What is journal? Meaning and explanation

In accounting software, every entry is made in a journal. The purchase journal holds purchase invoices, the sales journal sales invoices, the bank journal the movements per bank account, the cash journal cash receipts and payments, and the general journal all other entries. Each journal has a fixed contra account, such as Accounts payable for the purchase journal or the bank account for the bank journal. An administration can have several journals of the same type, for example one bank journal per account.

For a firm, journals provide structure and auditability. Per journal you can see what was booked in a period and whether the balance agrees, such as the bank journal with the bank statement. An entry in the wrong journal, for example a purchase invoice in the general journal, leaves accounts payable incomplete and makes it harder to reconcile payments.

Autoboeker synchronises the journals from Exact Online, Twinfield and SnelStart, together with GL accounts, VAT codes, contacts and bank transactions. These master data and the administration's history form the context for every booking proposal and for bank matching. For e-Boekhouden, GL accounts, VAT codes and contacts are synchronised.