Journal Entries

Journal entries are the foundation of your books. Every financial event — a sale, an expense, an accrual, an adjustment — is recorded here as balanced debit and credit lines, so your ledger always reflects what actually happened. Most entries are generated automatically by DayZero from invoices, bills, and bank activity; this page is where you create manual adjustments, review everything that posted, and attach supporting documentation.

Key capabilities

• Balanced multi-line entry — enforced validation; debits must equal credits and all amounts are positive
• Manual or AI creation — type lines by hand or draft them from a plain-English prompt
• Change-based editing — add, update, or delete individual lines while keeping the entry balanced
• Posts to your chart of accounts — each line hits a ledger account
• File attachments — PDF, PNG, JPG, or JPEG per entry for the audit trail
• Comment threads — discuss and review any entry in context
• Creation-method flag — distinguishes AI/system-generated entries from manual ones
• Source audit trail — records which integration or object originated each entry
• Automatic source links — ties back to the originating invoice, bill, credit memo, or inventory order
• Bulk CSV/Excel import — a background import with a preview-and-validate step
• Prefilled upload template — downloadable and pre-populated with your chart of accounts
• Filterable, paginated list — pagination with filters for ledger, source, creation method, date range, and text search
• Multi-currency — optional presentment currency stored alongside the base currency

How it works

You add debit and credit lines that each hit a ledger account. DayZero validates that debits equal credits before the entry is created or updated; an unbalanced entry is rejected with the exact debit and credit totals.

flowchart TD
  start["New entry"] --> mode{"Manual or AI?"}
  mode -->|"Manual"| lines["Add debit / credit lines"]
  mode -->|"AI prompt"| draft["AI drafts balanced lines"]
  draft --> lines
  lines --> check{"Debits = credits?"}
  check -->|"No"| lines
  check -->|"Yes"| posted["Posted to ledger"]
  posted --> docs["Attach files / discuss"]

How to use it

1. Open Journal Entries (under Ledger) to see all entries with their date, description, source, and totals.
2. Click New Entry and add lines — pick an Account, set Type to Debit or Credit, enter the Amount, and add a per-line Description. The entry must balance before it can be saved.
3. Or click Create Entry with AI and describe the entry in plain English (e.g. "Record $5,000 rent payment from checking account to rent expense for April 2026"); review the drafted lines before saving.
4. Attach supporting documents (receipts, contracts, statements) for the audit trail.
5. To correct an entry, edit it — add, update, or delete lines — keeping debits equal to credits.
6. Filter the list by All Ledgers, All Methods (AI vs. manual), source, or date range, or search by description to find a specific entry.
7. For migrations, download the bulk template, fill it in, preview to validate, then post — the import runs in the background.

Pro tips

• Every line amount is positive — direction is set by Debit vs. Credit, not by sign.
• Filter by creation method = manual to isolate your hand-typed adjustments from the AI/system-generated entries that come from invoices, bills, and feeds.
• Use the source filter to trace where automatic entries came from (invoice, bill, transaction, stripe, shopify, plaid, ramp, square, fixed_asset, …) when reconciling a balance.
• The bulk template ships with a Ledgers reference sheet listing your active accounts — match ledger_name or account_number against it so every row lands in the right account.
• Always run bulk-upload preview first: it groups rows into entries by entry_number (or shared date + description) and flags any unbalanced entry before you commit anything.
• Attach the source document to adjusting entries — it makes month-end review and any future audit dramatically faster.

In-depth guide

Anatomy of an entry

A journal entry is a header plus two or more line entries. The header carries the description, date, currency, and links; the lines carry the debits and credits.

Each line entry carries an amount (always positive), a debit or credit direction, a ledger account, and an optional description.

Creation method vs. source

Two fields describe an entry's origin and are independently filterable:

Balance validation

The double-entry rule is enforced on both create and update: total debits must equal total credits, amounts must be positive, and at least two lines are required. An update that would unbalance the entry is rejected with a clear error showing the projected debit and credit totals, so you can never accidentally save a one-sided entry.

Double-entry quick reference

Attachments & discussion

Attach PDF/PNG/JPG/JPEG files directly to an entry; attachments are tracked per entry. Each entry also supports a comment thread, so reviewers can ask questions and resolve them in context without leaving the entry.

Editing, locking & deletion

• Edits use a change set of line create / update / delete operations, and the entry must remain balanced afterward.
• Locked periods — entries in a locked accounting period cannot be modified; close a period to protect the work behind it.
• Deletion removes an entry's line entries with it.

Bulk import

Upload a CSV/Excel file (one row per line item), call preview to validate, then post. Posting runs in the background, creating each entry. Rows are grouped into entries by entry_number or by consecutive rows sharing a date and description, and column names accept flexible aliases (date/je_date, ledger_name/account_name/gl_account or account_number, debit/dr, credit/cr).

Start free and post your first balanced entry in minutes.