Two views answer the two questions people ask about a single transaction. Transaction History shows what is linked to it: the payments and credits set against it, the returns raised against it (or the document it came from), what is still owed, and who entered and changed it. Transaction Journal shows what it did to the books: every debit and credit it posted, account by account, followed by the entries each of its payments posted.
Use them when a customer disputes a balance, when an account figure looks wrong and you want to see exactly which accounts one invoice or bill touched, or when you need to know who last changed a document.
Both are read-only. Nothing you do on these screens changes the books.
Opening them
There are three ways in, and they differ in how you choose the transaction:
- Edit ▸ Transaction History… and Edit ▸ Transaction Journal… open a page with a search box, over the Home Page (Ctrl+H and Ctrl+Y open the same pages). Type a number or a name and pick the transaction from the list (see Choosing the transaction). Esc goes back to the Home Page.
- Reports ▸ Transaction History… and Reports ▸ Transaction Journal… (at the bottom of the Reports menu) ask for a document number and open the report version (see The report versions).
- From Advanced Find: each result row has a Transaction History button (clock icon) and a Transaction Journal button (book icon) that open that row directly.
Choosing the transaction
When you open either page from the Edit menu, a search card sits at the top.
- In Transaction number or name, type all or part of the document number (for example 1042), or part of the customer's or vendor's name.
- Press Enter or click Find. The button reads Finding… while it looks.
- SeroBooks first looks for documents whose number or reference contains what you typed. If none match, it looks for documents whose customer or vendor name contains it.
- Up to 40 matches appear under the box. Each shows the type and number (for example Invoice 1042), the date and name, and the amount on the right.
- Click the one you want. The list closes and the page fills in below. The search box stays at the top, so you can look up another transaction without leaving the page.
What the search can find:
| Page | Transactions it lists |
|---|---|
| Transaction History | Invoices, estimates, sales orders, credit memos, bills, cheques, credit card charges, vendor credits, purchase orders and expenses. |
| Transaction Journal | All of the above, plus general journal entries and inventory adjustments. |
Payments are never listed on their own. To see a payment, look up the invoice or bill it was applied to: the payment appears in that document's history and journal.
Transaction History
The summary card
At the top is one card for the transaction:
| Item | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Type and number | For example Invoice 1042 or Bill 7781. |
| Date | The document's date. |
| Name | The customer or vendor. |
| Amount | The document's total. |
| Paid | Payments received or made against it, less any refunds. Credits applied count as paid. |
| Balance | Amount less Paid: what is still owed. |
| Open | Opens the document itself in its form. |
Related transactions
The RELATED TRANSACTIONS list shows, in this order:
- Money and credit set against the document, oldest first, each with its reference number, date and amount:
- Payment: a payment received or made. The memo shows the payment's note and its method in brackets, for example (cash) or (cheque).
- Refund: money paid back against the document.
- Credit applied: a credit memo or vendor credit used to pay part of it.
- Returns raised against the document, for example a Credit Memo raised from this invoice, or a Vendor Credit raised from this bill.
- When the document is itself a return, the document it came from, marked (original).
Click a return or an original document to open it. Payment rows do not open from here.
If nothing has been set against the document, the list reads Nothing has been applied to this transaction.
Entered and changed
The ENTERED AND CHANGED list is the document's own log, oldest first: when it was created, each time it was edited, voided or marked audited, and by whom. Each line reads date and time · what happened · who. If nothing was recorded, it reads No changes recorded.
For the whole company's changes in a period, use the Audit Trail.
Transaction Journal
The heading
When you look up a document, a line at the top shows its type and number, then its date, name and amount, with an Open button that opens the document. A general journal entry has no heading line.
The entries
Below it is one card per posting, in date order:
- The document's own entry, titled with its type and number (for example Invoice 1042). For a general journal entry the card is titled General Journal.
- One card for each payment against the document, titled Payment and its reference number.
Each card has these columns:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Date | The date the line was posted. |
| Account | The account, with its account number first when the account has one (for example 1200 · Accounts Receivable). |
| Memo | The note on the ledger line. |
| Debit | The debit amount, if the line is a debit. |
| Credit | The credit amount, if the line is a credit. |
A TOTAL row closes each card. Debits and credits are equal on every entry the books accept, so the two totals on a card match.
If the transaction has posted nothing, the page reads Nothing from this transaction has reached the ledger — it is a draft, an estimate or an order, or it posts nothing. Estimates, sales orders, purchase orders and drafts never post, so this is normal for them.
The report versions
Reports ▸ Transaction History… and Reports ▸ Transaction Journal… work a little differently:
- A small window titled Transaction History (or Transaction Journal) asks for Document number (invoice, bill, cheque…).
- Type the number exactly as it appears on the document and press Enter or click OK. Cancel closes the window.
- The report opens, titled with the name and the number you typed, for example Transaction History · 1042.
The number must match a document's number or reference exactly; part of a number is not enough. When two documents share a number, the most recent one is used. If nothing matches, the report is empty and says Open it from a document, or give the document's number. In that case use the Edit menu page, which searches by part of a number or by name.
Transaction History report columns: Type, Date, Num, Name, Memo and Amount. The document comes first, then a Payments and credits section with each payment and refund (payments show as negative amounts because they reduce what is owed) and any returns raised against it, and finally a Balance row with what is still owed.
Transaction Journal report columns: Date, Account, Memo, Debit and Credit, grouped under the document and then under Payment, with a TOTAL row. If the debits and credits ever differ, a note under the report says by how much, for example Debits and credits differ by 0.01.
Because these are reports, they print, export and email like any other report. See Running a report and Print, export and email a report.
Permissions
Both views read the books and change nothing. A person can open them if their role can see the General Ledger or the Report Centre. Anyone else gets You do not have permission to view this. Ask an administrator to grant it under Users & Roles. See Roles and permissions explained.
Tips
- To check what one document did to a specific account, open its Transaction Journal rather than scrolling the General Ledger.
- An invoice's Transaction Journal includes its payments, so you can see in one place whether a payment went to the bank or to Undeposited Funds.
- When you only know an amount or a date, find the transaction with Advanced Find first, then use the row's history or journal button.
- For a general journal entry, use Transaction Journal. The Transaction History button in Advanced Find is greyed out for general journal rows, because a journal entry has no payments or returns linked to it.
Common problems
The search finds nothing. Try fewer characters of the number, or part of the name instead. Payments are not listed: search for the invoice or bill they paid.
The report says "Open it from a document, or give the document's number." The report versions need the exact number. Use Edit ▸ Transaction History… or Edit ▸ Transaction Journal…, which search by part of a number or by name.
The report opened the wrong document. Two documents share that number (for example an invoice and a bill both numbered 1001). The report picks the most recent. Use the Edit menu page and choose from the list instead.
"That transaction no longer exists." The document was deleted after you found it. The Audit Trail shows who deleted it and when.
The journal is empty. The transaction is an estimate, order or draft, or it posts nothing. Open it with Open to check its status.
Paid looks too high or too low. Paid counts payments less refunds, and credits applied count as payments. Check each row in RELATED TRANSACTIONS.