What happens after you record money?
Follow the journey from transaction to journal entries, and understand how your reports update.
The Magic Behind the Scenes
What Acctally does after you click save.
You recorded a transaction. Clicked save. Now what? A lot happens in the background to turn your simple input into proper accounting records. Here's the journey.
The three-layer transformation
Every transaction you record goes through three stages:
Transaction
What you see. "OurHaven received ₦45,000 from Adeola Johnson for meal plan subscription on Jan 15."
Events
The accounting meaning. Acctally breaks this into events: "Sale recorded" + "Cash received" + "VAT collected (if applicable)".
Journal Entries
The accounting records. Double-entry journal entries that update your books. Debits and credits, balanced and audit-ready.
A real example
Let's trace what happens when OurHaven records a meal plan payment:
You enter:
Acctally creates events:
- →Sale Event: ₦45,000 revenue from Meal Plan Subscriptions
- →Cash Event: ₦45,000 received into Paystack Clearing
- →Tax Event: ₦3,214 VAT collected (7.5% in Nigeria)
Journal entries created:
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Paystack Clearing (Asset) | ₦45,000 | |
| Meal Plan Revenue (Income) | ₦41,786 | |
| VAT Payable (Liability) | ₦3,214 |
Debits = Credits. The books are balanced automatically.
What updates instantly
The moment you save, these things change:
Account balances
Paystack Clearing now shows ₦45,000 more. Your bank account summary updates.
Dashboard stats
Revenue totals, income charts, and category breakdowns reflect the new transaction.
Reports
Profit & Loss, cash flow, and income statements include the new revenue.
Tax calculations
VAT collected is tracked. When you run tax reports, this ₦3,214 is included.
The posting decision
Not every transaction posts immediately. Acctally checks if all requirements are met:
Posts immediately (all clear)
- ✓ Has money account
- ✓ Has category
- ✓ Has valid date
- ✓ Amount is positive
- ✓ No policy violations
→ Transaction posts. Journal entries created. Reports updated.
Goes to review (needs attention)
- ⚠ Missing category
- ⚠ Large amount (above threshold)
- ⚠ First-time vendor
- ⚠ Missing receipt (if required)
→ Transaction saved but not posted. Appears in review queue. Fix the issue, then approve.
Blocked (integrity issue)
- ✗ Missing money account
- ✗ Date in locked period
- ✗ Suspected duplicate
- ✗ Invalid amount
→ Cannot post until fixed. Must resolve the integrity issue first.
Why you don't see the accounting
You might wonder: "Where are all these journal entries? I don't see debits and credits anywhere!"
That's intentional.
Acctally handles the accounting so you don't have to think about it. You work with transactions (what actually happened), and we translate that into proper double-entry bookkeeping behind the scenes.
The journal entries exist. Your accountant can see them. Auditors can review them. But for day-to-day operations, you just focus on recording what happened. The accounting magic is automatic.
Multi-currency handling
If your transaction is in a different currency than your base currency:
- Exchange rate captured — Using the rate for that date
- Base amount calculated — For consistent reporting
- Original preserved — Both amounts stored, nothing lost
When you view reports, you'll see amounts in your base currency. When you view the transaction, you see the original amount and the converted value.
The audit trail
Everything is tracked:
Who created it
User and timestamp
Who edited it
Every change logged
Who approved it
Review decisions tracked
Posted transactions are immutable. If you need to correct something, you create a reversal or adjustment, not an edit. This keeps your books audit-ready.
The bottom line
You tell Acctally what happened in plain language. Acctally does the accounting work: interpreting the transaction, applying tax rules, creating journal entries, and updating reports. Your job is to record accurately. Our job is to make it count correctly.
Next steps
Learn about what needs review means to handle transactions that need attention, or explore dashboard and reports.