Manual journal entries

The direct route to the ledger, for what no document covers — with the guardrails that keep it honest.

Accounting → Journal.

Most of the ledger should come from documents, because a document carries context a bare journal does not. A manual entry is for what no document covers: an accrual, a correction, an opening balance, an accountant's adjustment.

The rules, enforced:

• Debits must equal credits. An unbalanced entry cannot be saved.
• It cannot post into a closed period without permission and a reason. See Closing a period.
• Some accounts are off limits by hand — you cannot journal directly to Accounts Receivable without naming a customer, because doing so breaks the aging.

Correcting one: entries are not edited in place once posted. Reverse it (which posts an equal and opposite entry, both visible) and enter the correct one. The history stays intact.

Repeating entries belong in Recurring journal entries; entries that should unwind next period belong in Reversing entries.