The Journal Entry report lists manual journal entries and the individual lines within them — the memo, the amounts, whether each line is a debit or a credit, and who created it. It covers adjustments made by hand, as distinct from the postings Sharper generates automatically when you invoice or take payment.
This article assumes you already know the basics of the Sharper reporting module — the Name, Token, Subtotal, column picker, and filter fields. For a full walkthrough of the reporting form itself, see the Sharper Reporting Reference Guide. For how journal entries are created, see Accounting - Journal Entries. This article only covers the report.
Why This Report Matters
Manual journals are the entries with no operational transaction behind them — nobody booked a slip or bought a coffee to produce them. That makes them both the most useful tool for correcting the books and the most important thing to review, because they can move money between accounts without any trace in the day-to-day system. Use this report to:
Review every manual adjustment made in a period before closing it
Confirm each journal balances — debits equal credits across its lines
See who is making adjustments, and how often
Find the journal behind an account movement you cannot otherwise explain
One Row Per Line, Not Per Journal
A journal entry is a header with two or more lines beneath it. This report gives you one row per line, with the journal's own details repeated across all of its rows.
Because the journal header repeats on every line, counting rows counts lines rather than journals. Sort or group on Journal Id to keep each journal's lines together — a journal read line by line out of order is very hard to check. And as with the General Ledger report, do not subtotal Amount across a mix of debits and credits: use Debit Amount and Credit Amount side by side, which is also how you confirm a journal balances.
Building a Journal Entry Report
Go to Reports → Accounting → Journal entry in the left sidebar.
If a shipped report is close to what you need, use the ⋯ menu → Copy first — shipped reports can only be edited by the Sharper team.
Otherwise click + New and give it a Name, such as "Manual Journals This Period."
Add the columns below from the Available panel.
Set Subtotal to Debit Amount or Credit Amount.
Turn on All Outlets if you review adjustments across the whole company.
Click Save, then Get Report to set your date range and run it.
Recommended Columns
Field | What It Shows |
Journal Id | The journal the line belongs to — group or sort on this so lines stay together |
Journal Memo | The explanation recorded on the journal as a whole. This is where the reason for an adjustment should live. |
Line Memo | The explanation on the individual line |
Journal Line Id | The line's own reference |
Transaction date | The accounting date of the journal — the date that decides which period it falls in |
Time created | When it was actually entered. A large gap from the transaction date means the journal was backdated. |
Is Debit | Whether the line is a debit or a credit |
Amount, Debit Amount, Credit Amount | The line's value. Use the Debit and Credit pair for anything you intend to total. |
Customer Name, Cust Email | The customer the journal relates to, where one was specified |
Cust Type, Cust Active | The customer's classification and status |
Reservation ID, Booking ID | The reservation behind the adjustment, where it was made against a stay |
Note: A journal with a blank Journal Memo is an adjustment with no recorded explanation. It is not an error, but it will be very difficult to justify at audit — filtering for empty memos is a quick way to find entries worth documenting while people still remember why they were made.
Useful Filters
This period's adjustments: Field Transaction date, operator Between, covering the period.
Backdated journals: compare Transaction date against Time created — entries created after a period closed but dated inside it.
Undocumented adjustments: Field Journal Memo, set to is empty.
Large adjustments: Field Amount, operator >, entering a threshold that warrants review.
One journal in full: Field Journal Id, set to the journal — this gives you every line so you can confirm it balances.
Adjustments against one customer: Field Customer Name, set to the customer.
Reviewing this report as part of every period close is a small habit that catches a lot — an unexplained journal is much easier to resolve in the same month it was made.