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
• Owner contributions, distributions, owner loans, and owner-loan repayments

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.

Owner and Equity Quick Starts

For owner or equity activity, Kraal can prepare the first balanced draft from common transaction types:

• Owner contribution — cash or another asset received from an owner.
• Owner distribution / draw — cash or another asset paid out to an owner.
• Owner loan to company — funds advanced by an owner that should be tracked as a liability.
• Repay owner loan — cash paid back against an owner loan balance.

Kraal suggests likely chart-of-accounts lines from the client's accounts when they are available. The draft still goes through the normal journal-entry review flow: confirm the account names, amount, posting date, reference, and remarks before submitting.

Intercompany Journal-Entry Previews

For multi-entity clients, Kraal supports a preview-first intercompany journal-entry workflow. The accounting workspace can build an inter-entity draft from:

• Source entity and destination entity
• Amount, posting date, and description
• Intercompany receivable / payable account hints
• Any additional line metadata needed for review

Kraal returns a balanced preview and a clear submit action. Posting requires an explicit submit request and a writable accounting scope; previewing an intercompany entry does not mutate the ledger.

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).

Overpayments, Deposits, and On-Account Credit

The allocated total must match the paid amount before you can submit — Kraal never parks money on account silently. When a party pays more than the invoices you allocate:

• Tick Keep remainder on account to record the excess as unapplied credit on the party's balance (a customer deposit/advance or a vendor prepayment). Apply it to a future invoice later.
• Or adjust the allocations so the totals match exactly.

To record a pure deposit or retainer with no invoice yet, record the payment without linking any invoices — the full amount is held on account. See Receivables & Payables for the full AR/AP workflow.

Recurring Entries

For entries that repeat on a predictable schedule, you can set up recurring entries so you don't re-key them every period.

1. Open Manage Close > Close Prep > Recurring entries for the client.
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 schedule. Kraal generates a draft entry each period.

Recurring entries are useful for predictable charges such as rent, subscriptions, or regular depreciation.

Today, every generated recurring Journal Entry lands as a draft, regardless of the client's autonomy mode. Review the accounts, amount, date, memo, and supporting schedule, then submit the entry when it is correct. A generated draft is not evidence that the entry has posted, so confirm its submitted status before relying on it during close.

This section is the current source of truth for recurring Journal Entry posting behavior. Autonomy & Safety explains the broader automation model, but it does not turn recurring Journal Entry drafts into submitted entries.

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.