Journal entries
Create a balanced manual journal entry, read and act on entry detail, post a draft, and void a posted entry.
The Journal Entries Screen
Open Journal Entries from the company workspace. The Entries view lists every manual and generated journal entry with an inline stats row — Total Posted, Posted, Drafts, and Void — and status filter tabs for All, Posted, Draft, and Void, each with a count.
Search, a From / To date range, and a sort control narrow the list. Rows imported from QuickBooks carry an Imported badge, and a note may report how many non-journal entries are hidden from this view. A second tab, Scheduled JEs, holds recurring templates and is covered in its own article.
Create A Manual Journal Entry
Select New Entry to open the journal-entry drawer, titled New Journal Entry. Fill in:
- a Date;
- a Description, such as
Office rent payment; - an optional Reference, such as an invoice or document number;
- two or more Journal Lines.
Each line takes an Account, an optional line memo, and either a Debit or a Credit amount. Use Add line for a third or fourth line, and the trash icon to remove one (an entry always keeps at least two lines).
The drawer totals debits and credits as you type. The entry is only accepted once it balances — total debits equal total credits and the total is greater than zero. Until then, Create Entry stays disabled and a message reads that debits must equal credits. When you save, LedgerHQ creates the entry as a draft and opens its detail page.
Enter each amount on the correct side. Increasing an asset or expense is a debit; increasing a liability, equity, or revenue account is a credit. If the two sides will not balance, one line is on the wrong side or has the wrong amount.
Read And Act On An Entry
The entry detail page opens on Entry #N with a status badge — Draft,
Posted, or Void. Below it, a document card shows the entry number, date,
reference, source, and timestamps, followed by the journal lines with their
Debit and Credit columns and a totals footer. The Difference line
reads $0.00 in green when the entry balances.
What you can do depends on the status:
- A draft entry shows Post and Delete. Post commits the entry to the general ledger, at which point it starts affecting reports, registers, and reconciliation. Delete removes the draft.
- A posted entry shows Void. Voiding reverses the entry in the general ledger and requires a reason, which is recorded on the entry. A posted entry cannot be deleted — voiding is how you undo it while preserving the audit trail.
Posted entries are not edited in place. To correct a posted entry, Void it with a reason and create a new, corrected entry. This keeps the ledger's audit trail intact rather than silently rewriting posted history. To fix a draft before it is posted, delete it and create it again.
Ask Tally To Undo An Imported Entry
Give Tally the company, entry number, date, and reason for the correction. Tally can inspect imported entries as well as manual entries.
When the entry is linked to a bank row, Tally prepares an undo preview naming the entry and affected rows. Review it and send the new explicit confirmation requested in that preview. Preparing the preview does not change the books. A formal reconciliation must be reopened before undoing its linked activity.
The completed bank-row undo voids the original entry and returns its linked row to bank-feed review. Inspect the entry status and bank row afterward. Voiding removes the original balance effect; reversing keeps the original posted and adds an offsetting entry. Use one correction method for an entry, since applying both would over-correct it.
Deleting A Draft Is Permanent
Deleting a draft journal entry from the Journal Entries screen removes it immediately, and the in-app confirmation warns that the removal cannot be undone. There is no separate recovery step for a deleted journal entry, so delete a draft only when you are sure it is not needed.
To reverse a posted entry, use Void rather than delete — voiding keeps the entry and its reason in the audit trail. Delete is only for drafts that were never posted.