Journals

Journals are the buckets that group related journal entries. Every posted transaction in ARE18 is assigned to a journal, which determines the default accounts, sequence numbers, and behavior of the entry.

Navigation

Configuration > Accounting > Journals

Journal Types

ARE18 uses the standard Odoo journal types:

Type	Purpose	Example Journals at TBPC
Sales	Customer invoices and credit notes	Customer Invoices
Purchase	Vendor bills and refunds	Vendor Bills
Bank	Bank statements, transfers, check payments	MBTC-USD, Cash in Bank - RCBC Dollar, Cash In Bank - MB US$ Real Branch, etc.
Cash	Cash transactions, petty cash	Cash, Petty Cash Fund
General / Miscellaneous	Manual journal entries, accruals, adjustments, forex	Miscellaneous Operations, Exchange Difference, Cash Basis Taxes

Why Journals Matter

Journals serve several important functions:

1. Grouping — all sales invoices are in one journal, all bank payments in another, making reporting easier
2. Default accounts — each journal has a default account for new entries (e.g., a bank journal defaults to the corresponding bank account)
3. Sequence numbers — journal entries get auto-numbered based on the journal's short code (e.g., INV/2025/01491, BILL/2025/12/0009, MISC/2025/11/0030)
4. Access control — users can be restricted to certain journals via security groups
5. BIR reporting — BIR books like the Sales Book and Purchase Book are filtered by journal type

Journal Form

A journal has the following key fields:

General Information

Field	Description
Journal Name	Display name (e.g., "Customer Invoices")
Type	Sales, Purchase, Bank, Cash, or General
Default Income/Expense Account	Account used when creating entries from this journal
Dedicated Credit Note Sequence	Whether credit notes get their own number series
Short Code	Prefix for auto-numbered entries (e.g., INV, BILL, MISC)
Currency	Restrict the journal to one currency (empty = company currency)

Advanced Settings

• Sequence — the numbering pattern for entries in this journal
• Allowed Account Types — which account types are valid for lines in this journal
• Default Debit/Credit Account — for bank/cash journals
• Lock Posted Entries — advanced: whether posted entries can be reset to draft
• Control Access — which user groups can use the journal

TBPC Journal Setup

Sales Journal

Journal name: Customer Invoices (code INV)

• Default Income Account: 500000 Sales/Revenues
• Used for: All customer invoices, credit notes, debit notes
• Sequence: INV/YYYY/NNNNN

Purchase Journal

Journal name: Vendor Bills (code BILL)

• Default Expense Account: varies by line item
• Used for: All vendor bills, bill refunds
• Sequence: BILL/YYYY/MM/NNNN

Bank Journals

TBPC has one bank journal per physical bank account:

Code	Account	Default Cash Account
BNK1	MBTC-USD 3782378002189	210006 Cash in Bank - MB US$ Real Branch
BNK2	210005 Cash In Bank - MBTC Php C/A - Real	210005
BNK5	210006 Cash in Bank - MB US$ Real Branch	210006
BNK7	210008 Cash in Bank - RCBC Dollar (CIPII)	210008
BNK8	210009 Cash in Bank - BDO USD Account (CIPII)	210009
...	...	...

:::warning Default Account Matters Each bank journal's default debit/credit account must match the corresponding Chart of Accounts entry. A misconfigured default account will cause payments to post to the wrong GL account — this actually happened with BNK5 in late 2025 and required a 541-row correction. Always double-check the default account after creating or editing a bank journal. :::

Cash Journals

Code	Description
CSH1	Cash (general petty cash)

General Journals

Code	Purpose
MISC	Manual journal entries, adjustments, accruals
EXCH	Exchange Difference (auto-created by Odoo for forex gain/loss)
CABA	Cash Basis Taxes (auto-created for cash-basis VAT entries)

Creating a New Journal

:::warning Superuser Operation Creating journals affects BIR reporting and user workflows. Only the Accounting Superuser should create new journals, and only after discussing with the controller. :::

1. Navigate to Configuration > Journals
2. Click New
3. Fill in:
   • Journal Name — clear, descriptive name
   • Type — Sales, Purchase, Bank, Cash, or General
   • Short Code — 3-5 character prefix for entry numbers
   • Default Account — the GL account this journal primarily affects
   • Currency — only if restricting to one currency
4. In Advanced Settings, configure:
   • Allowed account types
   • Sequence options
   • Access control
5. Click Save

Archiving a Journal

Journals with posted entries cannot be deleted. To hide an unused journal:

1. Open the journal form
2. Click the gear icon or Actions menu
3. Click Archive

Archived journals are hidden from new transaction dropdowns but preserved in history.

Best Practices

• One journal per bank account — each physical bank account should have its own journal
• Verify default accounts — a wrong default account causes mispostings (see warning above about BNK5)
• Use descriptive names — include the bank name, currency, and account type
• Don't reuse journals across currencies — if a bank account is multi-currency, consider whether one journal or multiple is cleaner
• Keep codes short — 3-5 characters (INV, BILL, BNK5, MISC)
• Document in chatter — when you create or edit a journal, note why

Related Pages

• Chart of Accounts — the accounts journals post to
• Taxes — tax configuration linked to journals
• BIR Books of Accounts — reports filtered by journal type