The journal and entries

The journal lists every transaction in your books, by date. To Bill records your invoices, payments and expenses in it by itself. You enter there what has no document in To Bill, such as rent or a loan, and you correct mistakes there.

Before you start

• Accounting must be on: see Turn on accounting.
• To post, reverse or correct an entry, you need the right to keep the books. Without it, you can view the journal but not change it.

Experimental feature

Accounting is still in development. Check your figures with your fiduciary before you file any return.

Find an entry

In the menu, open Accounting, then Journal. The entries of the current financial year are shown, the most recent at the top.

1. New entry: post an entry by hand. See Post an entry by hand.
2. The filter bar:
   • the search finds an entry number, a description, a reference or an amount;
   • Financial year and Account keep the entries of one financial year or one account;
   • More filters adds the Period, the Origin (Invoice, Payment, Manual…), the Amount of a line and the Supporting voucher;
   • Views offers ready-made filters: No voucher, Manual entries and This month;
   • Sort by orders by Date, Number or Amount.

Each active filter is shown under the bar, with a cross to remove it. See Filters and views.

Click an entry to open it in a panel on the right.

1. Supporting voucher: the document the entry posts. Click it to open it.
2. Accounting entry: Show accounts displays its lines, debit and credit.
3. Audit trail: who entered it, when, and whether its fingerprint is intact.

The arrows at the top of the panel, or the j and k keys, move to the next or previous entry.

Simple or Expert

In the Simple display, the journal shows one amount per entry. In Expert, it shows each entry’s number, its accounts and the debit and credit columns. You choose at the bottom of the accounting menu: see The accounting home page.

Post an entry by hand

An entry has at least two lines. Each line goes to the debit or the credit of an account, and the two totals must be equal.

1. In the journal, click New entry.

2. Enter the Date, the Description, for example “October rent”, and, if you wish, the voucher’s Reference.

3. On each line, choose the Account (1): type its number or part of its name. The account’s balance on that date is shown next to it. Then enter the amount under Debit or Credit.

   

4. Check the indicator under the lines (2). Balanced: the two totals are equal. If not, it shows the Difference: click the “Balance” button, or press F9, to put the difference on the line you are on.

5. Attach the Supporting voucher (3): drop the file in the box, or click Browse. PDF or image, 10 MB at most.

6. Click Post, or press ⌘ Enter (Ctrl Enter on Windows).

To Bill numbers the entry and opens it in its panel. It is now sealed: it can no longer be changed.

VAT in an entry

If you are registered for VAT, choose a code in the VAT column of the amount’s line (the expense or the revenue), not on the VAT account. The amount you enter includes VAT: To Bill takes the VAT out of it and adds the VAT line itself, on account 2200 for a sale, 1170 or 1171 for a purchase. Codes start with V for sales, M for purchases of goods and services, I for investments and other costs. If you settle VAT with the net tax rate method, entries carry no VAT. See VAT settings.

The entry’s date

It must fall in an open financial year. A closed financial year takes no more entries. After the last financial year, the next one opens by itself with its first entry. If the entry carries VAT and its VAT period has already been filed, To Bill refuses it too: date it in the open period, or file a correction return for that period.

Attach a supporting voucher

Every entry must rest on a voucher. The entries of your invoices, credit notes, payments and bank transactions have theirs: the document itself. Two cases are left to watch: entries posted by hand without a file, and expenses without a receipt.

To find them, click Views in the journal, then No voucher (1). The number after it counts the entries concerned in the current financial year.

Open an entry from the list: its panel says No supporting voucher (1). What to do depends on where the entry comes from.

• An expense: attach the receipt to the expense itself, in Expenses. To Bill reverses the original entry and posts it again with its voucher, automatically. See Receipts and scanning.
• A manual entry: it is sealed, so the voucher cannot be added afterwards. Click Reverse and correct (2) and attach the file to the correction: see Correct an entry.
• The sale of a fixed asset: attach the sales contract in the asset’s record. The entry stays as it is. See Fixed assets.

After a correction, the original entry stays in the journal, struck through and marked Reversed. It keeps its No voucher mark: the correction carries the voucher.

Legal basis

• Every entry is supported by an accounting voucher: a document, on paper or electronic, that makes it possible to verify the transaction. Art. 957a para. 2 no. 2 and para. 3 CO.

Cancel an entry: the reversal

A posted entry is never erased. To cancel it, To Bill posts an opposite entry, the reversal. Both stay in the journal, linked to each other.

1. Open the entry in the journal, then click Reverse, at the bottom of the panel.

2. Enter the Reason (1), for example “Entered twice”. It appears in the reversal’s description.

3. Check the Reversal date (2): today by default. It cannot be before the original entry. If the entry’s financial year is closed, the reversal moves to the first open day.

   

4. Click Reverse.

In the journal, the original entry is marked Reversed, and the new one Reversal.

Correct an entry

An account, an amount or a date to change? Reverse and correct reverses the original entry and posts the corrected version, in a single step.

1. Open the entry, then click Reverse and correct. The window takes over its lines.

2. Enter the Reason for the correction (1).

3. Correct what needs correcting: date, description, accounts or amounts. Attach the voucher if it was missing. Without a new file, the original voucher is kept.

   

4. Click Reverse and book (2).

The journal then holds three entries: the original, marked Reversed, its Reversal, and the Correction. The panel of each one leads to the others (1).

What cannot be reversed

• A reversal: correct the original entry instead.
• The profit appropriation entry: cancel the decision in Accounting › Profit appropriation. See Profit appropriation.

An invoice or an expense

Correct the document itself instead. A changed expense is reversed and posted again by itself. A sent invoice is corrected with a credit note: see Credit notes. That way, the document and your books stay in agreement.

Check the journal’s integrity

When it is posted, each entry receives a fingerprint calculated from its content and from the fingerprint of the previous entry. Any later change would break this chain.

Click Check integrity (1): To Bill recalculates the whole chain and shows the result (2).

If To Bill reports tampering, note the entry number it shows and contact your fiduciary.

Legal basis

• The accounting records and vouchers are kept in such a way that no change can go unnoticed: Art. 3 GeBüV, the Ordinance on the Keeping and Retention of Accounting Records (German version: fedlex has no English one).
• The accounts are kept completely, truthfully and traceably: Art. 957a para. 2 CO.

Export the journal

Export, at the top of the journal, downloads the journal or the trial balance of the financial year as CSV, the file pack for your fiduciary or the complete archive. See Exports for your fiduciary.