estimate.

1. **Manual Journals → New Manual Journal**, date **Jun 30**.
2. Description: *“Accrue June electricity estimate (bill expected July)”*.
3. Line 1: **Utilities** — Debit $200.
4. Line 2: **Accruals** (a Current Liability) — Credit $200.
5. Footer shows Balanced. **Save & Record**. → `MJ-0004`, recorded.

June’s P\&L now includes the $200 utility expense, and the balance sheet shows a $200 accrual liability. When the real bill arrives in July, enter it as a [bill](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/bills/) for the actual amount and void the accrual journal (MJ-0004) with the reason *“Reversed by actual bill BILL-0099”*.

## When you’d post to a system account

Four system accounts accept manual journals; the other nine are driven by automated flows and won’t appear in the line picker (see [Chart of Accounts](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/chart-of-accounts/#system-accounts-managed-automatically) for the full list). Reach for these only when no dedicated feature covers the entry.

| Account                | Code | Why you’d journal to it                                                                                                                                                               |
| ---------------------- | ---- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Tax Payable**        | 820  | Adjust the sales/use-tax balance after a tax-authority reassessment, or accrue use tax on a purchase where no input tax was claimed.                                                  |
| **Realized FX**        | 850  | Restate a realized gain/loss when a prior settlement was booked at the wrong rate. Most realized FX posts automatically on settlement — use this only to correct a past one.          |
| **Retained Earnings**  | 960  | Record a dividend declaration, a prior-year correction, or an owner’s drawing treated as a reduction of equity. (P\&L is **never** closed here — reports read it live by date range.) |
| **Custom Adjustments** | 840  | The housekeeping/balancing account: it offsets opening balances when you’re setting up the books and absorbs rounding differences or small residuals that need a home.                |

Still prefer the dedicated flow

If a Tax Payable adjustment is really an unpaid bill, or a Retained Earnings entry is really an owner contribution, use the matching feature — [bills](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/bills/), payments, [fixed-asset disposal](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/fixed-assets/) — instead. Those keep the audit trail and stay reconcilable. Manual journals to system accounts are for cases nothing else covers.