Manual Accounting Entries

To enter accounting entries manually or directly into your accounts, click the New Accounting Entries icon in the Data Entry Tab:

You should see a form like this:

This form is used for making manual accounting entries into your ledger. For automatic accounting entries, you may use the document subsystems such as Invoices, Receipts, Payment Vouchers etc., where once a document such as an invoice has been prepared, automatic posting of accounting entries may be done, without the need for accounting knowledge. This form is also used for keying in the balances brought forward from a previous financial year.

To use this manual entry form, you must have some accounting and bookkeeping knowledge i.e. what proper accounts to debit and what proper accounts to credit.

Posting entries in HyperLedger is done in real-time. That means, once you post the entries, the balances of the accounts concerned will be updated immediately. There are no monthly processing requirement. Even though entries are posted in real-time, you may still edit and delete the entries that you have made, through the View / Edit Accounting Entries command. And even though posting is done in real-time, you may also make entries not according to sorted date order because HyperLedger's AutoSort feature will allow you to make backward date entries.

To make a simple one debit and one credit entry, here are the steps:

1. Key in the transaction date using ddmmyyyy format. You may also double-click on the date field to select from a list. Then press the Tab key to move to the first line.
2. In the A/C No. column, key in the account number of the account to debit. You may also double-click this column to select from a list. If you key in an invalid account number, a ??? appears in the Name bar (near the Journal Narrative), and if the account number is valid, the name of the account is shown. Press the Tab key to move to the Particulars column.
3. In the Particulars column, key in the particulars related to this debit entry to the account. Then press the Tab key to move to the Ref. No. column.
4. In the Ref. No. column, key in the reference related to the debit entry to the account. Then press the Tab key to move to the Bill No. column.
5. The Bill No. column is a very important column for entries related to debtors and creditors. This column is used for keying in the invoice numbers involved in debtors and creditors transactions such as sales, purchases and payments. The Debtors and Creditors Aging Analysis Reports use this column for keeping track of outstanding invoices.
6. The Remarks column is used for making special entries, and most transactions doesn't require it. Double-clicking this column will bring up the Special Entries Form:

More information on this particular column will be detailed later. Press the Tab key to move to the Debit column.
 
7. The Debit column is used for entering the debit amount into the particular account. You may also double-click on this column to use the Keyboard Free Numbers Entry form for entry:

8. The Credit column is used for entering the credit amount into the particular account. You may also double-click on this column to use the Keyboard Free Numbers Entry. If you key in anything in this column, any numbers in the Debit Column will be automatically erased. That's because you can only have a single debit or credit entry per line. To complete a particular transaction, there must be at least 1 debit and 1 credit entry. Press Tab to move to the Account No. column of the second line.

Key in the particulars column, ref no., bill no., remarks column of the second line. Ignore the Debit column and key in the credit amount in the Credit column.

Now if both the debit and credit amounts are the same, the transaction is ready to be posted:

Click the Post Entries button or press F10 to post the two entries. If everything is ok, you will see the following message:

The two entries posted are considered part of a complete batch of entries. A batch is not necessarily restricted to just a single debit and a single credit. You may key a single debit and multiple credits, multiple debits and a single credit, or multiple debits and multiple credits in a single batch. The only condition for posting successfully is that the total debits and the total credits must be the same.

More on the Remarks column.

The Remarks column is used for keying in special directives so that HyperLedger may process the entry in a special way. For example, the Aging Information (Bill Date) column is used for specifying the date of the outstanding bill of a particular debtor or creditor. This Aging Information directive is normally used only in the keying in the balance brought forward figures of debtors and creditors of the previous financial year. At the end of the financial year, depreciation entries must be entered, and that's where the Remarks column is needed.

To key in balances brought forward from previous year:
If the ledger is a new one, i.e. no previous ledger, then you need to manually key in all the balances brought forward. For ledgers with previous ledgers, you may use the Copy Balances command from the Utilities tab instead.

