Configure and use the general ledger

Understand accounts and currency conversion, review configuration, and follow a loan issue and repayment into their automatic ledger transactions.

Time

20–25 minutes

You need

A practice tenant, access to ledger configuration and transactions, permission to maintain currency rates, and an approved application that you are authorised to lend. Automatic booking rules must already be configured for the demonstrated operations. The video uses an interest-free EUR 1,200 loan with 12 monthly instalments and a EUR 100 repayment.

Result

You can explain the account movements, confirm rates in two currencies, and reconcile automatically created loan and payment bookings. You also know where to prepare a separate manual entry.

Understand the ledger's building blocks

The general ledger records financial movements as transactions containing debit and credit booking lines. The chart of accounts organises those movements by purpose.

Concept	Meaning in Finsaku
Account type	Asset, Liability, Equity, Income, or Expense. Cash and principal receivable are separate asset accounts in the example.
Header account	A parent that groups accounts in the chart.
Detail account	An account used on booking lines. It must be active and have a currency.
Debit and credit	The two directions of a booking. They are not interchangeable with incoming and outgoing cash.
Base currency	The common currency in which a transaction must balance.
Amount and Base Amount	The original amount in the account's currency and its equivalent in the ledger base currency.
Party and Contract	References to the person or organisation and the contract, included when the account requires them. The example uses a borrower as Party and a lending contract as Contract.
Booking date	The date used to place the transaction in the ledger and select applicable currency-rate coverage.

A transaction groups the lines for one movement. Total debits and credits must balance in the base currency. On-balance and off-balance bookings must balance separately.

Automatic booking rules connect loan activity to these accounts. Finsaku compares configured amounts before and after a supported operation and posts the difference. The loan operation and its automatic transaction are saved together.

From loan activity to accounting evidence

Business operationIssue a loan or record a payment

Apply configured rules→

Accounting entryBalanced booking lines

Inspect and reconcile→

Saved resultTransactions and account balances

Review the base currency and accounts

Open Administration → Ledger → Configuration. Harbour Finance uses EUR as its ledger base currency. This is separate from its default application currency. Confirm the intended base currency before recording the first transaction; afterwards the control is locked.

Open Chart of Accounts. Expand headers to find the required Detail accounts. With Modify ledger accounts, use Edit to inspect an account, then Close after checking its settings.

For the automatic example, the mapped EUR accounts are active Detail accounts and require both Party and Contract. Their saved lines therefore identify Alex Morgan and the related contract. The mappings use Cash and Bank Equivalents, Loans Principal Receivable, and intermediate accounts for pending disbursement and unallocated receipts. Your organisation's account codes and rules can differ.

Check Account type, Account kind, Currency, Status, Off-balance, and the required references. See Ledger configuration for account maintenance and permissions.

Define rates in multiple currencies

Open Administration → Ledger → Currency Rates. Each supported currency other than the ledger base currency has a row. Users with Modify currency rates can enter and maintain rates here. The video starts with these populated illustrative rates and shows how to edit and save each row:

Currency	Rate orientation	Rate	For EUR 100
GBP — Pound sterling	1 EUR = Rate × GBP	0.80	GBP 80
USD — US dollar	1 EUR = Rate × USD	1.10	USD 110

For each row:

1. Select Edit.
2. Choose the orientation shown in the table and enter Rate.
3. Set Valid until to a date covering the intended booking date.
4. Save the row and check the displayed orientation, value, and date.

These are tutorial examples. Use your organisation's authorised rates for operational postings.

An integration can also load rates automatically through the platform's API from an authoritative source such as the European Central Bank (ECB). This requires a separately configured feed; confirm its source and update schedule with your administrator.

Valid until is inclusive. Finsaku uses the earliest expiry on or after the booking date. Review existing rate history when another rate already covers that date. Changing a rate does not rewrite saved transaction amounts. See Currency rates.

Read the automatic booking rules

Open Administration → Ledger → Automatic Booking. This is the current configuration, with account, direction, description, amount source, and restrictions for each rule. Arrange changes with the person responsible for ledger setup.

Amount source	What the rule measures
Installment lines	Scheduled loan amounts, with optional line-type restrictions.
Payments	Recorded payment totals, with an optional payment-type restriction.
Payment allocations	Amounts applied to instalment lines, with optional line-type and payment-type restrictions.

