Create, edit and reverse Journal Entries

An Owner's dated rental mortgage opening appears in History as Rental Mortgage Opening. It comes from Accounting > Rental Properties, posts unpaid principal to the rental mortgage liability and Opening Balance Equity, and cannot be edited or reversed from Journal Entries. If the opening was incorrect, review its entry and post a separate correcting Journal Entry with accountant guidance; editing the property profile does not change the ledger.

Before you begin

Manual Journal Entries are accountant-level adjustments, but the current product requires the Workspace Owner to post, edit or reverse them. Confirm the treatment with an accountant when necessary.

Post a Journal Entry

1. Open Accounting > Journal Entries.
2. The New Journal Entry tab is selected when the page opens.
3. Enter the entry date. Add any optional notes on the individual lines.
4. Add at least two lines. The form starts with two lines; each selection of

Add lines adds one more line. Each line has a trash button to remove it. A new line must have its own Account, amount, Note, and Sales Tax treatment entered as needed.

1. For every line, select an eligible Account and enter either a Debit or Credit amount. Amounts may be entered to the cent, including $0.01. The searchable Account list is grouped as Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, Expenses, and Other so a complete double-entry adjustment can use either side of the ledger.
2. With GST/HST tracking enabled, select an enabled, date-valid Sales Tax code when appropriate. All entered amounts include tax. GST/HST codes support Purchases and Sales. BC GST/PST and PST codes support Purchases only; provincial Sales and QST codes are unavailable for manual Journal Entries.

Standard GST/HST Purchases codes treat federal tax as recoverable. When recovery is unavailable, including purchases used in exempt activities, choose the corresponding No ITC code under Non-recoverable Purchases. Only enabled, date-valid federal purchase codes have a No ITC choice; PST-only and zero-tax codes are not duplicated. xBoox does not infer eligibility from your profession or account. Recoverable GST/HST creates a managed GST/HST Payable line; nonrecoverable GST/HST and all purchase PST stay in the selected expense or asset cost. Tax totals show amounts already included, not additional charges. Leaving Select Tax unchanged posts the full amount without a tax line or GST/HST reporting. Explicit Exempt, Zero-rated and Out of Scope classifications remain separate choices.

1. A line posted directly to the managed GST/HST Payable account instead uses No GST/HST reporting, GST/HST Collected - Line 103, or GST/HST ITC - Line 106. That special choice classifies the amount you entered and does not calculate tax or add another line.

Switching a line to this account clears any Sales Tax choice previously made for an ordinary account. Changing the Journal Entry date refreshes the available Sales Tax codes; a code outside its effective dates is cleared and requires review before posting. Reselect Sales Tax on the affected line, or explicitly choose No Tax Calculation. Unaffected lines keep their selections.

1. Confirm that Total (Incl. Tax) Debits equal Credits. The column headings show Debits (Included Tax) and Credits (Included Tax). The footer separates Subtotal (Excl. Tax), each selected tax component and rate, and the final inclusive total. Tax rows are grouped by component, province where applicable, rate, Purchases or Sales, and No ITC treatment. Direct GST/HST Payable amounts remain in the subtotal; they are not taxed again. This breakdown does not add tax to your entered amounts.

For example, two BC purchase Debits entered as $356.30 and $261.24 show a tax-exclusive subtotal of $551.37, GST of $27.57 and PST of $38.60, and a final Debit total of $617.54. Purchase PST stays in cost even though the footer shows its component separately. You can select Attach File or drop files into the shared attachment area before posting. Up to three supported files are held in the current form and uploaded after the Journal Entry is posted. Removing a pending file removes it from this form. Leaving or clearing the form discards pending files. If an upload fails after posting, xBoox identifies the entry as posted and locks its accounting fields. Retry Attachments uploads the remaining files to the same entry; it does not post another Journal Entry. Already uploaded files are skipped. Keep the page open to retry pending files, or open the posted entry in History to attach them again.

1. Select Post Journal Entry. While posting and attachment upload are in progress, the form and New Journal Entry / History tabs are locked to keep the submitted entry and its files together.

