Manual Journals

In accounting, journals are used to record debit and credit entries for transactions in general ledger in chronological order. Common types of journals include Sales Journals, Purchase Journals, Cash Disbursement Journals, and Cash Receipt Journals.

In Zoho ERP, Manual Journals allow you to record specific financial transactions that cannot be captured through regular business workflows. For example, you can use a manual journal to record monthly depreciation or other adjustment entries.

Approval Statuses of a Manual Journal

The approval status of a manual journal depends on the approval settings enabled for your organisation.

Journal Status	Description	Applicable When
Draft	The manual journal is created and saved as a draft.	Approvals is enabled or disabled
Pending Approval	The manual journal is awaiting approval.	Approvals is enabled
Approved	The manual journal is approved and ready to be published.	Approvals is enabled
Rejected	The manual journal is rejected.	Approvals is enabled
Published	The manual journal is finalised and recorded in the accounts.	Approvals is enabled or disabled

Record Manual Journals

You can record manual journals in Zoho ERP either by creating new journals or by importing them.

Create Manual Journals

To create a manual journal:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to the Accounting module in the left sidebar.
Switch to the Manual Journals tab in the modular bar.
Click + New Journal in the top-right corner.
On the New Journal page, enter the required details:
Select the Date on which you want to record the manual journal.
The journal number is auto-populated in the Journal# field. To configure it, click the Gear icon next to the field.
In the Configure Journal Number Preferences pop-up, choose whether to auto-generate journal numbers or enter them manually, and click Save.
Enter Notes for the journal entry.
Choose how the journal entry should appear in reports:
- Accrual only: Appears only in reports generated on an accrual basis.
- Cash only: Appears only in reports generated on a cash basis.
- Accrual and Cash: Appears in reports generated on both bases. This option is selected by default.
Select the Currency to associate with the journal.
In the Items table:
- Select the Account to record debit and credit entries.
- Select the Contact to associate with the journal entry.
- Enter the required debit or credit amounts.

Note: When a manual journal is saved as Draft, the amounts will not be reflected in the respective accounts. Click Publish to record the amounts. You can publish multiple manual journals at once by selecting the required journals and clicking Publish.

Click Save as Draft or Save and Publish.

The manual journal will be created.

Note: When a manual journal is saved as Draft, the amounts will not be reflected in the respective accounts. Click Publish to record the amounts.

You can publish multiple manual journals at once by selecting the required journals and clicking Publish.

Import Manual Journals

To import manual journals into Zoho ERP:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to Accounting module in the left sidebar.
Switch to the Manual Journals tab in the modular bar.
Click the More icon in the top-right corner and select Import Journals.
Click Choose File to upload the required file. You can also download a sample file for reference.
Select Auto-generate Journal Numbers if you want Zoho ERP to generate journal numbers automatically. The journal numbers in the import file will be ignored.
Click Next.
On the Map Fields page, verify that the fields are correctly mapped with the headers in the import file, and click Next.
On the Preview page, click Import.

The manual journal will be imported.

Insight: The status of the journals (Draft or Published) is also included in the import file.

Manual Journals for Bank Accounts

You can create manual journals using the bank accounts you’ve added in Zoho ERP. After a manual journal is created, the transaction appears as a Manually Added transaction under the respective bank account and is listed as either a withdrawal or a deposit.

You can match a manually added transaction with an uncategorised transaction. To do this:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to the Accounting module in the left sidebar.
Switch to the Banking tab in the modular bar.
Select the bank account where you want to match the transactions.
Choose the uncategorised transaction you want to match.
The best possible matches are displayed in the right pane, including the manually added transaction if the date and amount match.
Click Match next to the required transaction.

Learn how to match transactions with existing records and categorise them in Zoho ERP.

Export Manual Journals

You can export manual journals from Zoho ERP. Exported files can be password-protected for added security.

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to the Accounting module in the left sidebar.
Switch to the Manual Journals tab in the modular bar.
Click the More icon in the top-right corner of the page and select Export Journals.
Choose the required export options, such as the date range and file format.
Enter the password in the File Protection Password field.
Click Export to download the file.

Note:The status of journals (Draft or Published) is also included in the exported file.

Other Operations

You can perform the following actions in the Manual Journals module of Zoho ERP.

Edit Manual Journals

To edit a manual journal in Zoho ERP:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to the Accounting module in the left sidebar.
Switch to the Manual Journals tab in the modular bar.
Select the manual journal you want to edit.
Click Edit at the top of the journal’s details page.
Make the required changes and click Save.

The manual journal will be updated.

Download as PDF

To download a manual journal as a PDF in Zoho ERP:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to the Accounting module in the left sidebar.
Switch to the Manual Journals tab in the modular bar.
Select the manual journal you want to download.
Click PDF/Print at the top of the journal’s details page and choose PDF from the dropdown.

The manual journal will be downloaded.

Print Manual Journals

To print a manual journal in Zoho ERP:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to the Accounting module in the left sidebar.
Switch to the Manual Journals tab in the modular bar.
Select the manual journal you want to print.
Click PDF/Print at the top of the journal’s details page and choose Print from the dropdown.
In the preview pop-up, review the details and click Print.

The manual journal will be printed.

Attach Files

You can attach supporting files to a manual journal. To do this:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to the Accounting module in the left sidebar.
Switch to the Manual Journals tab in the modular bar.
Select the manual journal to which you want to attach files.
Click Attach Files in the top-right corner of the journal’s details page.
Click Upload your files and select the required files.

Once uploaded, the files will be attached to the manual journal.

Clone Manual Journals

To create a new journal with details similar to an existing one, you can clone a manual journal:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to the Accounting module in the left sidebar.
Switch to the Manual Journals tab in the modular bar.
Select the journal you want to clone.
Click the More icon at the top of the journal’s details page and select Clone.
Make the necessary changes and click Save as Draft or Save and Publish.

The manual journal will be cloned.

Delete Manual Journals

To delete a manual journal in Zoho ERP:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to the Accounting module in the left sidebar.
Switch to the Manual Journals tab in the modular bar.
Select the journal you want to delete.
Click the More icon at the top of the journal’s details page and select Delete.
In the confirmation pop-up, click Yes, Delete.

The manual journal will be deleted.

Note:You can delete multiple journals at once by selecting them in bulk and clicking the Delete icon.

Bulk Print Manual Journals

After customising the journal PDF template, you can print multiple journals at once in Zoho ERP.

To bulk print manual journals:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to the Accounting module in the left sidebar.
Switch to the Manual Journals tab in the modular bar.
Select the journals you want to print.
Click the Print icon at the top of the page.
In the preview pop-up, click Print.

The selected journals will be printed in bulk.

Manual Journals Custom Fields

To create custom fields for manual journals:

Log in to your Zoho ERP organisation.
Go to Settings.
Select Accounting under Preferences.
Open the Journal Custom Fields tab.
Click + New Custom Field in the top-right corner.
Enter the required details and click Save.

Learn more about Custom Fields.

Note:Recording manual journals updates the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss reports. You can also view other reports, such as the General Ledger, Trial Balance, and Journal Report, in the Reports module.