The demonstration's rules recognise scheduled principal and an undisbursed commitment when a new loan is issued. Separate rules cover disbursements, cash receipts, and principal repayments. Receipt and allocation movements cancel in the intermediate account when the payment is fully allocated.

The practice loan has no interest or fees, so its mappings deliberately focus on principal. Use a complete configuration for the line types and payment types used by your own products. An empty configuration does not create automatic bookings.

See Automatic ledger bookings for supported operations, sources, and booking dates.

Issue a loan and inspect its automatic entry

Use a practice application separate from any existing loan. The video starts with an approved EUR 1,200 application for Alex Morgan, with 12 monthly instalments, no interest, and no fees. Its start date is one month earlier, so the first instalment is due when the payment is recorded.

1. Open the approved application in Workspace.
2. Review the borrower, amount, currency, and calculated schedule.
3. Select Issue only within your authorised lending workflow. This creates the loan and runs the configured automatic booking.
4. Wait for the active loan to open.
5. Open Workspace → Ledger → Transactions and select the new transaction.

Starting from an unused ledger, the example creates these net lines automatically:

Account	Direction	Amount and base amount
Loans Principal Receivable — EUR	Debit	EUR 1,200
Undisbursed Loan Commitments — EUR	Credit	EUR 1,200

Check the booking date, equal base amounts, and Party and Contract references. This entry recognises the scheduled principal and commitment; it does not record a cash disbursement. No separate manual journal is needed for this same loan operation.

Record a repayment and follow its booking

Return to the new loan and open Payments. The example records EUR 100 already received from Alex Morgan.

1. Choose Regular payment and select Alex Morgan as payer.
2. Enter 100 and the applicable payment date.
3. Keep Per payment schedule and review Payment Summary and Payment Distribution.
4. Confirm that the full EUR 100 is allocated to principal in this interest-free example.
5. Select Add once and wait for the saved payment row.
6. Return to Transactions and open the new entry.

Account	Direction	Amount and base amount
Cash and Bank Equivalents — EUR	Debit	EUR 100
Loans Principal Receivable — EUR	Credit	EUR 100

Check the references against the loan and payment. Other products can allocate a payment across interest, fees, or other lines, so compare the entry with the actual allocation and configured rules.

If the response is unclear, inspect the saved payment and transaction before retrying. A rejected automatic posting rolls back the supported loan operation. Resolve its cause rather than adding a manual journal to bypass it.

Reconcile the principal balance

In Transactions, clear existing filters and select the EUR principal receivable Account. Leave Contract, Party, and Currency empty so account balances appear. With no earlier ledger postings and no date limits, the example closes at DR EUR 1,100.00:

Movement	Principal receivable
Loan issue	EUR 1,200 debit
Repayment	EUR 100 credit
Closing balance	EUR 1,100 debit

For a period check, set From and To. Balance before excludes the From date; Balance after includes the To date. Opening balances or other postings will change the expected total. See Transactions and account balances.

Prepare a manual entry when needed

Workspace → Ledger → Post transaction is available for a separate authorised accounting entry. Automatic loan movements should not be recorded a second time manually.

The video prepares, but does not post, an additional currency-conversion example:

Account	DR / CR	Amount	Base Amount
Cash and Bank Equivalents — GBP	DR	GBP 80	EUR 100
Share Capital — EUR	CR	EUR 100	EUR 100

Wait for the pound line's Base Amount to become 100. Supply any Party or Contract references required by the chosen accounts. Review the booking date, currencies, directions, and balanced base amounts.

Post saves immediately. There is no draft or approval step on this screen. Follow Post ledger transactions when you need to complete a manual entry or consider a correcting entry.

When a step is unavailable

What you see	Check before continuing
A ledger page or action is missing	Ask an administrator to check the separate ledger permissions. Lending and payment access are separate.
No automatic transaction appears	Confirm that rules exist, their account currencies match the loan, and the operation changed a configured amount. Check the ledger booking date and reference filters.
Posting reports no rate	Check account currency, rate orientation, and coverage for the booking date.
Posting reports an unbalanced transaction	Review all matching rules and the on-balance and off-balance totals.
Account balances are absent	Select Account and clear Contract, Party, and Currency.
A balance differs from the example	Check opening balances, date filters, other postings, and duplicate operations. Inspect saved entries before retrying.