It is possible to do a “Claytons” journal (the journal you do when you are not doing a journal - sorry this is parochial to Australia, and a little bit dated). @Patch hinted at this earlier in this thread by this statement:
I disagree, I think it’s a bad idea and I have $50 to anyone who can convince me otherwise. 
Just out of curiosity, what exactly are you trying to achieve that’s not possible using a receipt or payment?
I felt the same way years ago when the ability to post journal entries to cash and bank accounts was first removed from the program. (If I remember correctly, this was in 2014.) In all those years since, and with all the businesses I have been involved with, there has never been a problem.
Maybe it will help to understand that all Manager financial transactions are equivalent to journal entries. The separate functional tabs provide many benefits, including:
- No need for inexperienced users to understand debits and credits. (This is a huge benefit. Many users would end up smashing their own fingers with your “hammer of last resort.”)
- Ability to hard-code features into the program, such as Pending/Cleared status, statement versus cleared balances, control account segregation on the balance sheet, and so forth.
- Transaction-type automatic reference number sequencing.
- Form defaults unique to transaction types.
- Completed forms suitable for external distribution. (No one wants to give a journal entry form to a customer as a sales receipt or to a supplier as a payment advice.)
- Compliance with tax laws.
1 Like
I would like to add the easiest bank reconciliations ever!
Hi @lubos
Thank you for your thoughts of improving on features of journal entries currently work, In my case my business is completely based on journal entries.
I also I that more reporting options should be available for journal entries as there must be many like me. Thank you and best wishes 
An example could be Dr an Expense (eg., Telephone) and Cr Bank. In Payment there is no provision to Dr the Expense account.
You can actually run a business in Manager this way. However, you cannot use any of the built-in features, such as cash and bank accounts. You must create almost every account you will use as an ordinary account. You will not be able to use the tax features of the program or enter receipts and payments, except as journal entries. You will be able to use only a couple of reports. At that point, there is really no reason to be using the program.
1 Like
This is not true. Manager will post a debit to an expense account when one is selected for a line item. The credit goes to the selected Paid from bank or cash account. The design of the program is such that you generally do not need to determine which account to credit and which to debit on your own. Manager sorts that out for you based on context. The vast majority of novices never master debits and credits, so a basic design goal of the program is to free them from that responsibility.
2 Likes
The vast majority of novices never master debits and credits, so a basic design goal of the program is to free them from that responsibility.
Well I actually don’t want to be freed from that responsibility ! However, I’m also not able to find a ‘selected Paid from’ account (is it a right-click ?) although have just started with this software.
I didn’t say that, @DPS, and it isn’t true. GAAP is not prescriptive about how debits and credits are determined. Manager just happens to do it without requiring expertise by the user. And its specialized transactions are just tailored equivalents of journal entries.
Oh sorry, I just edited that reply of mine while you were replying in turn. Ok, I’m trying to find the work-around for this and from your reply above it seems I should be looking for a ‘Paid from’ box ?
It is on the payment form. I suggest you start reading the Guides to learn about the program.
Ok, I’ll look again. Thanks.
Manager seems to be the only software that you can run on a computer without having to be involved with some ‘cloud’ server or a forever online subscription service where the world can watch what you’re doing. I’m using Manager to avoid all this but would be happy to pay some $x100’s for offline stand-alone software that has ability to do journal entries - are there any plans for this or do you know of some software that does it ?
Manager is a bit different to other accounting software. The only way to know if different is worse or better is to try using Manager as it is designed to be used. In contrast if you want software which works the same as another product you will need to use the other product.
The easiest way to learn how to run your accounts on Manager is to
-
actually read all of the table of contents for the guides once Guides | Manager
-
then when you want to do a specific task use the guides search to find the relevant guide
-
create test businesses in Manager to try out various approaches. There is no charge in Manager to have extra businesses, so use this feature.
-
Businesses with just a few transactions entered make it easy to see what individual transactions actually do and how they are reported.
-
to try a modification to an existing business: 1) back it up. 2) import the backup 3) rename the backup to indicate how you are using it. 4) experiment with this copy of your business file
1 Like
Thanks Patch.
Hi @Tut
That is a users call what they should actually do.
You might not know what I can see and do using journal entries which the prefixed accounts are not able to do for me in any accounting software. One of the reasons would be because I use it that way for more than 12+ years now.
Journal Entries are very powerful when used correctly, however most accounting systems tend to ignore this.
But with @lubos I have seen in many posts voiced for new inclusions and integrations to make his software work better than ever and to me that makes Manager different from others.
Thanks
What about acquiring a business and recording the assets, liabilities, goodwill, and cash paid? I don’t feel like I can do this from payments. The only option I can think of is to set it up separately and then use payments to show the cash transfer. But that doesn’t really record the transaction accurately.
@djocorky welcome to the forum. First of all, this is 3 years old topic and the latest version already allows to debit/credit bank/cash accounts from journal entries.
As for whether the payment can record complex transaction of acquiring a business. It can. Payment can interact with the same accounts like journal entry.
Hello! I really appreciate your fast response. This was the only thread I could find that had a more in depth discussion on the subject. I will admit that I am using the desktop version and am not the best at regularly updating. I am using version 24.2.28.1331. I will download the latest version and explore more.