For example, a BC equipment purchase of $949.74 including 5% GST and 7% PST posts $907.34 to equipment (including $59.36 PST) and $42.40 to recoverable GST/HST when eligible. Selecting GST/PST BC (12% Purchases, No ITC) keeps the full $949.74 in equipment cost. History retains saved component amounts, rates and recovery choices; reversal uses those saved amounts even if settings later change.

When GST/HST tracking is disabled, the new-entry grid omits the Sales Tax column. Existing Journal Entries continue to show their saved tax treatment and Line 103 or Line 106 classifications in History.

Valid Debit and Credit amounts display the workspace currency symbol and two decimal places after you leave the field. Focusing an amount selects its editable numeric value; formatting does not change the amount.

With the initial two lines, leaving the first line's Debit or Credit field fills the same amount on the opposite side of the second line, provided its amount fields are empty. An automatically filled amount follows later first-line edits until you manually edit or clear either amount field on the second line. Adding or removing a line also stops automatic filling for that entry. Clear All Lines or a new entry restores it. Accounts, descriptions and Sales Tax remain your choices; automatic filling does not post the entry or replace validation.

While xBoox posts the entry, every field and action in the entry form is locked to prevent a change or duplicate submission from being lost while the request is in progress. If processing takes longer than a brief moment, the standard Posting Journal Entry... loading runner appears at the top of the app and closes automatically when posting and the History refresh finish.

xBoox also assigns the posting attempt a request identifier. Retrying the same attempt after a connection or response failure returns the already-posted entry instead of creating a second Journal Entry. If that same identifier is ever reused with different entry content, xBoox rejects it and asks you to refresh History rather than reporting the changed entry as posted.

After a Journal Entry is posted or reversed, xBoox refreshes the list. If that refresh fails, xBoox identifies the accounting action as completed and asks you to refresh the page before acting again. Do not post or reverse the entry a second time solely because its updated row did not immediately appear.

History and posted-entry detail show both Journal Entry Date and Created Date as yyyy-mm-dd. Created Date is the local calendar date on which xBoox created the entry; the detail view does not add an unnecessary creation time.

History requests only the current server page and displays 50, 100, 200, 300, or 500 rows per page. Moving between pages retrieves that page. Selecting a sortable column sorts the complete History before xBoox returns the requested page; a slower earlier request cannot replace the latest page or sort choice. Export CSV and Print retrieve the complete History in the current sort order, regardless of the page currently shown on screen. History defaults to Journal Entry number, highest first. Note Line 1 and Note Line 2 display the saved notes on the first and second lines respectively. Both columns support sorting across the complete History. An empty line note displays -. Long notes stay on one line with an ellipsis. Open Edit or select a History row to open a right-side drawer. Its line order matches New Journal Entry: Account, Debits, Credits, Note and Sales Tax where applicable. The title shows the Journal Entry number; Journal Date and Created Date appear above the lines. Source is a badge beside Posted or Reversed. Eligible Manual entries open with editable accounting fields. System entries, reversed originals and reversal entries have a muted, read-only appearance. Hover over a saved Sales Tax label to see any retained PST or nonrecoverable GST/HST cost amounts. The available Reverse action is at the bottom and follows the existing manual or source-workflow reversal rules. Reversed entries cannot be reversed again. Closing the drawer returns to History.

For entries with saved inclusive tax amounts, the drawer restores the entered amounts and separates saved tax components in the footer. It does not recalculate historical tax using current settings. Generated tax-control lines remain available under Posted Ledger Details, which also retains an existing historical entry-level note when present. No new Journal Note field is added. Older entries without inclusive snapshots retain their saved ledger amounts.

Open a posted entry to upload up to three PDF, JPEG, PNG, or WEBP supporting files. The attachment area uses the same pattern as Bank Transactions: a paperclip heading and count, an Attach File action in the bottom toolbar between Close and Save for editable entries. Reverse is separate on the left, and a file list showing the file type, name, size, Open attachment in new tab, and Delete attachment icon actions, with the same hover treatment as Bank Transactions. Attachments remain private to the Workspace and can be opened or deleted from the entry detail. The three-file limit is enforced when the upload is saved, including when two uploads finish at nearly the same time.

xBoox assigns the next JE-000001 style number and posts the entry immediately. V1 has no draft state.

