Why Double-Entry Accounting?

Every financial transaction affects at least two accounts. When you deposit fundraiser revenue:

• Your checking account increases (debit)
• Your fundraising income increases (credit)

This double-entry system ensures your books always balance and creates an audit trail. BeeKeeper handles the complexity so you can focus on recording what happened. In the transaction form you simply choose whether money moved in or out and assign it to one or more categories — BeeKeeper translates that into the correct debits and credits behind the scenes.

Understanding Debits and Credits

The Golden Rule: Every transaction must have equal debits and credits. In BeeKeeper, the badge on the transaction form helps you confirm the amount is fully assigned to categories before you save. It reads Adds up when your categories match the transaction amount, and tells you how much is left (or over) until they do.

Recording a Transaction

Journal entries are created from an account’s page — start from the account where the money moved (usually your checking account).

Simple Transaction (One Category)

Most transactions assign a single amount to one category:

1. Go to Bookkeeping and select the account (e.g., your checking account)
2. Click New Transaction
3. Choose the Direction: Money Out (a payment) or Money In (a deposit)
4. Fill in the header:
   • Date: When the transaction occurred
   • Amount: The total amount of the transaction
   • Payee: Who you paid or received from (start typing to pick an existing vendor)
5. Choose the Category the money is for
6. Open More details to add a Check No., a Description, or a receipt
7. Click Save

Example: Writing a check for supplies

• Direction: Money Out, Amount: $50
• Category: Office Supplies (Expense)

Example: Depositing membership dues

• Direction: Money In, Amount: $500
• Category: Membership Income

Split Transaction (Multiple Categories)

Sometimes one transaction needs to be split across more than one category. Click Split across categories, just under the Category picker, and then click Add another for each line you need. Each line takes a category account and an amount. Use one category instead collapses the split back to a single category.

Example: Deposit with multiple income sources

• Direction: Money In, Amount: $1,500
• Category 1: Membership Dues Income — $500
• Category 2: Donation Income — $300
• Category 3: Fundraiser Income — $700

The category amounts must add up to the transaction amount. The badge beside Split across categories reads Adds up when the split is complete.

Use a negative amount for a line that reduces the total, such as a processing fee taken out of a deposit. A $1,000 ticket deposit that arrived as $970 after fees is recorded as $970, with a $1,000 income line and a negative $30 fee line.

Adding Attachments

Attach receipts or documentation:

1. When creating or editing an entry, use the attachment field
2. Select the file from your computer
3. Supported formats: PDF, JPG, PNG
4. The attachment is stored with the transaction

Receipts from an Approved Expense Report

A transaction BeeKeeper created when you approved and paid an expense report (by check, printed check, or Zelle) already has its receipts — they’re on the report the submitter filled out. You don’t need to attach anything yourself:

• In the account register, that row shows a green receipt icon in the Attachment column instead of the usual upload icon
• The transaction’s detail view and edit view both show a View Receipts link

Any of these takes you straight to the expense report, where every receipt the submitter uploaded is shown — including anything added to the report later. It’s a link to the report rather than a copy of the files, so it always shows the current, complete set. If you’d already attached your own file to one of these transactions by hand, that stays too; you’ll see both the receipts link and your attachment.

Viewing Journal Entries

Account Transactions View

Each account’s page shows every journal entry affecting that account, along with a running balance. This is your go-to view for understanding what happened in a specific account over time.

To access the transactions view:

1. Go to Bookkeeping and select the account
2. Open the Transactions tab

The transactions view supports filtering to help you find exactly what you need:

• Payee: Filter by who was paid or received
• Description: Search within entry descriptions
• Amount range: Show only entries within a minimum and/or maximum amount
• Date range: Narrow to a specific time period
• Attachments: Filter to entries that have (or don’t have) attachments — a transaction created by an approved, paid expense report counts as having one even without a file attached directly to it, since its receipts live on the report
• Linked accounts: Show only entries that also involve a specific offsetting account

The running balance is shown for each row, so you can see your account balance at any point in time.

