Introduction to journal transactions
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Introduction to journal transactions
Let's talk about the basics of journal transactions, and how to enter them in Wave.
What's the deal with journal transactions?
Most transactions in a business occur when money changes hands, or wil...
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Is there any automated way to create reversing journal entries when creating an accrual journal entry? For example, accruing for wages payable on the last day of a period (e.g. June 30, assuming that is not a payday) and then having the accrual reversal automatically entered on the first day of the next period (e.g. July 1)? This is pretty basic. At a minimum, is there a way to duplicate an existing journal entry, which can then be adjusted by changing the date and swapping the debits and credits?
Hey @dofzin! Thanks for reaching out here. Unfortunately, an automated reversing journal entry is something that would not be possible at present. With that said, we definitely have the ability to let you duplicate your journal entries! In the lower left corner of the transactions details (when you click a journal entry), you'll see a button to the right of the delete button, which will let you copy that journal. You can then swap those categories to the appropriate headings, and you should be set!
Just need to find and edit a journal transaction. Why does Wave make this so hard?
Hi @EricB , thanks for your message! To clarify, the person above who @ConnorM was helping was specifically referring to automated Payroll journals, which cannot be edited as they are associated with a real-time transfer of funds (similarly to how Invoices paid with Wave Payments can't be edited in the Transactions page).
If you have an ordinary/manually entered journal transaction, you can head to Accounting > Transactions > Filters > Type > Journal > Apply, and see all of your journals which you can edit as you like!
Hi @ConnorM, thanks for the reply. Not sure what you mean by "not possible at present." Hey, it's just software...the devs should get to it
That said, I did find the "duplicate entry" but, it is often greyed out. (And I later discovered why...once the transaction has been touched, it can't be duplicated before being saved.) Once a JE is duplicated, there is still no simple way to reverse the debits and credits (in creating a new entry, one can swap debits to credits and vice-versa; but this is not possible for a duplicated entry; you don't even support entering a negative sign to create a contra-entry; it requires far more manual work than it should and any decent accounting package should support recording a reversing entry for an accrual).
Thanks.
is there a way to disable this feature? i am no longer able to edit the journals at all, it always says "error saving" balanced or otherwise, and they are causing my reports to be all off by double counting wages for payroll "journals". they are very inconvenient for me personally.
Wondering this too, I'm confused by the feature and how to avoid the "doubling"
Hey @EmmaK and @teeroze !
I'm afraid that you are unable to disable automatic payroll journey entries as they are required for accrual payroll bookkeeping. I will gladly shed some light on the workflow to help you both better understand the process.
Essentially, the initial journal transaction captures all of the expenses tied to the payroll, and also recognizes them as amounts owing by crediting (increasing) “Payroll liabilities”. This is the accounting equivalent of saying “I’ve incurred expenses through an approved payroll, so now I owe my employees the wages from that payroll”.
Wave will also create a withdrawal transaction in the Transactions page whose account is set to “Wave Payroll Clearing”, and whose category is set to Payroll Liabilities. The date of this transaction will match the withdrawal date for the Direct Deposit. Where the journal transaction credited Payroll Liabilities, this transaction debits it by the amount of the withdrawal. This is the accounting equivalent of saying “Ok, now I’ve actually paid my employees.” This transaction is recorded to the “Wave Payroll Clearing” account because the actual withdrawal from your bank account may not have been posted immediately. Basically, we use this “clearing” account to ensure that the Payroll Liabilities are cleared on the day that payroll ran.
Once the actual withdrawal from your bank accounts posts and is imported to Wave, that withdrawal will be automatically categorized as a “Transfer to Wave Payroll Clearing ''. Why? When Wave recorded the withdrawal to the “Wave Payroll Clearing” account (the one that was categorized to “Payroll Liabilities”), this temporarily gave the “Wave Payroll Clearing” account a negative balance. When the actual withdrawal from your bank account imports into Wave, and gets categorized as a “Transfer to Wave Payroll Clearing”, the balance is restored to the “Wave Payroll Clearing” account. In this way, all of the bookkeeping is handled accurately, and automatically!
I highly recommend reading about how our payroll services work by checking out this article.
how do you print the journal entry
Hey @JodyO6462 !
I'm afraid that there is no functionality built into Wave to print journal entries. However, as a workaround, you can head over to your Transactions page, view the journal entry in question and take a screenshot. You can then open your screenshot file and print it out.