Journal vouchers: how entries reach the ledgerالقيود المحاسبية: كيف تصل الحركات إلى الأستاذ

Everything you have set up so far - the chart of accounts, the auxiliary accounts, the currencies and rates - exists so that you can record what the business actually does. A journal voucher is how you record it. It is the entry itself: a date, a description, and two or more lines that say which accounts moved and by how much.

To create one step by step, read How to create a journal voucher.

1. Where they live

Open Journal vouchers from the left menu. The screen opens on the list of every voucher already recorded, newest first.

Each column answers a different question:

The row of small boxes under the headings is the filter row - type in it to narrow the list to one account, one date, or one reference. Dragging a column heading into the strip above the grid groups the list by that column.

2. The voucher number is not a plain counter

A number like 001-2026-JV-15 is four pieces of information joined together:

• 001 - the branch the voucher belongs to.
• 2026 - the year.
• JV - the kind of voucher.
• 15 - the sequence within that branch, that year, that kind.

So the numbering restarts each year and runs separately per branch. Two branches can both have a voucher 15 in 2026 without any clash, because the full number differs.

3. What one voucher looks like

Opening a voucher shows a header and a grid of lines.

The header describes the entry as a whole - its type, branch, number, date, your reference and your description. The grid is the entry itself, one row per account that moved:

4. Debits must equal credits - in every currency

The bar under the grid is the voucher's conscience. It shows the total debit, the total credit and the difference, on a separate row for each of the company's two currencies.

A voucher is only complete when the Balance is 0.000 on both rows. While it is not, Libra prints Totals are not matching in red at the bottom-left and will not let the voucher be saved.

Both currency rows must balance, not just one. This matters the moment a voucher mixes currencies - paying a supplier who is billed in USD out of an LBP account, for instance. The two lines carry different amounts in their own currencies, but the LBP row and the USD row each add up to zero, because Libra converts every line into both.

5. Mixed-currency vouchers

The voucher above is the ordinary case. Its first line moves an expense account held in LBP; its second moves a supplier account held in USD. Neither line was converted by hand - each line carries the rate, and the equivalent columns show what the line is worth in the other currency.

This is why the exchange rate has to be right before the voucher is entered: the rate in force on the voucher's Date is the one applied, and it is baked into the entry when you save.

6. Types of voucher

The Type dropdown in the header decides what kind of entry you are making. Vouchers is the ordinary one and is what the rest of this guide describes. The Reverse rows you may see in the list are not typed by anyone - Libra creates them when a voucher is reversed, and their description names the voucher they cancel.

7. A voucher is not the only way entries appear

Journal vouchers are the manual route. Most entries in a working company are not typed here at all

• an invoice, a receipt, a payment or a stock movement each generate their own entries when they

are saved. The journal voucher is what you use for everything that has no document of its own: opening balances, corrections, depreciation, accruals, and any adjustment your accountant asks for.