A Posted Journal Is Never Deleted, Only Reversed
A manual journal is the one entry in the books that no document stands behind, which is why it is where errors and worse go to hide. Journals are now drafted, optionally approved by someone else, numbered only when they post — and once posted, never deleted. A mistake is undone by a reversal that stays on the ledger beside it.
At a SACCO’s year-end audit, the auditor asks for journal MJ-0412. It is not there. Neither is MJ-0413. The finance officer explains that they were posted in error in June and deleted the same afternoon. That may be exactly what happened. The auditor has no way to know, and from that moment every other journal in the year needs a second look.
Almost every entry in AWRA is made by a business document — a sale, a supplier bill, a payroll run — and carries a reference back to it. A manual journal is the exception: an accrual, a reclassification, an opening balance, a correction. It is the one place a person types debits and credits directly, so it is the one place the controls have to come from the journal itself.
Draft first, and a draft that saves can post
Under Accounting → Manual Journals, a new journal can be saved as a draft and finished later. Nothing reaches the ledger while it is a draft. But a draft is checked in full when it saves — at least two lines, each on one of your accounts, each a debit or a credit and never both, debits equal to credits to the cent — so a draft is never a half-valid thing that fails at the last moment. Lines can carry a department, branch or project tag, and a journal holds up to fifty.
Approval, when you want it, above the size you choose
Approval is a switch under Settings → Accounting Defaults, off until you turn it on. With it on, every manual journal waits for approval — or only those at or above a total you set, so a KES 300 rounding correction posts at once while a KES 2,000,000 provision waits. The button on the journal changes from Post to Submit for approval, so the author always knows which way it will go.
- The approver needs the Approve journal entries permission, and holding it is not enough on its own.
- Nobody approves their own journal. The person who drafted it cannot approve it or reject it, whatever their role — including an administrator.
- A rejection carries a reason. The author reads it, corrects the journal and submits it again, and the rejection and its reason are kept in the audit log.
The person who wrote the entry is the one person who can never be the second pair of eyes on it.
Numbered when it posts, not when it is typed
The MJ number is assigned at the moment of posting. A draft that is abandoned, or a journal that is rejected and discarded, never takes one. That matters at audit for the reason in the SACCO story: a run of journal numbers is easier to account for when the only journals that hold numbers are the ones that reached the ledger. Posting, submission, rejection and reversal are each written to the audit log with who did it.
Posted means permanent
A posted journal cannot be edited and cannot be deleted. That is enforced by the ledger itself, not by hiding a button: nobody can remove a posted entry, from any screen or through any module. It used to be possible to delete a posted line in an open month, which let a journal lose one leg and the books stop balancing, with no trace of what had been there.
A mistake is undone with Reverse journal. Give a reason and a date — today by default, or the first open day if the date you pick falls in a closed month — and AWRA builds a new journal with every debit and credit swapped, linked to the original. The ledger then shows both: what was posted, and that it was taken back.
| MJ-0412 (original) | MJ-0419 (reversal) | |
|---|---|---|
| Accrued audit fees | Debit 180,000 | Credit 180,000 |
| Accruals | Credit 180,000 | Debit 180,000 |
| Memo | June audit fee accrual | Reversal of MJ-0412: posted to the wrong month |
A reversal goes through the same approval rule as any other journal. The original is marked as being reversed the moment the reversal is raised, so it cannot be reversed twice while the first waits; if that reversal is rejected, the original is released again. A journal is reversed once, and a reversal is never itself reversed — to put the entries back, post a new journal. Then post the correct one.
A closed month stays closed
A journal dated in a closed month is refused when it is saved and again when it posts, in case the month was closed while it waited for approval. Reopen the month with a reason, or date the journal in an open one. The month-end close checklist lists every journal still in draft or awaiting approval before you close.
Step-by-step instructions are in the Journal Entries guide; the wider set of controls is on the accounting controls page.
The journals you post every month
The controls cover each journal from draft to reversal. Two additions follow naturally for teams that post the same entries month after month.
Recurring journals
A monthly accrual or prepayment release raised as a draft on its date, through the same approval rule, so nobody has to remember it.
Supporting documents
The invoice, schedule or board minute behind a journal attached to it, so the approver and the auditor see the evidence beside the entry.
Tell us which journals your team posts by hand each month and we will return a written scope and cost.
Scope journal automationWhat AWRA OpsHub does today
- Manual journals saved as drafts and checked in full on save: two or more lines, your own accounts, one side per line, balanced to the cent.
- An approval switch under Accounting Defaults, for every journal or only those at or above a total you set.
- An approver who needs the Approve journal entries permission and is never the author, and a rejection that carries a reason.
- An MJ number assigned only at posting, and every submission, posting, rejection and reversal in the audit log.
- Posted entries that cannot be edited or deleted from anywhere, and a linked mirror-image reversal under the same approval rule.
More we can add to your workspace
- Recurring journals raised as drafts on a schedule.
- Attachments on a manual journal, carried through approval and into the audit trail.
Where we point you to a specialist
- Whether an accrual, provision or write-off is the right entry is your accountant’s judgement. Approval records that a second person agreed to it; it is not an audit of the entry.
Our position
Turn approval on, and set the threshold at the size of journal your finance lead would want to see before it moves the books — for most organizations that is somewhere between a week’s payroll and a month’s rent. Give the approval permission to at least two people, so nobody waits on one inbox. And stop looking for Delete: a reversal beside the original is the correction an auditor can follow.
Turn on journal approval
Drafting, approval, the threshold, reversals and closed months, step by step.
Journal Entries guideFrequently asked questions
Can a posted manual journal be deleted in AWRA?
No. A posted journal cannot be edited or deleted from any screen. To undo it, reverse it: AWRA posts a linked journal with every debit and credit swapped.
Can the person who drafted a journal approve it?
No. The approver needs the Approve journal entries permission and cannot be the journal’s author, whatever their role.
Can journal approval apply only to large journals?
Yes. Under Accounting Defaults, set a total and only journals at or above it wait for approval. Leave it blank and every journal does.
When does a manual journal get its MJ number?
When it posts. Drafts and rejected journals that are discarded never take a number.
Does a reversal need approval too?
Yes, when approval is on. A reversal follows the same rule as any other journal, and the original cannot be reversed a second time while it waits.
