> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.alforse.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Accounting & the ledger > How operations become journal entries: accounts, periods, the postings behind every flow, and entering opening balances. Shipping, receiving, job completion, and asset depreciation can each post to the **general ledger**. This page describes their shared accounting behavior. ## Turning accounting on Posting to the ledger is a company setting. Open **Settings → Accounting** and look at the **General Ledger** card: **Accounting is enabled** or **Accounting is disabled**, with an **Alpha** badge. While it is disabled, documents still post (invoices, receipts, shipments), but they write no journals. While it is on, transactions create journal entries and update the general ledger. The **Reporting**, **Intercompany**, **Journal Entries**, **Accounting Periods**, **Assets** and **Depreciation** pages are blurred behind an overlay ("Accounting is disabled for this company") until it is on. The switch is only available to Alforse staff on the account; ask support to turn it on. Cost layers, inventory valuation, fixed-asset cost and intercompany records do not depend on this setting. ## The journal Each posting creates a **journal** with balanced **journal lines**: debits are positive and credits are negative. The journal records its source type. Each line references an account and can include dimensions. Voiding a posted journal creates a reversing journal instead of deleting the original. | Status | Meaning | | - | - | | Draft | A manual journal entry that is not posted yet. It counts nowhere. | | Posted | Counts in every balance and report. | | Reversed | A posted journal that a reversing journal offsets. Both count, so they net to zero. | | Source type | Posted by | | - | - | | Manual | A journal entry you enter and post yourself. It never syncs to an accounting provider. | | Sales Shipment | Posting a shipment: relieves inventory to COGS. | | Sales Invoice | Posting a sales invoice: receivable against sales revenue, shipping revenue, and sales tax payable, on separate lines. | | Purchase Receipt | Posting a receipt: inventory or WIP against GR/IR. | | Purchase Invoice | Posting a supplier bill: payables, clearing GR/IR. | | Inventory Adjustment | Manual adjustments and inventory count variances: stock gains and losses against the inventory adjustment account. | | Job Consumption / Production Event / Job Receipt | A job consuming material, logging time, and finishing into inventory. | | Job Close | Sweeping a job's residual work-in-process to variance. | | Asset Depreciation / Asset Disposal | Depreciation runs and asset write-offs. | | Revenue Recognition | [Revenue recognition runs](#revenue-recognition-runs). | | Lease | A rental unit treated as a sale (a sales-type lease): its commencement and its return. | | Opening Balance | [Opening balances](#opening-balances) entered on the chart of accounts. It never syncs to an accounting provider. | Other source types cover returns, transfers, payments, credit and debit memos, charges, reimbursements, maintenance events and non-conformances. ## Accounts come from one place Alforse resolves posting accounts from one set of company defaults. It does not use per-group posting groups. These defaults recur across accounting flows: | Account | Used for | | - | - | | Inventory | Value of stock on hand. | | Work in process | Cost accumulating on open jobs. | | Cost of goods sold | Cost relieved when goods are sold. | | Accounts receivable / payable | Customer and supplier balances. | | Sales | Revenue from goods and services sold. | | Shipping revenue | Shipping charged to the customer — its own revenue leaf, never the sales account. | | Goods received, not invoiced | The accrual between receiving goods and being billed for them. | | Variance | Differences swept at job close or from purchase price. | A sales invoice line separates shipping, tax, and merchandise. Line shipping and its share of header-level shipping credit **shipping revenue**; tax credits **sales tax payable**; merchandise and add-ons credit **sales**. The sales and shipping-revenue defaults must reference different accounts. Posting fails if both resolve to the sales account. New companies receive account **4050 "Shipping Revenue"** under Revenue; companies joining an existing group inherit the group's shipping default. ## Dimensions A journal line can include dimensions such as location, department, cost center, project, item posting group, work center, process, fixed-asset class, customer, supplier, or custom values. Dimensions support segmented reporting without expanding the chart of accounts. ## Periods Every Posted journal belongs to an **accounting period**, which Alforse creates as needed when a document posts. You can also generate a fiscal year's periods from **Accounting → Closing → Accounting Periods**. A period can be **Open**, **Closed**, or **Locked**. Posting to a Closed period is refused. A Locked period refuses operational documents (receipts, shipments, invoices, payments) but accepts accounting adjustments. Reopen or unlock the period, or change the posting date to an open period. See [period close](/docs/reference/period-close.md). ## Revenue recognition runs A monthly run posts the entries that revenue schedules ahead. It takes the schedule rows (deferral, accrual and interest) that are due by its period end and writes the journals. Open it from **Accounting → Closing → Revenue Recognition**. | Run | Where | Posts | | - | - | - | | Revenue recognition | **Accounting → Closing → Revenue Recognition** | Deferred revenue of invoice lines with service dates, [contract](/docs/reference/contracts.md) revenue, [rental agreement](/docs/reference/rental-agreements.md) rent to defer or accrue, and sales-type lease interest. Source type Revenue Recognition. | | Depreciation | **Accounting → Closing → Depreciation** | [Fixed asset](/docs/reference/fixed-assets.md) depreciation, one journal per asset per month. Source type Asset Depreciation. | A run is created as a Draft, then posted. A run you posted can be reversed with **Reverse Run**: its journals cannot be reversed one at a time. The period close checklist warns about revenue a run would still recognize and about depreciation a run would still post. ## Opening balances To bring balances over from a prior system, open **Accounting → Chart of Accounts** and press **Opening Balances**. The button shows only while accounting is enabled, you have permission to create accounting entries, and no opening-balance journal is posted yet. Each leaf account's balance cell becomes an input. Enter the balance of each account, then press **Post** and choose the **As of date**. Alforse posts one balanced journal of source type Opening Balance, and offsets any difference to the **Retained Earnings** default account. The new journal opens on screen. NOTE **Opening balances post once** After an opening-balance journal is posted, the button is hidden. To redo it, reverse that journal. ## Your chart of accounts Every company starts on Alforse's default chart of accounts. Add accounts and groups from **Accounting → Chart of Accounts** with **Account** and **Group**, and move accounts under another group. The chart is shared by every company in the group. Only leaf accounts take postings. Posting accounts for each flow come from **Accounting → Default Accounts**. An account that documents, journals or default accounts use cannot be deleted. ## Related **Manufacturing accounting** The job-cost postings: consumption, production events, close. [Open](/docs/reference/jobs.md) **Ship, invoice, get paid** Where the sales shipment and invoice postings come from. [Open](/docs/reference/invoices.md) **Period close** Locking and closing a period once accounting is set up. [Open](/docs/reference/period-close.md) **Financial statement reports** The balance sheet, income statement and trial balance the Posted journals feed. [Open](/docs/reference/financial-reports.md) This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.