Managing accounting journals

An accounting journal is a chronological register that groups vouchers of the same type of transaction. In SynkriaOps, every accounting voucher must be assigned to a journal. The journal also determines the numbering prefix of vouchers (e.g. VTE-2026-000001).

The 5 automatically created journals

When your company file is created, SynkriaOps automatically generates these five journals:

Code	Name	Role	Numbering example
VTE	Sales journal	Customer invoices, credit notes	VTE-2026-000001
ACH	Purchases journal	Supplier invoices, expense reports	ACH-2026-000042
BNQ	Bank journal	Bank receipts and disbursements	BNQ-2026-000015
OD	Miscellaneous operations journal	Corrections, payroll, depreciation, accruals	OD-2026-000007
AN	Opening balances journal	Carry-forward of prior-period balances	AN-2026-000001

Tip

Voucher numbering is sequential and non-reusable: deleting a draft voucher does not free its number. Once validated, a voucher is permanently inscribed in the sequence.

Detail of each journal

VTE — Sales

The VTE journal receives all sales transactions towards your customers:

• Customer invoices (debit 411xxx / credit 701000 + 44310000 Output VAT)
• Credit notes on sales (reverse entry)
• Cash receipts if no separate bank journal is used (not recommended)

Example: service sale XAF 1,500,000 excl. VAT + 18% VAT = XAF 270,000 → total customer receivable XAF 1,770,000.

ACH — Purchases

The ACH journal receives all purchase transactions from your suppliers:

• Supplier invoices (debit 601000 + 44320000 Input VAT / credit 401xxx)
• Internal expense reports
• Credit notes received from suppliers

Example: office supplies invoice XAF 250,000 excl. VAT + 18% VAT = XAF 45,000 → total supplier payable XAF 295,000.

BNQ — Bank

The BNQ journal records movements on the bank account:

• Collection of customer invoices (debit 521001 / credit 411xxx)
• Payment of supplier invoices (debit 401xxx / credit 521001)
• Wire transfers, bank charges, interest

This is the journal where you post bank reconciliation entries against your bank statement.

OD — Miscellaneous

The OD journal is the all-purpose journal for operations that do not fall under sales, purchases, or banking:

• Payroll and social charges
• Depreciation allowances (debit 681xxx / credit 281xxx)
• Year-end accruals and adjustments
• Contra-entries for correcting validated vouchers
• Internal transfers (between cash registers)

Caution

A correction to a validated voucher is always made via a contra-entry in the OD journal — never by modifying the original voucher.

AN — Opening balances

The AN journal is exclusively reserved for accounting carry-forward: it receives the opening balances from the previous fiscal year.

• Used once per fiscal year, at the beginning
• AN vouchers cannot be created if subsequent entries already exist on the same accounts
• After carry-forward, this journal remains empty until the next fiscal year opening

See Recovering historical accounting data →

Adding a second bank journal

If your company has multiple bank accounts (main bank + secondary bank, or an FCFA account + an Orange Money account), it is best practice to create a separate journal for each account.

1. Go to Accounting → Journals → New journal.

2. Choose the type Bank.

3. Enter a short unique code (e.g. BNQ2, BGFI, UBA).

4. Fill in the name (e.g. BGFI Bank — Current account) and the associated treasury account (e.g. 521002 BGFI Bank).

5. Click Save. The journal is immediately available in voucher entry.

Tip

Best practice: create a treasury sub-account 521002 for each additional bank, and link it to its own journal. This simplifies bank reconciliation and account-by-account reporting.

Summary table — which journal to use?

Transaction	Recommended journal
Invoice issued to a customer	VTE
Credit note granted to a customer	VTE
Invoice received from a supplier	ACH
Internal expense report	ACH
Collection of an invoice (incoming wire)	BNQ (or BNQ2 depending on the bank)
Payment of a supplier invoice	BNQ
Monthly payroll	OD
Depreciation allowance	OD
Contra-entry / correction	OD
Opening balances (carry-forward)	AN

FEC export and journal codes

The FEC (Fichier des Écritures Comptables) is the statutory tax export. Each entry line in the FEC file includes the journal code (JournalCode field in the FEC standard). The journal codes you define in SynkriaOps appear verbatim in the export.

Note

If you plan to rename or change journal codes after validation, be aware that historical FEC exports may already use the old codes. For audit purposes, it is best to keep journal codes stable once in production use.

What’s next?

• Create an accounting voucher →
• Posting and reversing an accounting entry →
• Recovering historical accounting data →