Journal Entries Guide

You are the accounts person closing the books for March 2026 at GadgetSphere, and your finance manager has three manual journals on your plate before month-end. The work tonight is the monthly rent accrual, the monthly depreciation for the new branch fit-outs, and one correction for a misposting from last week. By the end of this guide you will have posted a balanced manual journal, cloned a recurring one, and voided a mistake. Budget about 10 minutes per journal once the pattern clicks.

Meet GadgetSphere

GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd runs 22 consumer-electronics branches across Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. Almost every transaction in BigLedger has already posted automatically this month: roughly 10,000 sales invoices from the branches, around 2,100 purchase invoices from authorised distributors, the daily point-of-sale cash bills and the supplier payments. What is left for you tonight is the small set of entries that nothing upstream can generate on its own: an accrual for rent the landlords have not yet invoiced, a depreciation charge calculated by the fixed-asset schedule, and a fix for one line that landed in the wrong cost-of-sales account last Tuesday.

Concepts you will use tonight

• Manual journal entry (the form is called Journal Transaction) - a balanced set of debits and credits you type in yourself. Everything else in BigLedger posts automatically the moment a sales invoice, purchase invoice or cash bill is finalised.
• Reversal - there is no Void button on a journal. To cancel the effect of a journal that has already been seen on a report, you clone it and swap every debit and credit, so the two net to zero and both stay on record. The tick-box delete on the listing removes a manual journal outright (a soft delete - no reversing entry is written), which is fine for something you keyed a minute ago and nobody has reported on.
• Clone - copies an existing journal’s accounts, amounts and descriptions into a new one. Perfect for the rent accrual and the depreciation entry you will post every month. The clone is created and live immediately, so always change the date first.

Before you start

• Your chart of accounts is built and the accounts you intend to debit and credit are active. If you migrated recently, see the Chart of Accounts Setup Guide.
• The March 2026 fiscal period is still OPEN in Chart of Account > Fiscal Year. A period at LOCK_GL or LOCK_ALL refuses manual journals (the message is The selected date falls within a locked fiscal period); LOCK_TXN only stops operational documents, so a manual journal still goes in.
• Your user has the journal create permission for company GS and the branches you will post to. Roles are whatever your administrator named them; what matters is that the permission is targeted at the right company and branches, otherwise the branch dropdown on the Lines tab will be missing the branches you need.
• You know the rent accrual amount (RM 38,500 for 22 branches in March, split RM 1,750 per branch), the depreciation amount (RM 12,500 for the new Klang Valley branch fit-outs, from each asset’s depreciation schedule in the Fixed Asset applet), and which two accounts the misposted line should have hit instead.
• Default company, ledger and currency are set under Settings so the new-journal form fills itself in. Optional, but saves you four clicks per entry.

Step 1: Open the journal list and start a new entry

Finance > Ledger and Journal Applet > Journal Transaction > New

Open the Ledger and Journal Applet from the left sidebar and click Journal Transaction. You land on a long list of every journal posted this month. Most of them carry a Document Type and Document No (INTERNAL_SALES_INVOICE, INTERNAL_PAYMENT_VOUCHER and so on) - those are the ones the sales, purchase and point-of-sale applets posted for you, and they are read-only. The handful you need to add tonight will have no document behind them; that blank Document Type column is how you tell a manual journal from an automatic one.

Use the date filter to narrow the list to March 2026 so you can see what you already have. To start the rent accrual, click the New button at the top right. The form has two tabs: Main (the header information for the whole journal) and Lines (the actual debits and credits). You will fill them in that order.

If the form opens with Company already set to GS, Ledger set to Primary and Currency set to MYR (Malaysian Ringgit), your default selections are working - one less thing to think about per entry. If those fields are blank, set them now: pick GS for GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd, the Primary ledger, and MYR.

Watch out for: if clicking New does nothing or shows a permissions message, your user does not hold the journal create permission. Ask your administrator to grant it — it is targeted by company and branch, so check that GS and the branches you post to are on it.

