Journal entries are the foundation of every accounting system. They are the first step in recording financial transactions, ensuring accuracy, transparency, and compliance. Each entry captures the debit and credit movements that keep your books balanced.
Below is a screenshot of the main Journal Entries dashboard in Ratals ERP, showing two sample entries to give you a clear visual of how it appears:
In Ratals ERP, journal entries are even more powerful because they are connected to your entire accounting workflow. Whether a customer checks out online, you're processing an order, paying a vendor, or posting a purchase order, the system automatically creates journal entries in real time. These entries then flow into reports like the general ledger, trial balance, balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement.
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about managing journal entries in Ratals ERP, including:
By the end, you'll not only understand how journal entries work in Ratals ERP but also know how to use them to keep your accounting accurate and audit-ready.
A journal entry is a record of a financial transaction. It includes:
Ratals ERP uses a double-entry system, which means every debit must have a corresponding credit. This ensures your books always balance. For example:
Without journal entries, financial reports like the trial balance or balance sheet couldn't exist.
You can access all journal entries by navigating to:
Admin > Accounting > Bookkeeping > All Journal Entries
On this page, you'll see a list of all journal entries, starting with the most recent. Each entry contains two or more rows (debit and credit), showing the specific accounts that were affected.
As your business grows, you'll need to quickly locate specific journal entries. Ratals ERP provides powerful search and filter options to make this easy. Here's a screenshot showing how you can search for entries:
You can filter by:
This makes it easy to track down related entries during audits, reconciliations, or customer/vendor inquiries.
Each journal entry includes multiple columns of data. The main columns are:
Like so:
At the bottom of each entry, Ratals ERP displays totals for both debits and credits. These must match before the system allows the entry to be saved.
Ratals ERP gives you the option to edit journal entries, but it's important to use this feature wisely.
For most cases, it's better to create a new adjustment entry instead of editing. Adjustments allow you to:
Editing an existing entry, by contrast, leaves no record of why it was changed. That can confuse other team members or auditors reviewing your books later.
Best Practice: Use editing only for immediate corrections. Use adjustments for everything else.
Ratals ERP enforces the double-entry principle. Every transaction must have at least one debit and one credit, and the totals must balance.
If your entry is off by even one cent, the system won't let you save until it's corrected. This ensures financial integrity across all accounts.
One of the biggest strengths of Ratals ERP is how journal entries connect to other parts of the system.
When creating an entry manually, you should always link it to the right IDs:
This linking ensures that when you later search or run reports, all related entries show up.
For example: If you manually create an entry for a customer order but forget to include the Order ID, that entry won't appear in future order-based searches.
One of the biggest time-savers in Ratals ERP is automation. Many journal entries are created automatically as you perform normal business operations. It's important to know whether an entry was created manually by a user or automatically by the system. To make this clear, all automated entries are labeled with "System Created" as the "Creator" or "By". If a logged-in admin user creates a journal entry manually, the entry will display that user's name instead of "System Created." like this:
This labeling makes it easy to quickly identify whether a journal entry was created manually by a person or automatically by the system as a result of an action performed within the software.
Automated entries mean you don't need to manually record every transaction. Instead, the system ensures consistent and accurate accounting while you focus on running your business.
Even with automation, there are times when you'll need to create journal entries yourself. Common cases include:
These are higher-level transactions that typically don't happen through standard admin pages.
You can manually add a journal entry by navigating to:
Admin > Accounting > Bookkeeping > Add Journal Entries
Before adding a journal entry, consider whether it should be linked to another record, such as a customer, order, or vendor. Make sure you have the relevant IDs on hand so you can connect them in the entry. Once you have these IDs from the admin system, you can begin creating the manual entry. The entry page looks like this:
When creating a new entry, fill in the following fields that apply:
For each row, include:
Ratals ERP also provides a reference diagram with arrows that show how money flows based on the account type, as seen in the screenshot above. This helps you confirm whether to use a debit or a credit.
Once the correct accounts are selected and the debits and credits are balanced, click Save. If they are not balanced, the system will block the save and prompt you to make corrections.
One of the most powerful features of Ratals ERP is real-time reporting.
As soon as you create or adjust a journal entry:
If this is the first entry for an account, that account will immediately begin showing in your reports.
This means you don't have to wait for batch updates or manual reconciliations - your reports are always up to date.
Journal entries are at the heart of Ratals ERP's accounting system. They power every report, from the general ledger to the financial statements.
By mastering journal entries, you'll:
Now that you understand how journal entries work in Ratals ERP, the next step is to create your first manual entry. This will give you hands-on experience and prepare you for managing adjustments, closings, and other higher-level tasks.
A journal entry is a financial record that tracks debits and credits across accounts. In Ratals ERP, journal entries can also be linked to orders, vendors, and customers for full traceability.
Journal entries can only be edited if the accounting period is not locked. For most corrections, it is recommended to create an adjustment entry instead of modifying an existing one.
In Ratals ERP, journal entries are automatically created when you place or ship an order, record a bill or payment, receive or post a purchase order, or receive invoice payments.
Manual journal entries are typically required when transitioning to Ratals ERP, making adjustments, recording owner withdrawals or contributions, or handling unique transactions outside normal workflows.