Frequently Asked Questions
77 questions, grouped by topic. Each is a real situation a reader lands in — a figure that disagrees, a document that did nothing, a screen that is empty — rather than a heading written to fill a page.
The answers here are deliberately short. Two or three sentences and a link: enough to tell you whether you are in the right place, and then the page that actually owns the explanation. If you want the long version, follow the link — it is maintained; this page is an index.
Start here: five that explain the rest
- Where did this figure come from? Nothing on the screen says.
- I saved it and nothing happened.
- Why can’t I edit this? The field is greyed out.
- LHDN rejected it. Where do I find out why?
- Stock Availability shows 50 physical but 0 available. Where did it go?
Notice what they have in common. Four of these five are not how do I do this — they are why is this what it is, or why did nothing happen. That is why this site spends more effort explaining than instructing.
By topic
Numbers that do not agree
Two figures that should be the same, and are not. The answer is nearly always the same shape: one of the two numbers was worked out once and written down, and the other is being worked out now. When the figure is off because of one document, a question below shows how to find out why that document did or did not post.
- Where did this figure come from? Nothing on the screen says.
- How do I find out why a document did or did not post?
- The aging still shows an invoice I have already paid.
- Everything is matched to zero and the bank reconciliation still won’t tally.
- The Trial Balance doesn’t agree with the ledger, or comes back empty.
- The margin report and the profit and loss don’t agree.
- Two reports over the same period give different totals. Which is right?
- My opening balances are in but retained earnings looks wrong.
- The order still shows a quantity outstanding after I invoiced it all.
Stock figures and costing
Stock Availability shows 50 physical but 0 available. Where did it go? Stock questions are rarely about stock: they are about a number — an available quantity, a unit cost, a margin — and about which document moved it, and when. The questions below include which document actually takes stock out, and how you move stock between branches; after them, the page says where each figure is stored or worked out, what one FINAL sets off behind the screen, and what to check when a figure looks wrong.
- Stock Availability shows 50 physical but 0 available. Where did it go?
- Where do I turn on serial number or batch tracking for an item?
- How do I move stock between branches?
- The same serial number went out on two documents, or shows quantity 2.
- Why is the cost on my document different from what I paid for the item?
- I keyed a purchase dated last month and my earlier margins changed.
- My count and the stock report still disagree after a stock take.
- Which document actually takes stock out?
- Cannot final — not enough stock for bundle item. Which one ran out?
Documents, drafts and posting
A document is Final but it is not in the general ledger, or you saved it and nothing happened. Check for three things first: it is still a draft, it is a document type that was never meant to post, or it finalised and the posting failed somewhere you cannot see. Two more look like breakage and are answered below too: a document shows as TEMP with no document number — is it broken? and where does my document number come from, and can I change the format?
- I saved it and nothing happened.
- Why can’t I edit this? The field is greyed out.
- What actually happens when I press Finalise?
- I voided the document and the report still shows it.
- My printed invoice looks wrong, or will not print at all.
- Every sales invoice finalises, but none of them post, and the trace names a missing default GL code.
- I posted a journal to the wrong account. How do I correct it?
- A document has disappeared from a listing.
- Where does my document number come from, and can I change the format?
- The document is Final but it is not in the general ledger.
- A document shows as TEMP with no document number. Is it broken?
Selling, pricing and the till
Selling questions cluster around two things: which of several prices the system chose, and which document actually did something. Two come before either: whether you have to raise a sales order before you can invoice, and whether a POS cash bill posts to the ledger and moves stock.
- Can I invoice part of an order and leave the rest open?
- Do I have to raise a sales order before I can invoice?
- Cash bills are missing from my Z report.
- Where do I set which payment buttons the cashier sees?
- How do I take goods back — refund, credit note or exchange?
- Does a POS cash bill post to the ledger and move stock?
- The discount I took off the whole invoice — where does it actually go?
- How do I give members, retail and wholesale different prices for the same item?
- Does the till keep working when the internet goes down?
- Which price wins when an item is in more than one rule?
Money in and money out
Receipts and payments are the part of the ledger where a small mis-step takes the longest to find.
- How do I get a customer’s payment onto the right invoice?
- I knocked off the payment and the outstanding balance hasn’t changed.
- How do I offset what a customer owes me against what I owe them?
- How do I reconcile a bank statement?
- How do I move money between two of my own bank accounts?
- Where do bank charges on a receipt go?
- Can I set a credit limit that actually stops an order?
E-Invoice and MyInvois
There is no error message, so something must be broken. Usually nothing is broken — the document is queued. The other questions here start from your own desk: a supplier sent us an e-invoice — what do we do with it?, the customer has no TIN — what do I send?, and do I have to issue an e-invoice for every counter sale?
- LHDN rejected it. Where do I find out why?
- I finalised the invoice and nothing was submitted to LHDN.
- How do I set MyInvois up in the first place?
- What am I supposed to do between the 1st and the 7th?
- I submitted a wrong invoice and LHDN has already validated it. Can I cancel?
- Which LHDN guideline version does this wiki follow?
- Do I have to issue an e-invoice for every counter sale?
- The buyer on the e-invoice is not the customer I billed. Is that wrong?
- The customer has no TIN. What do I send?
- MyInvois shows Valid but BigLedger shows Invalid.
- A supplier sent us an e-invoice. What do we do with it?
Buying and receiving
Can I receive goods without a purchase order? How do I buy in a foreign currency? Most questions about buying come down to which document moves the stock and which books what you owe, and each path below exists because a real business needed it.
- What is the difference between a goods received note and a purchase invoice?
- How does consignment stock work when I don’t own it until it sells?
- How do I buy in a foreign currency?
- Can BigLedger raise purchase orders when stock runs low?
- The supplier invoiced before delivering. Which document comes first?
- Can I receive goods without a purchase order?
Access, branches and companies
Most access questions are one mechanism seen from different screens: a permission set is scoped to a company, a branch or a location, and a set with no target confers everything. The questions below include a company dropdown that is empty when you create a document, and how a group of companies should actually be set up.
- My colleague can see it and I cannot.
- Can somebody view customers without being able to export the list?
- How should a group of companies actually be set up?
- How do people sign in, and can we use Google or single sign-on?
- I logged in and there are no applets at all.
- The company dropdown is empty when I create a document.
The platform, the API and other systems
What the platform is made of, and how other systems reach it. Is there an API, and what can it do? Can I get my data out? Can I run my own storefront? Each has a short answer below.
- Can I load data in bulk — items, customers, opening balances?
- Can I get my data out?
- How do I connect another system to BigLedger?
- Is there an API, and what can it do?
- Can I run my own storefront?
- Which marketplaces does BigLedger synchronise with?
- An applet I read about is not on my launchpad. Why?
- Where is the EcomSync screen?
Not here?
An entry only appears on this page when a page on this site answers it. Where a real, repeatedly-asked question has no page behind it yet, we record it as a documentation gap rather than write an answer we cannot stand behind — so the absence of a question here is information too.
For a problem with a message on the screen, start at Troubleshooting. For a figure that does not agree with another figure, start at When two numbers don’t tally. For a specific screen, the applet reference documents every one.