The date of the entry of this batch must be 1 day before the start of the financial year. For example, if your financial year of this ledger begins in 1st January 2005, then the right date to key in is 31/12/2004.
For each balance sheet item of the previous financial year, key in a single debit or credit corresponding to the debit or credit balance in the balance sheet. For example, an asset account balance is normally entered in the debit column. This single entry per item is not applicable to Trade Debtors, Trade Creditors and Accumulated Depreciation.

To key in balances of a single trade debtor, you must key in multiple debits corresponding to the different invoices outstanding. Let's say a debtor has 3 outstanding invoices, you must key in 3 debit entries, with invoice numbers keyed into the Bill No. column, and the dates of the invoices in the format <dd/mm/yyyy> in the remarks columns. Since it may be difficult to remember the format to key in, it would be easier to just double-click on the Remarks column and use the Special Entries form.

As for creditors, you may use the same instructions just like for debtors, but the difference is of course the amounts outstanding must be keyed into the credit columns.

As for Accumulated Depreciation balance, each accumulated depreciation for different assets must be separated out and keyed in as different credit entries. For example, if your Accumulated Depreciation account balance which is actually the total accumulated depreciation for 3 different assets, then you need to key in 3 credit entries with special directive in the remarks column in the format {AssetA/C}. As usual, since it's difficult to remember the format, just double-click on the Remarks column to use the Special Entries form instead.

If all the balance sheet items are entered correctly, the whole batch must balance, i.e. total debits equal total credits, and the batch may be posted. If the batch is not balanced, you may choose to temporarily make a corresponding debit or credit so that the batch balances. You may do the balancing debit or credit with any account, but we suggest that you open an account named ERRORS with account number ERRORS.

To key in depreciation info for different assets at the end of the financial year.
For this purpose, at least 2 accounts are needed. One is a current depreciation account, which is of type Expenses, and the other is the Accumulated Depreciation account, which is of type Depreciation Provision. First, key in the date of the end of the financial period. In the first line, key in the account number of the current depreciation account, and key in a debit amount. In the second line, key in the accumulated depreciation account no. and key in the corresponding credit amount. In the Remarks column of the second line, key in the format {AssetA/C*} where AssetA/C is the account number of the asset involved. For example, if the asset account number is OE (Office Equipment), then key in {OE*}. As usual, you may choose to double-click on the Remarks column instead to use the Special Entries Form, if you cannot remember the format. Once the Special Entries form appears, you may also double-click on the account no. column in that form so that you choose from a list of asset accounts.

Note: the depreciation directives of both accumulated {AssetA/C}. and current depreciation  {AssetA/C*}. figures only, is only relevant for Accumulated Depreciation account. Entering those directives in the remarks column of the Current Depreciation account has no effect.

Using the AutoBalance feature for faster manual data entry
So far you have learned how to make manual accounting entries. Since most transactions are of the 1 debit and 1 credit type, you may use the AutoBalance feature of HyperLedger for faster manual data entry. How to use this feature? Simple. Just leave the Particulars column empty. Using the same example for the 1 debit and 1 credit in the beginning, here are steps:

1. Key in the date. Press Tab
2. Key in the account no. to debit. Press Tab.
3. Don't key in anything in the Particulars column. Press Tab.
4. Key in the Reference. Press Tab.
5. Key in the Bill No. Press Tab.
6. Don't key in anything in the Remarks column. Press Tab.
7. Key in the debit amount. Press Tab.
8. Don't key anything in the Credit column. Press Tab.
9. Key in the account no. to credit. Press Tab.

You would now notice that the particulars columns of both lines, and the reference and bill no. columns of the second line are automatically filled together with the balancing credit entry. The batch is now ready to be posted.

The Journal Narrative column is an optional field for you to describe the transactions and if something is entered here, the transactions in the batch would be listed in the journal printout.