Because every journal entry touches at least one balance-sheet account (like checking), the transactions view on your bank accounts effectively shows all of your activity.

Entry Detail View

Click any row in the transactions list (or choose View from the row’s menu) to open a detail panel showing:

• Full transaction details
• All line items with accounts and amounts
• Attached documents, or a View Receipts link to the expense report if that’s where the receipts live
• Whether the entry was a manual entry or a bank import

Editing a Transaction

Each row in the transactions list has a three-dot menu (⋮) at the end with the available actions.

1. Open the row’s three-dot menu
2. Click Edit
3. Make your changes
4. Click Save

Edit is available on any transaction that has not been voided and is not dated inside a fiscal year you have closed with Close the Books. That includes transactions that came in from your bank feed and transactions created by an approved expense report. On any of them you can correct the Date, the Payee, the Check No., the Description, the receipt, and the categories the amount is split across. Editing preserves the audit trail.

Some transactions keep their total, because the amount is already fixed by something outside your register. When that applies, the edit window opens with a note at the top explaining why, and Amount appears as a figure you can read rather than a field you can type in:

Inside Split across categories, a fixed line shows a padlock in place of the trash can, so you can see at a glance which line is pinned to your bank statement. Every other line can be added, removed, or pointed at a different category. That is how you recategorize a bank transaction after it has been accepted, and how you split one across several categories, without touching the amount your bank reported.

If the amount itself is wrong on a bank feed transaction, see Deleting a Transaction below. If a printed check was written for the wrong amount, void the check and write a new one.

Voiding and Undoing a Void

Rather than deleting a journal entry, you can void it. Voiding preserves the full audit trail — the entry stays in your records but a reversing entry is created so it no longer affects account balances.

How to Void an Entry

1. Open the row’s three-dot menu (⋮)
2. Click Void
3. Confirm the action

Voided entries remain visible in the transaction list but are clearly marked as voided. They do not affect account balances or financial reports.

Void appears on transactions you entered yourself and on transactions brought in from a file import. Two kinds of transaction are corrected a different way, so Void is not offered on them:

• A transaction from a connected bank feed. Delete it instead, which sends it back to Needs Review for you to accept again.
• A transaction created by an approved expense report. Use Undo Decision on the report instead, which takes the approval back and removes the transaction. Once the reimbursement check has been printed, Undo Decision is no longer available and Void appears in its place.

How to Undo a Void

If you voided an entry by mistake, you can restore it:

1. Open the voided entry’s three-dot menu (⋮)
2. Click Undo Void
3. The entry is restored and its amounts once again affect account balances

Undoing a void deletes the reversing entry, so you always have a complete history of what happened.

Deleting a Transaction

To delete a transaction, open the row’s three-dot menu (⋮), click Delete, and confirm.

Delete is available when the transaction has no cleared or reconciled lines, is not dated inside a fiscal year you have closed, and was not created by an approved expense report.

A transaction that came from your bank feed can be deleted the same as one you typed in, and deleting it does not throw the bank’s record away. It returns to Needs Review, where you can categorize it again or remove it there for good. The confirmation message tells you so before you commit.

That is the way to fix a bank feed transaction whose amount or bank account is wrong, since those two are the parts you cannot edit: delete it, then accept it again from Needs Review with the right amount and categories. It is also how you clear out a transaction that arrived twice, which can happen when the same bank account is connected more than once.

A transaction created by an approved expense report is unwound from the report rather than from the register, so it has no Delete. The row’s menu offers Open Expense Report instead. On the report, Undo Decision takes the approval back and removes the transaction, which keeps the report and your books telling the same story.

Once a transaction has a cleared or reconciled line, Delete is no longer offered, so a balance that has already been signed off on cannot move underneath it. Void the transaction instead. If it has to come out altogether, delete the reconciliation that cleared it first, which resets its transactions, and then delete the transaction. See Bank Reconciliation.