Validation

• At least two lines are required.
• Every line has exactly one positive Debit or one positive Credit.
• Total Debits must equal total Credits.
• Amounts must be whole cents within xBoox's supported integer range.
• A manual Journal Entry uses the Workspace currency. xBoox does not convert a

manual entry submitted in a different currency.

• Accounts must belong to the same Workspace and be active.
• A Sales Tax choice is optional. If selected, both its tax code and Purchases or Sales direction must be valid for the Journal Entry date.
• If GST/HST tracking, a selected Account, a Sales Tax code, or the filing status changes while an entry is open, xBoox rejects the stale posting. Refresh Journal Entries and review every line before posting again.
• Changing the Journal Entry date refreshes the available Sales Tax choices and

clears a selected code when it is not effective on the new date.

• A Journal Entry cannot be posted or reversed inside a GST/HST period marked

Filed. Return the filing record to Reviewed, review the resulting report change, and then post or reverse the entry.

• An Account with Lock Account = Yes remains visible with a lock icon but

cannot be selected for a new line. Select it to see the explanation, then return to the Account list.

• Active, unlocked Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable accounts may be

used for a manual general-ledger adjustment. This does not create customer or supplier balances, invoices, bills, due dates, payments, or settlement records; xBoox does not provide those subledgers in the current version.

If xBoox cannot post an entry, it shows a clear error dialog explaining what needs correction. For example, $4,795.16 is accepted as a money amount, but each line still needs exactly one positive Debit or Credit. Correct the stated line or totals, then post the entry again.

New Journal Entry uses a Note on each line, with no separate entry-level input. Historical entry-level notes remain stored and available in details and CSV exports. A line Note describes an individual line. Bank Memo is reserved for source text imported from a bank or credit-card statement; it is not used for a manual Journal Entry.

Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable adjustments

Active, unlocked Accounts Receivable, such as 1200 Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable, such as 2000 Accounts Payable, appear in the Account picker and can receive a balanced manual Journal Entry. Use this only for a general-ledger adjustment prepared with appropriate accounting support.

xBoox does not currently provide an A/R or A/P subledger. A Journal Entry does not identify a customer or supplier invoice, create an unpaid bill, track a due date, or create and settle a payment. Keep the supporting records outside this entry and consult an accountant when the treatment is uncertain.

See Understand Categories and the Chart of Accounts for the distinction between account status, locking, and posting eligibility.

Classify a GST/HST control-account adjustment

The Sales Tax field classifies an amount already entered on the managed GST/HST Payable account. It does not calculate tax, change the Debit or Credit, or create another Journal Entry line.

The Purchases and Sales totals below the entry grid immediately preview the signed Line 106 and Line 103 amounts for these direct control-account lines.

• Line 103 reports GST/HST collected as Credit less Debit.
• Line 106 reports an input tax credit as Debit less Credit.
• An amount entered on the opposite side reduces that return line.
• Other Accounts cannot carry a Line 103 or Line 106 classification.
• When GST/HST tracking is disabled, Sales Tax is locked to Out of Scope.

Posted classifications appear in Journal Entry History and in GST/HST Summary and Detail for the Journal Entry date. Reversing the entry copies the same classification and swaps Debit and Credit, so the reversal affects the report in the opposite direction. This feature records a supported adjustment; it does not file a return or decide whether the treatment is correct.

Tax-inclusive ordinary lines

An ordinary taxable line stores the Sales Tax code and rate used on the Journal Entry date, the entered tax-inclusive amount, and the calculated tax amount. History therefore remains based on the original posting even if a Workspace tax code changes later. The generated GST/HST Payable line feeds the GST/HST Summary and Detail, while financial reports use the before-tax Account amount. A reversal swaps every saved Debit and Credit, including the generated tax line, without recalculating it at a later rate.

Leaving Select Tax unchanged is different from choosing Out of Scope. A blank selection records no tax classification. Out of Scope records an explicit decision that the line is outside GST/HST reporting. Neither treatment enters an Income or Other Income Journal Entry line on GST/HST Line 101. Exempt, Zero-rated, GST, and HST sales classifications do enter the before-tax Income or Other Income amount on Line 101. Journal Entry History identifies a blank selection as No Sales Tax Selected.

Reverse an entry

Posted entries cannot be deleted or voided. Eligible Manual entries can be edited as described below. Open History to review them.