Step 2: Fill in the journal header for the rent accrual

Finance > Ledger and Journal Applet > Journal Transaction > New > Main tab

On the Main tab, set Date to 31 March 2026 - this is the accounting date the entry will appear under on every report, regardless of when you actually type it in. The posting date (when you click Save) is captured separately for the audit trail.

In Reference Number, type something you and the auditor can recognise later: a pattern like JV-2026-03-RENT works well. You will reuse the same pattern (JV-2026-03-DEPN, JV-2026-03-CORR) for the other two journals tonight, so future you can find all three of March’s manual entries with one filter.

In Description, write a sentence in plain English: “March 2026 rent accrual - 22 branches, landlord invoices pending”. Anyone opening the journal next year should understand why it exists without phoning you. Leave Branch on the header blank for now - this journal touches 22 branches and you will tag the branch on each line instead.

Watch out for: if Save later fails with a message about the fiscal period being locked, the date you chose falls in a month that has already been closed; change Date to one still open or ask your finance manager to reopen the period.

Step 3: Add the debit and credit lines and watch the running totals

Finance > Ledger and Journal Applet > Journal Transaction > New > Lines tab

Switch to the Lines tab and click Add Line. For a simple group-wide rent accrual, two lines are enough: debit Rental Expense for RM 38,500, credit Accrued Liabilities for RM 38,500.

Pick the General Ledger account from the GL Code search - it only offers codes that exist in your chart, so you cannot mistype one into existence, but you can pick a neighbour (Rental Expense - Equipment instead of Rental Expense). Look at the code as well as the name before you move on: the first journal that touches an account quietly creates its sub-ledger, so a wrong pick leaves a stray balance under an account nobody meant to use. For the debit line, choose Rental Expense, enter 38500 in the Debit column, leave Credit blank, and write “March 2026 rent - all branches” in the line description. Click Add Line again. For the credit line, choose Accrued Liabilities, enter 38500 in the Credit column, leave Debit blank.

As you add lines, watch the running totals at the bottom of the table: Total Debit and Total Credit must match before you save. If you want a per-branch breakdown instead of a single lumped accrual, add 22 debit lines (one per branch code, GS-KV-01 to GS-KUC-01) at RM 1,750 each and one credit line for RM 38,500 - the totals will still match and reports filtered by branch will pick up each branch’s share. The clean per-branch number is on purpose: if the rent allocation does not divide evenly, pick a total that does, or absorb the rounding deliberately on one line so Total Debit equals Total Credit to the cent.

Watch out for: if you forget to enter the credit amount on the second line, the Create button stays greyed out - hover over it and the tooltip tells you which condition is unmet (totals differ, total is zero, a line has no GL code, or a header field is empty). The server checks the same thing again on save, so an unbalanced manual journal cannot get into the ledger.

Step 4: Set the branch on every line and tag any analytical dimensions

Finance > Ledger and Journal Applet > Journal Transaction > New > Lines tab, and its Categories sub-tab

Set Branch on every journal line. The form does not force you to - a line with no branch saves without complaint - but a branchless line is invisible to every per-branch report, so treat it as required even though the screen does not. For the rent accrual posted at branch level, set Branch on each debit line to the matching branch code - GS-KV-01 on the first debit line, GS-KV-02 on the second, and so on - so the per-branch Profit Loss Report includes each branch’s share of rent. The credit line to Accrued Liabilities needs a branch too; put it on your head-office branch, where the liability is managed.

Then open the Categories sub-tab on each line for the analytical dimensions GadgetSphere reports on: Segment, Dimension, Project and Profit Center. If your finance manager has set up a Segment for Retail versus Online versus Distribution, tag it: all 22 branches here are Retail, so set Segment to Retail on every debit line. Skip Project and Profit Center on this one.

These tags do not change the accounting at all; they only drive how the numbers are sliced when your finance manager opens the Profit Loss Report later (Group By Branch, Segment, Profit Center, Project or GL Dimension). Tag only what you actually report on - extra tags become noise.