Importing Transactions

Transaction imports are done from individual account pages:

1. Go to Bookkeeping and select the account
2. Open the Actions menu and click Import
3. Choose a file: CSV, Excel (.xlsx), or a bank download file (QFX, OFX, or QBO)
4. For CSV/XLSX, map columns to BeeKeeper fields
5. Review and accept imported transactions on the Needs Review tab

See Data Import & Export for file format details and Bank Connections for the review pipeline.

Exporting Journal Entries

Export an account’s transactions:

1. Go to Bookkeeping and select the account
2. Apply any filters (date range, payee, amount)
3. Open the Actions menu and click Export
4. The file downloads with all visible entries

To export everything, run the export from each of your bank accounts — every journal entry touches at least one of them.

Matching Receipts

You can link uploaded receipts to journal entries for a complete audit trail. BeeKeeper automatically matches receipts when the date and amount are close, but you can also match manually:

1. Open the row’s three-dot menu (⋮)
2. Click Match Receipt
3. Browse available unmatched receipts
4. Select the receipt to link

See Receipts for details on uploading and scanning receipts.

Tips for Clean Records

Be Consistent

• Use the same payee name each time (e.g., always “Staples” not sometimes “Staples Office Supply”)
• Follow a reference number convention
• Write clear, searchable descriptions

Record Timely

• Enter transactions weekly at minimum
• Don’t let receipts pile up
• Fresh memory means accurate records

Attach Everything

• Scan and attach all receipts
• Include invoices, contracts, approvals
• Your future self (or successor) will thank you

Use Categories Wisely

• Assign transactions to specific accounts
• Avoid overusing “Miscellaneous”
• Think about how it will appear on reports

Understanding Bank Imports

When you connect your bank:

• Transactions import automatically
• They start as “uncategorized”
• Use rules to auto-categorize common transactions
• Review and categorize the rest manually

The journal entry is created automatically; you just need to assign accounts. Once you have accepted one, you can still open it and change the date, payee, description, receipt, and categories. The amount and the bank account line stay as your bank reported them.

Limitations

• Entries must balance (debits = credits)
• Transactions can be deleted while they have no reconciled or cleared items; otherwise void them instead (see Voiding and Undoing a Void above)
• On a bank feed transaction, the amount and the bank account line stay as the bank reported them; everything else, including the categories, can be edited
• On a transaction created by an approved expense report, the total stays tied to the report, and the transaction is removed by using Undo Decision on the report rather than by deleting it from the register
• Entries dated inside a fiscal year you have closed cannot be edited or deleted until you reopen that year
• Attachments limited to 10MB each (PDF, JPG, or PNG)

Common Questions

Where is the Journal Entries screen? There isn’t a separate Journal Entries section — entries are created and viewed from each account’s page under Bookkeeping. Open the account, use New Transaction to record an entry, and the Transactions tab to browse them.

What if I made a mistake on an old entry? Edit the entry from its three-dot menu — the audit trail is preserved. For prior-period corrections, create an adjusting entry dated in the current period with an explanation.

Can I change the category on a transaction my bank feed brought in? Yes. Open the row’s three-dot menu, click Edit, and change the category, or click Split across categories to divide it across several. The amount and the bank account line are the only parts that stay put.

Can I create a recurring entry? Not currently. You’ll need to create each entry manually or import from CSV.

How do I record a voided check? Use the Void action: open the transaction’s three-dot menu and click Void. This creates a reversing entry while preserving the full audit trail. If you need to record a check that was voided before it was ever entered in BeeKeeper, create a transaction with the check details, note “VOID” in the description, and then void it so it doesn’t affect your balances.

What’s the difference between a journal entry and a bank transaction? A bank transaction is what your bank shows. A journal entry is how you record and categorize it in BeeKeeper. Connected banks create journal entries automatically.

What does the Transactions tab show? The Transactions tab on each account page shows every journal entry affecting that account with a running balance. You can filter by payee, description, amount range, date range, attachments, and linked accounts.

Why does a transaction from an expense report show a green receipt icon instead of an upload icon? That row was created when you approved and paid an expense report, and its receipts are already on that report — clicking the icon takes you straight there instead of asking you to attach something you already have. See Receipts from an Approved Expense Report above.