For a posted manual entry, select the red Reverse action. xBoox first opens a confirmation dialog; choose the Reversal Date, review the amount and accounting effect, and then select Reverse Journal Entry. xBoox creates a new posted Journal Entry with Debit and Credit lines swapped. The original remains in History with reversed status. The selected date controls the reporting period affected by the reversal; confirm the period with an accountant when it differs from the original Journal Entry date.

The reversal and original-status change are committed together. Repeated or concurrent requests cannot create a second reversal for the same entry. The reversal retains the saved Sales Tax classification and rate snapshots and applies their report effect in the opposite direction without recalculating at a current rate. It can therefore reverse a historical tax-classified entry even if GST/HST tracking has since been disabled, subject to the Filed-period lock.

History keeps the second action position visible after reversal. The original entry shows a disabled Reversed action, while the new offsetting entry shows a disabled Reversal Entry action. These labels explain why neither row can be reversed again and keep the Edit actions aligned throughout the list.

For a supported system-generated entry, Reverse opens the workflow that created it. For example, a Home Office entry created by Year End Review opens the relevant Home Office review step and focuses its Reverse Journal Entry action. Review the source workflow and confirm there; opening it does not reverse anything automatically.

System-generated entries are never reversed by the general Journal Entry reversal endpoint because the source workflow must update its own state at the same time. The source workflow record, Journal Entry or reversal, and required high-importance audit record are committed together so a partial workflow state is not left behind.

Reporting

Posted and reversal lines appear in General Ledger, Trial Balance, Profit and Loss, and Balance Sheet as applicable. Explicit Line 103 and Line 106 classifications also appear in GST/HST Summary and Detail.

Selecting a Journal Entry row in a Balance Sheet Transaction Report opens Journal Entries > History with that entry open. The same editing and reversal protections apply to report drilldown.

Not supported in V1

• draft or recurring Journal Entries;
• editing system-generated entries or either entry in a reversal pair;
• deleting a posted entry;
• automatic sales-tax calculation or return lines other than GST/HST Line 103 and Line 106;
• a full receivables or payables subledger.

Vehicle working papers (dev)

Vehicle no longer creates, changes, or reverses Journal Entries when a working paper is saved or withdrawn. Review the allocation and payment records with an accountant; if an adjustment is needed, an authorized Owner posts it here and its reference can be linked to the appropriate Vehicle working paper. The system records the review confirmation, not whether the accountant's treatment is professionally correct. Historical Vehicle-generated entries remain intact; withdrawing the new paper does not reverse them. Consult an accountant about any separate correction required for those historical entries.

Use Attach File or drop a supported PDF, JPEG, PNG or WEBP into the shared Attachments area beside Note to add evidence to the selected Period and Vehicle. Click Save Working Paper to save the attachment links. Each working paper can link up to 50 files. Changing Period or Vehicle shows that paper’s files; unsaved links remain in the current page draft until you reload or leave the page. Removing a file removes its link from the current draft. Save the paper to keep that change; files retained by earlier saved versions are preserved. Read-only users can open saved attachments but cannot upload or remove them.

Direct-posting locks

Expense, Income and Journal Entry account selections use the current account's posting eligibility. An active, enabled managed Vehicle or Home Office summary can receive a direct posting when Lock Account (Prevent Direct Posting) is No. The account number and parent/subaccount relationship do not determine this lock. Yes blocks new direct postings and financial changes; existing history is preserved. System-only accounts and dedicated Transfer restrictions still apply.

Note and memo length

Note, memo, description, and review-reason inputs use a single line. Use the left and right arrow keys to move through longer text without expanding the form. New or edited text is limited to 500 characters; typing stops at the limit, and pasted text is silently shortened. No character counter or extra dialog appears. Existing longer notes are preserved when you save other changes without changing that text. Imported working Bank Memo fields are limited to 500 characters; the original import source is retained separately.

The first two entry lines cannot be removed; their trash buttons are disabled. Use Add Lines for additional lines, which can be removed individually.

Enter dates on desktop

Editable Date, From, and To fields share year/month/day keyboard entry. Type or paste 2023-10-31, or select a date with the calendar icon. Clicking the date text lets you edit it without opening the calendar. Invalid dates remain available for correction. Existing default dates, locked imported dates, and allowed date ranges still apply. Period menus and phone date sheets retain their existing behavior.

