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General Ledger and Journal Entries

Read the trial balance and journal detail from your posted double-entry ledger, and author, approve and post an adjusting journal entry in Muin.

The General Ledger shows what is already posted in your books, and Journal Entries is where you author an adjusting entry and get it approved into them.

When you’d use this

  • Your accountant asks for a trial balance for a date range.
  • A number on the P&L looks wrong and you need to see the journal lines behind the account.
  • You need to book an accrual, a reclass or a correction that no automated path produces.
  • You are closing a period and want to stop anything else being posted into it.

Read the General Ledger

  1. Go to Sidebar → Finance → Close & Reports → General Ledger.
  2. Set Start date and End date. Leave them alone and you get your year to date.
  3. The Trial Balance tab lists Code · Account · Type · Debits · Credits · Balance. The balance column is marked DR or CR.
  4. The band under the table reads Period foot: total debits and total credits, with a badge that says In balance or Out of balance by {amount}. A trial balance is only trustworthy when the two agree.
  5. Click any trial-balance row to jump to the Journal tab filtered to that account. Show all accounts clears the drill.
  6. The Journal tab lists Entry · Date · Debit · Credit · Amount · Source · Status, 50 rows a page. Status is Posted or Reversed.
  7. Export CSV exports whichever tab you are on.

The General Ledger is read-only on purpose. Everything on it got there by being posted from somewhere else, and this screen will not let you edit history.

Author a journal entry

  1. Go to Sidebar → Finance → Close & Reports → Journal Entries.
  2. Click New journal entry.
  3. Set the Entry date and write a Memo. The memo is required: an adjusting entry with no explanation is the one an auditor asks about.
  4. Add lines. Each line takes an Account, a Side (Debit or Credit), an Amount, and optionally Charged to award when the line belongs to a grant.
  5. Click Add a line until the badge at the bottom reads Balanced rather than Out of balance by {amount}.
  6. Click Save draft. The button stays disabled until the entry has a date, a memo, at least two complete lines, and balances.

Get it approved and posted

An entry you author does not reach the ledger on its own. It moves through: Draft → Awaiting approval → Approved → Posted, with Rejected and Voided as the other outcomes.

  1. On the entry’s row, click Send for approval.
  2. An approver opens the same row and clicks Approve and post, or Reject. A rejection requires a typed reason: the server refuses a rejection without one.
  3. On success the toast reads Entry approved and posted and the lines appear on the General Ledger.

Lock a period

The Accounting periods tab on the same screen is what stops postings.

  1. Open Accounting periods.
  2. Click Lock period on the period you are closing. Nothing can be booked to any date in it afterwards, not a manual entry, and not an automated posting from donations, grants, payroll or tuition.
  3. To undo it, click Reopen and type REOPEN to confirm. Reopening closed books lets every posting path write into that period again, so it is deliberately hard to do by accident.

Until a period is defined and locked, every date stays open to posting.

What it affects

  • Posted lines feed Profit & Loss and the Statement of Activities immediately.
  • The trial balance foot is the check that your books balance. If it reads out of balance, the statements built on it are not reliable.
  • Charged to award on a line is what ties ledger activity to a specific grant.
  • Locking a period blocks every posting path into it, including automated ones, so lock it after the automated work for the month has run.
  • A reversal does not delete the original. Both stay on the journal, and the original reads Reversed.

When it goes wrong

What you see What it means How to clear it
“No ledger activity in this period” Nothing was posted between those dates. Widen the date range, or categorize transactions in reconciliation so entries get posted.
“Out of balance by {amount}” on the period foot Total debits and credits disagree for the range you picked. Narrow the range to find the period where they diverge, then open the Journal tab for it.
“Debits ({d}) do not equal credits ({c}). The entry is out of balance by {x}.” The entry you are saving does not balance. Fix an amount or add the missing line.
“A journal entry needs at least 2 lines: one line cannot balance against anything.” You tried to save a single-line entry. Add the other side.
“Line {n}: put the amount on exactly one side…” A line has an amount on both sides, or on neither. Choose Debit or Credit for that line.
“{period} is locked ({start} to {end}), so nothing can be booked to {date}. Reopen the period first.” You are posting into a locked period. Re-date the entry, or reopen the period on the Accounting periods tab.
“{period} was locked after this entry was drafted, so it cannot be posted to {date}.” The period closed between drafting and approval. Reopen the period, or re-date the entry and resubmit.
“Rejecting an entry requires a stated reason.” You pressed Reject with the reason blank. Type why, then reject.
“Could not approve this entry” The approval failed. The entry is still where it was. Read the message on the card, fix the cause, and approve again.

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