A transaction is a journal entry. It is added to the general ledger, which compiles all entries that reflect your organization's activities. In other words, each transaction recorded in the general ledger represents a monetary operation that will appear in various financial reports.
It is also called a general ledger entry or G/L entry. Go to the menu Accounting > Transactions to view the general ledger.
Note: The Enter Invoices function in the Suppliers menu is a simple and quick way to generate payment transactions. With this window, you can enter multiple invoices and include the payment at the same time. Additionally, if you’ve taken pictures of invoices, they will appear, and you can select them to transfer into accounting.
For a more complex transaction involving credits, delivery charges, or tips, for example, use a new transaction as described below.
Here are three types of transactions, also known as journal entries:
A transaction that affects neither accounts receivable nor accounts payable, such as:
You transfer funds between your petty cash and bank account.
You reassign revenue from one income account to another.
You enter a year-end adjustment or an accrual entry.
A glazier comes to replace a window, and you pay immediately by cheque without creating a supplier account, or you pay your monthly phone bill without creating a supplier account.*
Any other transaction that doesn’t affect accounts receivable or payable.
To do this, go to Accounting > New Transaction and enter the relevant accounts. Of course, the transaction must be balanced, meaning the total debits must equal the total credits. If you’re unfamiliar with DEBIT and CREDIT, just remember: an account increases when it’s shown in green, and decreases when in red. A zero balance means the transaction is balanced.
Note about the date: If your last closed period is March 2023, you won’t be able to enter a transaction dated within that month or earlier. You can still reopen the period, but be very cautious—if the period was used to generate a tax report, adding a new entry may distort that report.
For example, if you write a cheque to replenish petty cash, your transaction will look like this:
Petty Cash as a green debit (since it’s increasing), and Bank as a red credit (since the bank balance is decreasing).
Generating a customer invoice or entering a supplier invoice
In the CLIENT or SUPPLIER field, enter the name, apply DEBIT/CREDIT as needed, and complete the transaction.
You can generate an invoice for a customer via a transaction, but you can also convert a sale into an invoice. The system will do this automatically for you, while leaving a trace of the invoice in the sales menu.
For supplier invoices, if you went through the purchase order process and the Purchases menu, you don’t need to create a transaction.
In the case of space location, however, you may generate transactions instead of using sales.
The same principle applies when you purchase electricity—you don’t need to create a purchase order, send it to Hydro-Quebec, and “receive” the electricity. You can simply enter the invoice to be paid through a new transaction.
Enter the invoice number in the Reference field, a name (to facilitate future searches), select an existing supplier, and click on the green Invoice +. Note that the related chart of accounts can be automatically selected. This account can also be specified in the Terms tab of the Supplier file.
In the Energy account, enter the invoice total as a debit. Note: using the shortcut in the small gear icon will automatically adjust taxes based on whether your amount is pre-tax or all taxes included.
Click once in the green Credit field on the Accounts Payable line to balance the transaction.
Click Save and Close so the transaction is added to accounts payable.
Receiving a deposit or entering the payment of a supplier invoice
Again, in the Accounting menu, select New Transaction.
In the CLIENT or SUPPLIER field, enter the name and click Payment.
In the related window, you will see all unpaid invoices; indicate whether you are giving a discount for one of them. Also enter the amount paid per invoice and click on Process.
After clicking on Process, the system will return you to the original transaction. Enter the Reference, make sure the amounts are correct, and click Save and close.
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