Amount fields show a muted $0.00 hint when empty. Subtotal and Total show muted zero amounts until entered. The summary and Difference update when you leave an amount field, rather than while typing. Posting validates the latest amounts; empty lines do not display Balanced.

Amount validation and opening older entries

Enter positive amounts on either the Debit or Credit side; the other side must be zero or blank. Negative amounts are rejected, not silently changed. Use the opposite side for a credit or adjustment.

Report links and related-entry links load the selected Journal Entry directly, including entries beyond the current History page. After reversal, the detail refreshes the original entry and its reversal link. Workspace access still applies.

Correcting highlighted fields

If posting fails because a field needs correction, the shared error dialog identifies the field and affected line numbers. Account, Journal Date, invalid debit/credit amounts and rejected Sales Tax selections are highlighted using a red border and text. Close the dialog to return to the affected field. Choose an Account from the available options; typing search text alone does not select it. Corrected fields return to normal. Other unresolved highlights remain when the form redraws. A blank optional Sales Tax selection is not an error.

Follow an entry and its reversal

Opening either entry shows the original and reversal numbers together at the left of the drawer footer, below Attachments: JE-… Reversed by JE-…. Their order stays the same when you switch between them. Current identifies the entry being viewed; select the other number to open it in the same drawer. The original shows Reversed and the opposite entry shows Posted and Reversal. Both entries remain in reports within their respective dates; amount sorting and pagination can place them on different pages.

Reversal line Notes retain the Reversal - prefix and original text. Saved line Notes display on one line with an ellipsis when needed; hover over a Note to read its full text. Display truncation does not change the saved Note.

Report transaction types distinguish the generated reversal as Journal Entry (Reversal). The original entry remains Journal Entry after reversal. This distinction is also included in report CSV exports and printing; it does not change the posted amounts.

Edit a Manual Journal Entry

In History, select Edit or the entry row. The action is labelled Edit on all rows; system-controlled entries and both entries in a reversal pair still open read-only with an explanation. Rental Mortgage Opening remains controlled by its source workflow.

For an unreversed Manual entry, change Journal Date, Accounts, Debits, Credits, line Notes or Sales Tax, and add or remove additional lines. Clear All Lines resets the edit draft to two blank lines without changing the saved entry or its attachments until you save a valid replacement. The entry number, Created Date, Source and status stay unchanged. No Journal Note field is added. The footer places Reverse on the left and Close, Attach File and Save on the right. Save becomes available after a change. Amount summaries update when you leave the amount input; Save uses the latest input.

Financial changes validate current posting eligibility, amounts, tax settings and both the original and new dates against Filed GST/HST periods. They replace the ledger lines atomically, including generated tax lines, and retain the entry identity and attachments. A Note-only edit preserves saved ledger amounts, tax snapshots and line identities. When GST/HST tracking is off, historical tax remains visible and these entries allow only line Note edits. Filed-period and concurrent-edit protections still apply. Accounting changes are audited with before/after records. Reports use the saved lines. A later reversal reverses the latest saved version.

If another window saves or reverses the entry first, your stale save is rejected. Keep a copy of the changes you need and reopen the entry. Failed saves retain input. During saving, controls and closing are disabled and the button keeps its Save label. Attachment uploads/deletions also temporarily lock the drawer; they cannot run alongside Save. Adding/clearing lines or updating attachments keeps the drawer open without replaying its opening animation. After success the drawer remains open, and Save is disabled until another change. Closing a dirty entry or choosing Reverse requires explicitly discarding changes or returning to save them first.

Saving attachment changes in an editable Manual entry

Adding or deleting attachments marks the edit draft as changed and enables Save. Files added to the draft can be opened before saving. Select Save to submit attachment changes; closing with unsaved changes offers a discard confirmation. Discarding leaves previously saved attachments unchanged. If an upload fails, keep the drawer open and select Save to retry the remaining files; completed uploads are not repeated. Accounting changes and individual attachment operations are separate requests, so a failure can leave some changes already saved. System, reversed and reversal entries retain their separate immediate attachment controls.