Watch out for: if your finance manager later asks why a branch’s profit and loss is missing its rent share, the debit line is sitting on the wrong branch or on no branch at all; open the journal, fix the line, click UPDATE.

Step 5: Create the journal and confirm it is in the ledger

Finance > Ledger and Journal Applet > Journal Transaction > New > Create

Click Create. There is no draft and no separate Post step - the moment Create succeeds, the journal is in the ledger. The system gives it two running numbers: a tenant-wide Journal No and a Journal No By Company (so GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd, the online sales entity and the distribution entity each keep their own sequence; the company number shows on the listing once the Display Running Number setting is on).

The entry hits the sub-ledger balances instantly, and you are back on the View page for the journal you just created. Note the Journal No somewhere - you will reference it when the auditor asks next year.

If Create fails, the message is usually one of: PRIMARY_LEDGER_NOT_EXIST (the primary ledger is not set up for GS), The selected date falls within a locked fiscal period (March is at LOCK_GL or LOCK_ALL), or Journal not balanced: debit X != credit Y (a rounding slip the button check let through). Fix the underlying issue and click Create again - the form still has all your data.

Watch out for: the journal is live the moment Create succeeds. If you spot a mistake straight away, the tick-box delete on the listing removes it cleanly; once anyone has run a report on it, reverse it by clone instead (Step 8).

Step 6: Clone last month’s depreciation journal instead of retyping

Finance > Ledger and Journal Applet > Journal Transaction > [open February’s depreciation journal] > Clone

The depreciation entry for the Klang Valley branch fit-outs is the same every month: debit Depreciation Expense RM 12,500, credit Accumulated Depreciation RM 12,500, tagged to the same handful of branches. Instead of retyping it, find last month’s version.

On the listing, filter by Reference Number containing “DEPN” and Date in February 2026 - that single line for JV-2026-02-DEPN is your template. Click into it to open the View page, then click CLONE at the top. BigLedger creates the copy on the server straight away - a toast reads Cloned Document #N Ready with a View link - with a brand-new Journal No, identical accounts, identical amounts, identical branches and tags. It is already in the ledger.

This is the bit that catches people out the first time: there is no draft state. Open the cloned journal straight away (the View link on the toast takes you there). On its Main tab change Date to 31 March 2026, change Reference Number to JV-2026-03-DEPN, update the Description to read “March 2026” instead of “February 2026”, and on the Line Items tab adjust the amount if the asset schedule has moved (look it up on the asset’s Depreciation Schedule in the Fixed Asset applet; the March figure for the new KV branch fit-outs is still RM 12,500). Click UPDATE at the top of the page. The new clone now has the right date and reference; the March balances pick it up; February’s original is untouched.

One thing to know: the fiscal-period lock is checked when you create a journal, not when you clone or update one. So if February is already at LOCK_GL, the clone still lands in February, and nothing stops you from updating a journal’s date into a locked month either. The lock protects you from typing into a closed period; it does not protect you from cloning into one - which is why the date is the first thing you change.

Why is depreciation a manual journal at all, when the Fixed Asset applet has a depreciation run? Because today that run produces journals with no lines - the processor only writes a line when the asset carries a depreciation sub-ledger reference that nothing in the product ever sets. The run completes, the journal header exists, and the ledger does not move. Until that is fixed, the schedule in the Fixed Asset applet tells you the amount and this journal is what posts it.

Watch out for: if you forget to edit the date, the clone sits under February’s date and shows up in last month’s figures - delete it from the listing (Step 8) and clone again, this time editing the date before doing anything else.

Step 7: Post the correction journal for last week’s misposting

Finance > Ledger and Journal Applet > Journal Transaction > New

Last Tuesday, a manual journal posted a RM 4,200 cost line to Cost of Sales - Accessories when it should have hit Cost of Sales - Smartphones - someone picked the wrong account from the dropdown. Do not edit the original journal: that breaks the audit trail and, if the original was auto-posted from a sales invoice, you cannot edit it anyway. Instead, post a brand-new correction journal.

