Journal & Payment Entries

Kraal supports two primary ways to record accounting transactions manually: Journal Entries for general-purpose adjustments and Payment Entries for recording cash movements. Each serves a distinct purpose in keeping your books accurate.

Journal Entries

When to Use Journal Entries

Use journal entries for transactions that are not covered by invoices or payments, such as:

• Year-end adjustments and accruals
• Depreciation entries
• Reclassifications between accounts
• Correcting entries
• Inter-company transfers

Creating a Journal Entry

1. Navigate to Accounting > Journal Entry and click New.
2. Set the Posting Date for when the entry should be recorded.
3. Add a Reference Number if this entry relates to an external document.
4. Add debit and credit lines:
   • Select an account from your chart of accounts for each line.
   • Enter the Debit or Credit amount.
   • Optionally add a party (customer or supplier) and remarks per line.
5. Add as many lines as needed. The entry must balance — total debits must equal total credits.
6. Add any Remarks to describe the purpose of the entry.
7. Preview the entry to verify the accounts and amounts before posting.
8. Click Submit to post the entry to your ledger.

WARNING

An entry will not post if total debits and total credits are not equal. Kraal displays a validation message if the entry is out of balance.

Preview Before Posting

The preview screen shows a summary of all debit and credit lines, the accounts affected, and the net effect on each account. Review this carefully before submitting.

Payment Entries

When to Use Payment Entries

Use payment entries to record cash movements — money received from customers or paid to suppliers. Payment entries are the standard way to settle outstanding invoices.

Recording a Payment

1. Navigate to Accounting > Payment Entry and click New.
2. Choose the Payment Type: Receive (from a customer) or Pay (to a supplier).
3. Select the Party (customer or supplier).
4. Enter the Amount received or paid.
5. Select the Payment Method and the Bank Account the money flows through.
6. Link to outstanding invoices: Kraal displays unpaid invoices for the selected party. Select one or more invoices to allocate the payment against.
7. Set the Posting Date and add any reference details.
8. Click Submit to record the payment.

Linking Payments to Invoices

When you select a party, Kraal shows their outstanding invoices with balances due. You can:

• Allocate the full payment to a single invoice.
• Split the payment across multiple invoices.
• Record a partial payment against one invoice, leaving the remainder outstanding.

Once linked, the invoice status updates automatically (for example, from Submitted to Paid when fully settled).

Auto-Post Policies

For recurring entries that happen on a predictable schedule, you can configure auto-post policies.

1. Navigate to Accounting > Auto-Post Policies.
2. Define the entry template: accounts, amounts, and descriptions.
3. Set the frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, or custom).
4. Set the start date and optionally an end date.
5. Enable the policy. Kraal will automatically create and post the entry on schedule.

Auto-post policies are useful for recurring charges such as rent, subscriptions, or regular depreciation.

Journal Entry vs Payment Entry

Scenario	Use
Customer pays an invoice	Payment Entry
You pay a supplier bill	Payment Entry
Year-end accrual adjustment	Journal Entry
Depreciation posting	Journal Entry
Reclassify an expense to a different account	Journal Entry
Record a bank fee	Either — Journal Entry for a one-off, Payment Entry if linked to a bill

TIP

When in doubt, use a Payment Entry for anything involving actual cash movement and a Journal Entry for non-cash adjustments.