Click New, set Date to 31 March 2026 (so the fix lands in the same period as the original), Reference Number JV-2026-03-CORR, and Description “Reclassify RM 4,200 from Cost of Sales - Accessories to Cost of Sales - Smartphones; corrects line on JV-2026-03-072”.

On the Lines tab add two lines: debit Cost of Sales - Smartphones RM 4,200 to push the cost into the right account, credit Cost of Sales - Accessories RM 4,200 to pull it back out of the wrong one. Tag both lines with the same branch and segment the original carried. Save. The two accounts now balance to what they should always have been; the original journal stays untouched in the audit trail; anyone following the description can trace the full story.

Watch out for: if you flip the debit and credit by mistake, you double the error instead of fixing it - delete or reverse this correction (Step 8) and post a fresh one with the right direction.

Step 8: Remove or reverse a journal you posted by mistake

Finance > Ledger and Journal Applet > Journal Transaction > [tick the wrong journal] > delete, or [open it] > CLONE

Say you have just posted the rent accrual for RM 38,500 and noticed you used the wrong reference number, or you cloned the depreciation journal and forgot to change the date so it landed in February twice. There is no Void button on a journal; you have two honest options, and which one depends on whether anyone has already seen the entry.

If nobody has reported on it yet - you keyed it a minute ago - tick it on the listing and delete it. This is a soft delete: the journal and its lines are marked DELETED, they drop out of every balance, and no reversing entry is written. Then post the correct journal from Step 2.

If it has already been on a report, or the auditor would want to see the correction, reverse it instead: open the journal, click CLONE, open the clone, edit it so that every debit becomes a credit and every credit becomes a debit, set the Reference Number to something like JV-2026-03-RENT-REV and the Description to “Reversal of JV-2026-03-RENT - wrong reference”, and Save. The original and the reversal net to zero, both stay on record, and the description ties them together. Then post the correct journal.

Watch out for: automatic journals - the ones with a Document Type - are read-only (unless your administrator has switched on Allow user to edit auto posted journal, which is rare and should stay off) and are not yours to delete or reverse here. The accounting on them follows the document: raise a credit note against the invoice, or void the voucher, and BigLedger writes the reversing journal itself.

Step 9: Check Error Checking before you say you are done

Finance > Ledger and Journal Applet > Error Checking > Journal Not Balance

Before you tell your finance manager the three manual journals are in, run a 30-second sanity check. Open Error Checking from the sidebar and click the Journal Not Balance tab. This screen lists any journal whose debits do not equal its credits - the situation that quietly corrupts the trial balance.

If the list is empty, your March work is clean. If a journal appears, click into it, find the line whose amount is wrong (usually a missing credit on the last line), edit it so the totals match, save.

While you are here, glance at the Missing Journal tab too - pick a document type (say INTERNAL_SALES_INVOICE) and the March date range, and it lists FINAL documents that have no journal behind them, with a button to re-create it. Anything it shows means a document reached FINAL but its posting job failed afterwards - usually a missing default GL code, so the journal could not balance and was never written - and it needs fixing before month-end, not after. Map the missing code in Chart of Account first, then re-create the journal from this tab (or from Financial Report > Error Checking > Trace Document); re-creating it before the mapping exists just fails again. Once both tabs are clean for March, your three manual entries are in, the balances reflect them, and you can hand off to the financial reporting step.

Watch out for: a manual journal cannot reach this tab - the Create button and the server both refuse an unbalanced one - so anything listed here came in another way (an older import, or a document journal that lost a line). Fix it now rather than letting it carry into the month-end reports.

What success looks like

Open Journal Transaction and filter the listing to Date in March 2026. Among the automatic journals you should find exactly three rows with a blank Document Type: JV-2026-03-RENT (RM 38,500), JV-2026-03-DEPN (RM 12,500) and JV-2026-03-CORR (RM 4,200). Open Error Checking then Journal Not Balance and confirm the list is empty for March. If both checks pass, your March manual journals are complete and ready for the financial reports.

Common mistakes

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